Redlands, California - July 24, 2008—The latest offering from ESRI Press, The Business Benefits of GIS: An ROI Approach, details a return on investment (ROI) methodology that explains how the implementation of a geographic information system (GIS) can create business value for an organization. This book was written by David Maguire and Victoria Kouyoumjian, ESRI’s chief scientist and IT strategy expert, respectively, and Ross Smith, a member of PA Consulting Group, Inc.’s management team and leader of the firm’s GIS initiatives.

“Today’s executives are seeking more sophisticated approaches for prioritizing and targeting investment in GIS technology and for proving how and when that investment will deliver tangible benefits to their organization,” said Maguire. “The Business Benefits of GIS: An ROI Approach provides the steps necessary to quantify the return on investment when implementing a GIS project.”

Maguire believes that a wide variety of GIS practitioners, including managers and business architects, will use the material in the book, in conjunction with the supporting Web site ( www.esri.com/roi), to implement an ROI-based GIS project. The site provides access to all the tools and templates necessary to implement the steps in the methodology.

“The 10-step methodology leads people through the whole process, from the initial idea to a complete, compelling report that can be presented to a review committee or funding body,” said Smith. “Although it is written as an end-to-end process, we anticipate that some organizations will use only portions of the methodology. For example, some may use the approach to create a budget or to model benefits they expect to be delivered by their ongoing work.”

Kouyoumjian added that “The approach focuses on six key topics that we believe are critical to creating a defensible position on the value of GIS for any organization: demonstrate the real business value, determine the specific costs, estimate the time frame for delivery of benefits, understand the    resource requirements, define the governance and management, and calculate the return on investment.”

The original methodology was developed by PA Consulting Group, Inc., a global management consulting firm. It was customized by the book’s authors, under license from PA, for use by GIS practitioners.

The Business Benefits of GIS: An ROI Approach is available from ESRI Press (ISBN: 9781589482005, 200 pp., $24.95). To order this title, visit www.esri.com/esripress.

The information in The Business Benefits of GIS: An ROI Approach is derived in whole or in part, under license, from the ROI Methodology of PA Consulting Group, Inc.

About PA Consulting Group, Inc.

PA Consulting Group, Inc., is a leading management, systems, and technology consulting firm with a unique combination of these capabilities. Operating worldwide in more than 35 countries, PA draws on the knowledge and experience of 3,000 people, whose skills extend from the initial generation of ideas, insights, solutions, and new technology all the way to detailed implementation. Visit us at www.paconsulting.com/gis.

About ESRI

Since 1969, ESRI has been giving customers around the world the power to think and plan geographically. The market leader in GIS, ESRI software is used in more than 300,000 organizations worldwide including each of the 200 largest cities in the United States, most national governments, more than two-thirds of Fortune 500 companies, and more than 7,000 colleges and universities. ESRI applications, running on more than one million desktops and thousands of Web and enterprise servers, provide the backbone for the world’s mapping and spatial analysis. ESRI is the only vendor that provides complete technical solutions for desktop, mobile, server, and Internet platforms. Visit us at www.esri.com.

Contact:

Jim Baumann
ESRI
Tel.: 909-793-2853, ext. 1-1807
E-mail: Email Contact