Select Ontario Provides Site Selectors with Quick Access to Information for Choosing Ideal Investment Sites in the Province

TORONTO – September 24, 2010 – ESRI Canada congratulates the Ontario Ministry of Economic Development (MEDT) on receiving the Judges' Choice Award at Showcase Ontario 2010 for its online investment attraction tool, Select Ontario ( Ontario.ca/siteselection). The application leverages ESRI's geographic information system (GIS) technology and provides site selectors with easy and quick access to valuable information for finding ideal investment sites in over 500 communities in Ontario. Select Ontario was chosen among numerous public sector information technology applications in the province for best reflecting excellence within the government.

“Select Ontario demonstrates good governance and effective community partnership,” said Alex Miller, president, ESRI Canada. “Using GIS, the ministry has established an innovative system for data sharing among all levels of government to develop the province's economic potential. It supports businesses in Ontario by helping them innovate and expand their markets. This gives the province a very important competitive advantage.”

The ministry launched Select Ontario in February 2010 to bring more investment and jobs to the province. The online GIS application provides investors and site selectors with self-services for gathering information about skills, businesses and communities in Ontario. It features a bilingual dashboard, comprehensive data sets and adaptive search capabilities, allowing users to integrate multiple queries and feed results from one search into another. This helps potential investors save time and obtain rich context to support decision making.

Select Ontario is powered by ESRI's ArcGIS Server, which pulls information from numerous sources and enables users to look up detailed statistics, data and imagery about available properties, businesses and skills in the province. It also integrates North American market base information, allowing users to view and analyze the proximity of potential investment sites to Ontario-US border crossings. To complete the application, ArcGIS Server was integrated with Microsoft's Bing Maps and Rolta's OnPoint solution that provides administration tools for customizing and managing the Web application.

The ministry has received several accolades for Select Ontario including ESRI's Special Achievement in GIS Award and the Innovation in GIS Award by the Urban and Regional Information Systems Association (URISA).

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About ESRI Canada
Founded in 1984, ESRI Canada provides enterprise geographic information system (GIS) solutions that empower businesses, governments and educational institutions to make timely, informed and mission-critical decisions by leveraging the power of geography. The company distributes the world's leading GIS software from ESRI, Telvent, Azteca Systems and other technology partners. Headquartered in Toronto, the company serves over 10,000 customers from 16 regional offices across Canada and has been named as one of the top 250 Canadian IT companies and top 25 IT professional services providers in Canada by the Branham Group. Information about ESRI Canada can be found at esricanada.com.

Media contact:
Joy Chan
PR Specialist
ESRI Canada
416-386-6488
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esricanada.com