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From Confusion to Clarity: Navigating Collaboration in ArcGIS – Part 1

Collaborating with external stakeholders shouldn't be complicated. In this two-part series, I'll share effective strategies for working with individuals and teams outside your organization. This first part delves into ArcGIS Enterprise workflows, providing you with practical insights and tools to enhance your collaborative efforts. In the second part (in a later post), we'll explore options exclusive to ArcGIS Online, offering additional methods to extend your external partnerships.

This is Part 1 of a two-part blog post, where we explore collaborations involving ArcGIS Enterprise.

In today's interconnected world, the ability to seamlessly and effortlessly work with another organization’s spatial content is crucial. Gone are the days when we had to make copies of projects and databases to upload onto an FTP site. With advancements in ArcGIS, we can now stream our spatial content for others to work with, enabling trusted members in our organization to collaborate on projects securely and privately. This can be done through an ArcGIS Enterprise portal or ArcGIS Online, both of which are built on cloud technologies and rely on role-based access for security and privacy.

But what about external organizations, other departments, or contractors? Here are a few scenarios that highlight the need for effective external collaboration:

  • Collaborating with Another Organization: You need to work on a project with another organization but can't access their data.

  • Sharing Data with Partners: You're working on a project with an organization, but they can't access your data.

  • Managing Contractors: You have contractors doing data collection, but you don't want them to have internal access.

  • Empowering Stakeholder Teams: You need to enable stakeholder teams to collaborate on projects that you host.

  • Replicating Data Across Environments: You have data in one environment but need it replicated into another.

ArcGIS provides a number of mechanisms that enable and empower sharing, collaboration and good IT practices. By leveraging these tools, you can ensure that your projects are managed securely and efficiently, fostering a collaborative environment that supports your organization's goals.

ArcGIS Enterprise-based Collaboration and sharing

Collaboration is a method of sharing data and content between ArcGIS Enterprise deployments and/or ArcGIS Online. It is useful for sharing data between different departments and locations (if they have their own deployments), as well as with outside organizations (stakeholders, clients, etc.). Various modes of editing are also supported within this sharing method.

Graphic depicting how Collaboration works
Collaboration pattern

There are five common patterns of collaboration:

  1. ArcGIS Enterprise to ArcGIS Online

  2. ArcGIS Online to ArcGIS Enterprise

  3. Specific Project or Event

  4. Spoke-to-Hub model

  5. Hub-to-Spoke model

In addition to these five types of collaborations involving ArcGIS Enterprise, there are three other supported methods of working with people and stakeholders outside of your organization, which will also be covered in the second part.

Why don’t I just give them a login to my organization?

ArcGIS named-user identities operate similarly to Microsoft, Apple or Adobe identities—your login determines your level of access and capabilities within the software. This is the concept of Role-Based Access and Control (RBAC). These named-user identities are assigned to staff, agents, consultants and contractors. All other stakeholders require their own organizational identity. This is foundational to collaboration and group-based sharing, aligning with industry IT practices in security and privacy.

The use of headless or proxy accounts for collaboration is not supported and increases security vulnerabilities, accountability issues, compliance and operational risks, as well as trust and reliability concerns. If a proxy account is shared among several stakeholders and one of them changes the password, it denies others access to the system. It also becomes difficult to track who last logged in and what edits were made when multiple people use the same account.

How does Collaboration work?

Graphic depicting how Collaboration works
Collaboration components

A collaboration in ArcGIS begins with a Host who initiates the process. The Host assigns a Group and creates a Workspace for the collaboration. This configuration is then saved and stored in an encrypted file. Participants open their Collaboration settings, upload this encrypted configuration file and complete the collaboration setup. Participants will also need to designate or create a group to participate in the Collaboration Workspace. The content flow is determined by the Host and can be either unidirectional or bidirectional, meaning content updates and edits can flow one way or both ways. 

What is Supported?

ArcGIS supports the sharing of certain items across participants in a collaboration including:

    • Web Apps
      • ArcGIS Experience Builder
      • ArcGIS Instant Apps
      • ArcGIS StoryMaps
      • Configurable Apps templates
      • URL-referenced Apps
    • Web Maps, Scenes, Hosted Layers & Views
    • Federated layers from ArcGIS Server
    • Imagery Layers
    • Files such as PDF, and MMPK
    • ArcGIS Insight Items
    • Shared Hosted Feature Layer Editing
    • Edits made by owner only (one-way)
    • Edits made by owner and receiver (two-way)
    • Feature Services Editing
    • Branch Versioning
    • Non-versioned Archiving

A full  list of supported items and editing capabilities can be found here

Where do my Items reside?

Graphic depicting where data resides
Data Residency

In a collaboration, ArcGIS supports two methods of sharing content that determine where the content resides. The graphic above shows these two methods, where the host configures whether the collaboration will support referenced data or copied data.

Referenced Items:

  • The data stays in place
  • The data is always current
  • Authentication is required

Copied Items:

  • Updates are synchronized on a schedule (1-24 hours)
  • There are some nuances with views
  • It is more sensitive to schema changes
  • There are nuances with data governance and version control
  • It does not support the spatiotemporal big data store

ArcGIS Enterprise to ArcGIS Online

This form of collaboration is known as Distributed Collaboration, referring to any collaboration involving an ArcGIS Enterprise and an ArcGIS Online deployment. In this scenario, content is created and managed through ArcGIS Enterprise. Through the collaboration, ArcGIS Online will expose the shared content as maps and apps. I recommend configuring the collaboration to copy the content to ArcGIS Online and allow the edits to be synchronized periodically.

Graphic depicting distributed collaboration
ArcGIS Enterprise to ArcGIS Online

This approach leverages the scalability and performance of ArcGIS Online for publicly accessible web applications and content. You can even extend the reach of the content by engaging ArcGIS Online with another ArcGIS Online through Partnered Collaboration (more on that later).

ArcGIS Online to ArcGIS Enterprise

This approach is commonly used for data collection through ArcGIS Online and mobile applications using ArcGIS Online-based identities. Any edits on content participating in the collaboration workspace will automatically be synchronized to ArcGIS Enterprise.

Graphic depicting distributed collaboration
ArcGIS Online to ArcGIS ArcGIS Enterprise

This configuration enables ArcGIS Enterprise to act as the system of record, copying data from ArcGIS Online into ArcGIS Enterprise. In this setup, field-based crews do not need access to ArcGIS Enterprise (which is often behind firewalls), thus reducing the IT overhead required to work with GIS in the field. If any amendments are required to the data, these can be made "back in the office."

Specific Project or Event

This approach addresses the need to set up multiple collaborations to support an event or project for a finite period. It allows multiple contributing agencies and organizations to consolidate data into a higher agency. By leveraging another collaboration with ArcGIS Online, this higher agency can then publish relevant content to the public.

Graphic depicting distributed collaborations with multiple organizations
Multiple Collaborations

This configuration offers many advantages, including the ability to quickly transmit information from one agency to another, enabling multiple stakeholders to participate in a multi-agency event and ensuring that the shared data is authoritative, originating from stakeholders. 

Spoke-to-Hub

The spoke-to-hub pattern refers to a collaboration configuration where a centralized organization collaborates with several other organizations, sharing content into the centralized organization. This is common in larger organizations with multiple departments or subsidiaries operating as one entity. These satellite offices share selected data with a central ArcGIS Enterprise deployment, originating from either ArcGIS Online or ArcGIS Enterprise collaborations.

Graphic depicting distributed collaborations with multiple organizations
Spoke-to-Hub

This approach organizes many distributed deployments by centralizing data for visibility, record-keeping and accountability. It is also common for geographically distributed organizations, such as a global mining company with satellite operations worldwide. Each operation synchronizes relevant data back to the corporate office to fulfill administrative or financial reporting obligations.

Hub-to-Spoke

This approach is also commonly used in larger organizations where a centralized deployment shares authoritative content with satellite deployments. 

Graphic depicting distributed collaborations with multiple organizations
Hub-to-Spoke

For example, a city's GIS department may push updated data to each of the departments' GIS deployments, such as Public Works, Planning or Parks. Each department can then use its own data as well as content synchronized from the central office.


In an upcoming blog post, we'll dive into additional collaboration techniques that can amplify your content's impact – exclusively with ArcGIS Online. Plus, we'll explore key factors to consider when selecting the best collaboration method for your organization. Don't miss it!

About the Author

Nathan Enge is a Senior Customer Success Manager at Esri Canada, specializing in security risk management and geointelligence. With over 24 years of experience in GIS, he has a distinguished background that includes a military career in the Canadian Armed Forces and work in the executive protection industry. Nathan supports clients in strategic, tactical, and operational deployment strategies, focusing on Public Safety, Corporate Risk Mitigation, and Threat Assessments within the extractives industry. He collaborates closely with industry and agencies to optimize the use of Esri’s ArcGIS technology for location intelligence. His extensive overseas experience in austere and semi-permissive environments provides him with unique insights, enabling him to navigate complex situations and offer valuable guidance in challenging operational landscapes. Nathan's expertise is further enhanced by his rigorous post-graduate studies in GIS, making him a valuable asset in the field of geointelligence and risk management.

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