Esri

Esri ( /ˈɛzriː/) is the leading worldwide supplier of Geographic Information System (GIS) software and geodatabase management applications. The company has an installed base of more than one million users in more than 350,000 organizations, including most US federal agencies and national mapping agencies, all 50 US state health departments, transportation agencies, forestry companies, utilities, state and local government, schools and universities, NGOs, and across commercial business. Esri is headquartered in Redlands, California.

The company was founded as Environmental Systems Research Institute in 1969 as a land-use consulting firm. Esri products (particularly ArcGIS Desktop) have 40.7% of the global market share. In 2002, Esri had approximately a 30 percent share of the GIS software market worldwide, more than any other vendor. Other sources estimate that about 70 percent of the current GIS users make use of Esri products.

Esri has 10 regional offices in the U.S. and a network of 80 international distributors, with about a million users in 200 countries. The firm has 3,000 employees in the U.S., and is still privately held by the founders. In 2006, revenues were about $660 million. In a 2009 Investor's Business Daily article, Esri's annual revenues were indicated to be $1.2 billion, from 300,000 customers.

The company hosts an annual International User's Conference, which was first held on the Redlands campus in 1981 with 16 attendees. More recently, the User's Conference has been held in San Diego for the past 10 years. An estimated 15,000 users from 131 countries attended in 2012.

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