<html xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" xmlns:x="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:excel" xmlns:p="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:powerpoint" xmlns:a="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:access" xmlns:dt="uuid:C2F41010-65B3-11d1-A29F-00AA00C14882" xmlns:s="uuid:BDC6E3F0-6DA3-11d1-A2A3-00AA00C14882" xmlns:rs="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:rowset" xmlns:z="#RowsetSchema" xmlns:b="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:publisher" xmlns:ss="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:spreadsheet" xmlns:c="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:component:spreadsheet" xmlns:odc="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:odc" xmlns:oa="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:activation" xmlns:html="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40" xmlns:q="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/" xmlns:rtc="http://microsoft.com/officenet/conferencing" xmlns:D="DAV:" xmlns:Repl="http://schemas.microsoft.com/repl/" xmlns:mt="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/soap/meetings/" xmlns:x2="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/excel/2003/xml" xmlns:ppda="http://www.passport.com/NameSpace.xsd" xmlns:ois="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/soap/ois/" xmlns:dir="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/soap/directory/" xmlns:ds="http://www.w3.org/2000/09/xmldsig#" xmlns:dsp="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/dsp" xmlns:udc="http://schemas.microsoft.com/data/udc" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:sub="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/soap/2002/1/alerts/" xmlns:ec="http://www.w3.org/2001/04/xmlenc#" xmlns:sp="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/" xmlns:sps="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/soap/" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:udcs="http://schemas.microsoft.com/data/udc/soap" xmlns:udcxf="http://schemas.microsoft.com/data/udc/xmlfile" xmlns:udcp2p="http://schemas.microsoft.com/data/udc/parttopart" xmlns:wf="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/soap/workflow/" xmlns:dsss="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2006/digsig-setup" xmlns:dssi="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2006/digsig" xmlns:mdssi="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/package/2006/digital-signature" xmlns:mver="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006" xmlns:m="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2004/12/omml" xmlns:mrels="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/package/2006/relationships" xmlns:spwp="http://microsoft.com/sharepoint/webpartpages" xmlns:ex12t="http://schemas.microsoft.com/exchange/services/2006/types" xmlns:ex12m="http://schemas.microsoft.com/exchange/services/2006/messages" xmlns:pptsl="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/soap/SlideLibrary/" xmlns:spsl="http://microsoft.com/webservices/SharePointPortalServer/PublishedLinksService" xmlns:Z="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:" xmlns:st="&#1;" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"><head><meta http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=us-ascii"><meta name=Generator content="Microsoft Word 12 (filtered medium)"><style><!--
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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>I used MapInfo a few years back when I started with Food Lion.&nbsp; It did not have the same analytical abilities then, but I haven&#8217;t kept up on it.</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>&nbsp;We did end up switching to ESRI.&nbsp; In the end the costs were close, but the deciding factor was infrastructure.&nbsp; As others have said, people learn ESRI and it what most people know in the US and all the local universities have ESRI based GIS programs.&nbsp; I am not sure how you capture that cost, but it was compelling when I was working with another system.&nbsp; It took me 6 months to learn and hiring anyone else was hard because they would be losing a skill set.</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>&nbsp;The other big concern from management was that we were going to end up with a program that would be very hard to support long term.&nbsp; While it is great job security to work on a non-mainstream GIS most of the options you have to increase the force on a project, like consultants and contract/temp workers go away.&nbsp; It makes your current staff a absolute bottleneck</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>&nbsp;The commercial options are pretty bad, if you need a real alternative I would look to open source.&nbsp; Some of the disadvantages of alternative commercial software are offset by people who believe in the FOSS culture.</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>&nbsp;Of the FOSS options GRASS is the oldest and best developed, I can&#8217;t remember which program it is, but I think there is one university that teaches it.&nbsp; I like FMaps and it is coming along, but it probably will not have the functionality you need if you have ArcInfo type analysis needs, making GRASS the only possible option I am aware of.</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>The automation tools will just not be the same, FOSS systems tend to do customization through programming, so if you do have C programming in house be sure to include that in the budget because it is not really going to be an option if you do make the switch.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>I don&#8217;t know how much of an issue it is for your organization, but if you also need web, GRASS is probably not going to cut it by itself.&nbsp; It can handle a WMS import, but my limited understanding is that it often chokes on REST services and other formats.&nbsp; That might mean you find yourself cut off from major data sources and that any possible savings in software costs get eaten up by data acquisition costs. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:#1F497D'>Melissa Hall<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:#1F497D'>GIS Tech<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:#1F497D'>Florida Division of Emergancy Management<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:#1F497D'><a href="mailto:Melissa.Hall@EM.MyFlorida.com"><span style='color:#1F497D'>Melissa.Hall@EM.MyFlorida.com</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:#1F497D'>(850) 413-9905<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'><a href="http://www.floridadisaster.org/index.asp"><span style='color:black'>www.floridadisaster.org</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p></div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p><div><div style='border:none;border-top:solid #B5C4DF 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in'><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>From:</span></b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'> shrug-l-bounces@lists.dep.state.fl.us [mailto:shrug-l-bounces@lists.dep.state.fl.us] <b>On Behalf Of </b>Keith Sandell<br><b>Sent:</b> Monday, April 04, 2011 6:23 PM<br><b>To:</b> shrug-l@lists.dep.state.fl.us<br><b>Subject:</b> shrug-l: ArcGIS Alternative<o:p></o:p></span></p></div></div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Hey Shruggers,<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>My purchasing department is making me do a cost benefit analysis of paying our annual maintenance to ESRI versus abandoning ESRI in favor of some other GIS software, if there is such as thing.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Are there any comparable GIS suites out there that have the same, or greater, functionality as Desktop and Server 10?<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>And what is there cost to replace, and implement, 2 ArcInfo concurrent use licenses, 1 ArcGIS Server Std Enterprise license and 1 EDN license?<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Silly exercise, but one I have to do nonetheless.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Keith Sandell, MBA<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";font-variant:small-caps;color:gray'>GIS Manager, Corporate Analytics<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";font-variant:small-caps;color:gray'>Citizens Property Insurance Corporation<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";font-variant:small-caps;color:gray'>2101 Maryland Circle, Tallahassee, Florida 32303<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:5.0pt;mso-line-height-rule:exactly'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:gray'>-------------------------------------------------------<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:gray'>ofc. 850.521.8341&nbsp;&nbsp; |&nbsp;&nbsp; cell 850.727.2897</span><span style='font-size:10.0pt;color:gray'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal>&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><i><span style='font-size:7.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>&quot;If we are to achieve results never before accomplished we must expect to employ methods never before attempted.&quot; - Francis Bacon</span></i><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p></div></body></html>