New Zealand’s Natural Resource Sector and the New Zealand Geospatial Strategy supported by Eagle Technology and Esri
Preserving New Zealand’s natural environment for future generations is the focus for the Natural Resources Sector* (NRS), a network of government agencies with common goals and values. The NRS aims to enhance collaboration across government agencies by ensuring that a strategic, integrated and aligned approach is taken to natural resource development and management.
To help them achieve their goals, most of the agencies involved in the NRS have incorporated GIS (geographic information system) technology into their day-to-day operations as well as strategic planning. And now, due to an initiative sponsored jointly by Eagle Technology and Esri, NRS agencies can standardise on Esri’s ArcGIS software, reduce overall costs and enjoy the benefits that will accrue from closer collaboration.
The Eagle Technology / Esri initiative, called an enterprise licensing agreement (ELA), provides a framework for Eagle and Esri to provide unlimited access to ArcGIS software and tools for NRS agencies at a fixed price for a term of three years. The ELA will reduce the total expenditure on GIS technology for all of the agencies involved and promote the use of GIS for the smaller agencies that had, before the ELA, difficulty in appropriating funds for their GIS initiatives.
Sharing knowledge and capabilities
“Sharing knowledge and capabilities across our respective agencies will help eliminate barriers and foster cooperation,” says Debbie Ward, Chief Information Officer at LINZ (Land Information New Zealand) and an advocate of an integrated geospatial strategy amongst government entities. “Many of the agencies involved in the NRS have been incorporating Esri’s ArcGIS technology into their operations for a number of years and have developed a truly impressive set of skills and capabilities. Now, with the ELA, we have a formal framework for sharing this experience with the aim of enhancing our stewardship of our nation’s natural resources.”
The NRS ELA follows the successful implementation of the local government ELA that Eagle Technology initiated in 2008. “Standardising GIS operations amongst the NRS agencies to Esri’s ArcGIS will help them optimise their respective geospatial initiatives,” says Parker Jones, the Eagle Account Director who helped negotiate the ELA agreement. “The most immediate benefit, of course, is that it gives all NRS agencies unlimited access to almost all of the ArcGIS solution set including the flagship ArcGIS Server and ArcServer Extensions; ArcGIS Desktop including ArcView, ArcReader and ArcEditors and ArcGIS Mobile. It is great to see Government Agencies working together to save costs by negotiating a joint ELA and then having the ability to share resources and developments to mitigate risk and save on cost.”
* Agencies participating in the Eagle / Esri ELA include Ministry for the Environment, Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, Ministry of Economic Development, Department of Conservation and Land Information New Zealand, amongst others.
Supporting the New Zealand Geospatial Strategy
Eagle’s NRS ELA was designed to support the New Zealand Geospatial Strategy which was developed in 2006 to better coordinate and manage the use of New Zealand's geospatial resources across all tiers of society. It addresses the increasing reliance on geospatial information in New Zealand and the opportunities offered by the new digital environment for efficiencies in the collection, management and provision of that information.
Two key goals of the Strategy – interoperability, to ensure that geospatial datasets, services and systems owned by different government agencies and local government can be combined and re-used for multiple purposes and data, to ensure the capture, preservation and maintenance of fundamental (i.e. priority) geospatial datasets, and set guidelines for non-fundamental geospatial data – are specifically addressed by the NRS ELA.
Benefits of a common GIS platform
“Having a common GIS platform within our NRS agencies will enhance our ability to share capabilities, data and knowledge,” concludes Ward. “For instance, one of the NRS agencies has been working on developing a web-based spatial viewer that we anticipate will be rolled out amongst the other associated organisations, saving us all the time and effort of duplicating their initiative. We expect to see other cooperative efforts like this eventuate as the ELA programme matures. All of the NRS CIOs meet once a month on a formal basis and the Eagle / Esri ELA means that we can move forward on joint geospatial initiatives without having to worry about compatible software or data sets. The ELA gives all of our agencies access to more GIS tools and capabilities and will minimise duplication of effort while reducing overall costs. We expect to make full use of the benefits and resources over the three-year life of the agreement.
Benefits for the Natural Resource Sector include:
- Supports the goals of the New Zealand Geospatial Strategy
- Lowers overall costs for GIS software and support for the agencies involved
- Enhances ability to share capabilities, data and knowledge
- Creates a critical mass of GIS resources that can be leveraged by the constituent agencies
- Reduces duplication of effort
Resources provided by the ELA include:
- ArcGIS Server and ArcServer Extensions
- ArcGIS Desktop including ArcView, ArcReader and ArcEditors
- ArcGIS Mobile
- Subscription to the Esri Developer Network (EDN)
- Unlimited maintenance and support
Quote:
"Having a common GIS platform within our NRS agencies will enhance our ability to share capabilities, data and knowledge. The ELA gives all of our agencies access to more GIS tools and capabilities and will minimise duplication of effort while reducing overall costs. We expect to make full use of the benefits and resources over the three-year life of the agreement."
- Debbie Ward, Chief Information Officer at LINZ (Land Information New Zealand)
