Environmental Systems Research Institute (esri) Case Study

ESRI Case Study

ESRI Case Study

The Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI) is a global leader in Geographical Information Systems (GIS) software. The company was founded decades ago before the advent of the internet and because it has been able to stay atop emerging tech trends continues to flourish in the GIS arena despite the emergence of companies such as Google Maps and Mapquest.

One of the ways that the company was able to maintain its viability in the advent of so much competition was to remain at the forefront of innovation in terms of GIS technologies. As new technological advances were being made in the realm of GIS, ESRI was thinking about ways to adapt and incorporate its product into these new technologies. The case study highlights a timeline of their innovations starting in 1982 progressing all the way to 2005 with a total of ten innovative new products being released during that timeframe. In addition to releasing new products the company maintains its viability by continuously upgrading its existing products to meet the ever growing demands in regards to GIS. Approximately every 18 months the company seeks to release a new version of its current software suite which incorporates new features and new innovations that keep up with current technology trends.

As it stands the future of ESRI looks bright since it appears that their customers are rewarding them with continued business even in the face of a large number of competitors. One of the ways it is able to keep its current customer base and help build a new customer base is with its vast support network. The company maintains a vast array of supporting databases and analytical tools to support decision making via data manipulation. In addition to its support network the company utilizes GIS to its own advantage in its marketing strategy to increase the percentage to which they convert potential customers into customers. They have implemented one of their own systems to help analyze customer trends. Since this has been implemented, ESRI has been able to raise the sales conversion rate 30% by tracking a customer’s response through each phase and taking appropriate action. In addition, it uses its own software to determine which of their customers have a particular system which will let ESRI know if that customer would be a suitable candidate for a different related software product. Cutting down this wasted communication has increased cross sales effectiveness.

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