Blog

By Mark Eiseman, CEO GBS US Ltd.

After building a fantastic relationship with management, colleagues and clients within GBS as a Senior Esri Technical Consultant, I was required to move back to the United States in early 2020, due to immigration issues outside my control. At the time, it seemed I would be unlikely to find another organization like GBS that was as passionate and committed to seeing their clients succeed with their Esri and GIS goals. I had truly enjoyed working within GBS, so I decided it was worth leveraging my strong relationships with both the GBS and GBS Korea team, along with my MBA in Strategic Management. From that, GBS USA (Geographic Business Solutions US Ltd.) was established in February of 2020.

GBS USA is actively working with both the GBS NZ and GBS Korea offices, providing support and project consulting for our existing and potential clients. We have been actively working on ArcGIS Enterprise upgrades, strategic reviews and implementations, proofs of concepts, and consulting.

While continuing to support projects and clients in both offices during the first couple months of its inception, GBS USA went on to secure its first contract with IACX Rock Creek; providing GIS strategy, implementation, and support. The services that GBS USA provide IACX include ongoing GIS administration and management services for their Azure-based implementation of the latest ArcGIS Enterprise, GIS special projects execution, supplemental resourcing, and strategic and operational consulting for the GIS department.

Our first GIS project with IACX successfully migrated legacy pipeline and asset data (received during an acquisition) from PODS into the ArcGIS Utility Network Foundation. GBS Korea staff collaborated with GBS USA to provide IACX with an efficient migration, much to the benefit of IACX. From there, the project has evolved into a more advanced gas pipeline management system, with continued improvement and added value for the client and their business.

As the GBS USA office continues to grow, we will be focusing on continuing to provide high-level support, managed services, offsite administration, strategic reviews, and consulting for existing clients. GBS USA will continue to liaise with US companies and organisations looking to improve the value GIS provides to their businesses.

Though 2020 was very challenging both personally and financially for many, we are very excited and grateful to report that the progress of GBS USA exceeded our expectations. We are looking forward to 2021 and continuing to provide our clients with great GIS services and projects.

Hello, Everyone.

GBS US is a Bronze sponsor for the 2021 Big Sky GeoCon Virtual conference. It is our way of introducing ourselves and saying “Hello!” to those in the region. As a full service GIS consulting firm focused on serving our clients and growing the discipline, we invite to have a look around at some of the great topics and technologies that are developing in the region.

Checkout the MAGIP 2021 Big Sky GeoCon Conference website here https://www.magip.org/bigskygeocon2021

Esri has announced that ArcMap is not planned to be released in the upcoming 10.9 of ArcGIS for desktop applications. ArcGIS Pro (currently version 2.6.2) will be sole desktop application released. For many of us that have used ArcGIS Desktop for many years (erh…nearly 2 decades), this slow transition has been bittersweet. When ArcGIS Pro was first released, there were many deficiencies and superfluous workflows that did not have make sense at the time, but now have their place and requirement with the co-dependencies within the ArcGIS Enterprise platform. For more information, check out the Esri announcement here.

Do not fret if you still love using ArcMap. Esri will continue to support ArcMap and the ArcGIS Desktop suite until March 1, 2026 as part of the normal life cycle support for version 10.8.1. This should give you enough time to plan your migration, document business processes that may be effected, and develop upskilling strategies.

GBS has been assisting many clients with developing and implementing strategies and plans for migrating to ArcGIS Pro and leveraging its capabilities with ArcGIS Enterprise. Please contact us if you would like assistance developing a migration plan or adopting ArcGIS Pro into your existing business and GIS processes.