How Esri's specialties can help you find the right partner

April 26, 2020

Paul Salah

If you’ve been working with or using Esri technology for any length of time, you’ll likely know about our world-class community of partners that extend and enrich Esri’s platform, providing content, value-added solutions and services. You may also have encountered the challenge of finding the right partner to help you get your job done. Partner specialties can help you with this. Read this blog post to find out how, and to hear from some of Esri Canada’s partners about the benefits they’ve gotten out of their specialties.

This post was last updated on May 16, 2023.

How can specialties help me find the right partner to work with?

Esri’s partner specialties program offers special designations to partners who have expertise in an industry or technological area of interest. With a growing partner ecosystem and continuous innovation resulting in new and expanded capabilities with Esri technology, specialties help partners showcase their capabilities. They can help users to find partners with the skills, experience and focus they need.

How do partners obtain these specialties? What benefits do specialties bring to partners?

Partners obtain specialties through an application process and are thoroughly vetted by Esri. Each specialty has a different review processes and requirements; many specialties require training, a reference check or review by Esri and Esri Canada.

If a partner has a given specialty, you can be confident that their product or service aligns with Esri’s offerings and that they have demonstrated a commitment to specialization. Some specialties also allow Esri partners to gain specific benefits over and above those offered by the Partner Program more generally, such as additional software licenses.

What are the specialty designations? What do they demonstrate?

Of the eleven partner specialties currently offered, nine are directly relevant to Canadians. Partners with each specialty can be found in the Esri Partner Directory.

The System Ready Specialty is the baseline specialty for partners looking to pursue additional specialties. It shows that a partner has both offerings for and experience with the latest ArcGIS products.
The ArcGIS Hub Specialty shows that a partner’s offerings help build bridges between organizations and communities using ArcGIS Hub technology.
The ArcGIS Indoors Specialty shows that a partner has indoor mapping expertise and can help you implement indoor mapping to improve on-site mobility and safety.
The ArcGIS Urban Specialty shows that a partner has the knowledge and expertise to help you implement ArcGIS Urban, allowing you to streamline urban planning processes, analyze plan impact and enhance public engagement.
The Utility Network Management Specialty shows that a partner has expertise in the utility market and is able to deliver solutions and services for the ArcGIS Utility Network Management extension.
New! The Parcel Management Specialty shows that a partner is a subject matter expert in implementing ArcGIS Parcel Fabric services and solutions.
The ArcGIS Cloud Services Specialty shows that a partner has the expertise to help you deploy and manage ArcGIS in cloud environments.
New! The ArcGIS Enterprise on Kubernetes Specialty shows that a partner has expertise in providing consulting services and managed services for ArcGIS in cloud environments and is ready to assist with ArcGIS Enterprise for Kubernetes.
The Nonprofit Specialty recognizes partners who align with Esri's Nonprofit Organization Program thanks to their expertise in conservation, humanitarianism, disaster response, food security, community development, racial equity and social justice, or health research.

Esri also offers several specialties centred on US-specific practices and processes, including the ArcGIS for Local Government Specialty and the Federal Small Business Specialty.

What are partners saying about specialties?

Eos Positioning Systems

Founded in 2014, Eos Positioning Systems manufactures GPS / GNSS receivers for the GIS market. The company offers a variety of solutions, including laser mapping, real-time orthometric heights, underground locate mapping and more.

A mobile worker in a high-visibility vest works near a children’s play structure in a park. He uses an Eos Positioning Systems tablet to check the position of a particular marker.

Eos Positioning Systems technology, live and in the field.

Esri partner specialties are an important designation for Eos Positioning Systems because they let our joint ArcGIS users know what distinguishes Eos from other partners within the expansive Esri Partner Network. Currently, Eos has the System Ready Specialty.

For Eos, being system-ready is an important differentiator that indicates the high priority Eos places on becoming and remaining current and compatible with the latest advancements in the ArcGIS system. Meanwhile, the ArcGIS Online Specialty (an older specialty designation) holds a special meaning for Eos, because this was our first specialty. It signified at the time, and still signifies to this day, the advancements our technical team makes by bringing high-accuracy GNSS workflows directly into ArcGIS mobile apps for a seamless and pleasant user experience. We believe that having these specialties helps customers understand our company’s dedication to two parts of the ArcGIS platform that we find increasingly critical to user success: taking advantage of the latest modern deployments of new ArcGIS releases, and adopting a cloud-based ArcGIS platform that enables highly accurate geospatial workflows anywhere in the world.

SOLV3D Inc.

SOLV3D creates innovative software solutions for geospatial data processing, visualization and collaboration. The SOLV3D engine™ processing toolkit assists users in optimizing point cloud data for effective use within their applications and workflows. SOLV3D encompass™ provides the ability to merge together a myriad of geospatial datasets in a single platform. Within a web-based environment, it enables all stakeholders to easily gain situational awareness and work together on projects, AOIs and assets, regardless of geographical location or level of expertise.

As a small, Calgary-based business, we are proud to have been able to secure Esri’s System Ready Specialty for SOLV3D encompass™. This showcases our willingness to ensure that the future and ongoing development of our products takes into consideration what is deemed a valuable experience for our clients. Successfully getting through the application and review process required to obtain the specialty also provides clients with a sense of certainty and reliability regarding how the integration of our solutions will augment the investment already made in their Esri technologies.

We are fairly early days in the obtainment of this designation, but we are excited to continue working with Esri and its customers to define additional integration points and feature enhancements that will inherently increase the synergies and further boost the robustness of the virtual project environment that we provide to all stakeholders through our collaborative online platform.

VertiGIS

VertiGIS believes that geography empowers people to make better decisions about the world around us. They help their customers accomplish this with innovative mapping software and services. VertiGIS are the makers of VertiGIS Studio, which helps more than 1,400 organizations around the world operate more efficiently, communicate more effectively and improve decision making. Geocortex technology is designed specifically for use with Esri’s ArcGIS platform. As an Esri Platinum Partner, VertiGIS is focused on helping clients maximize the return on their investment in core Esri technology. Learn more at vertigisstudio.com.

The System Ready Specialty acknowledges the work we do to ensure VertiGIS Studio is perpetually compatible with the ArcGIS platform. It’s a practice we’ve instilled in our development organization. We do it so that we can enable our customers to take advantage of new features and improvements as soon as they are available. Simultaneously our software development team can build capabilities that leverage the latest innovations across the ArcGIS platform. These measures ensure that our customers are getting access to the best possible technology on the market. Being system-ready is also a source of pride for our staff. We measure the number of days it takes for us to provide compatible software across the entire VertiGIS Studio following an ArcGIS release, and we’re proud to state that since ArcGIS 10.0, we have offered compatible products within 10 business days or less.

To learn more about the Esri Partner Network, click here. For a detailed breakdown of specialties, visit Esri’s website.