ArcGIS almost does it all
Overall Satisfaction with ArcGIS
ArcGIS provides the tools for both our customers and our team to catalog, visualize, and analyze spatial data. When training, I always ask my class what industry wouldn't benefit from spatial data and it's really a trick question because I believe there isn't one. In other words, being able to add dimension and depth to data that an organization already has from a spatial perspective is invaluable. Let's say you have some addresses of all of your customers in a database. With a flat table, there isn't much more you can do. But with GIS, you can map those addresses and come up with hot spots or areas where most of the customers are concentrated. For retail, it may be beneficial to put new stores in these areas. Further, you could introduce things like household income, age range of population, driving distance, and more that may help you make that decision.
- ArcGIS has some really strong cartographic aspects. Users can print or export to various formats such as pdf for sharing with decision makers Or they may leverage some of the interactive capabilities of an ArcGIS Online app which can be made public or secured by logins.
- The current state of ArcGIS Desktop is intuitive and user-friendly. Users can add data, symbolize it and start working with tables in rapid time. In addition, users can easily push their data to a web map with a couple of clicks.
- My favorite aspect of ArcGIS is being able to quickly query out data based on a certain criteria. Users can also merge the data into another layer based on its location. For example, you may have a bunch of building all over the map that need a situs address. Users can merge the building data with underlying parcel data and grab the situs address. The number of buildings per parcel can then be extracted from the data to see if it matches the tax listing. The buildings that don't match up can then be extracted for field work.
- It would be nice if more functions from the Desktop application worked on a tablet. I understand that it is a beefy application so this would be dependent on the capabilities of the device.
- Our company's primary customers are some type of field workers, from surveyors and engineers to utility technicians or field scientists. Thus, most of them will benefit from some type of spatial repository of data.
- Our utility customers are able to manage assets from the office using ArcGIS. Let's say a particular piece of hardware is recalled. This let's the customer know not only how many to replace but also where they are. From there project costs can be precisely determined.
- QGIS and MapInfo
The other software out there lacks the support that you get from the software manufacturer, Esri. I would also add that they look old, have a clunky feel and just aren't as intuitive or lack some of the functionality that the ArcGIS software has.