Fredericton, Canada: ESRI Canada has presented J.D. Irving, Limited (JDI) with an Award of Excellence for enhancing forestry operations and management using ESRI’s GIS. JDI is based in Saint John, New Brunswick. It provides diverse products and services from forestry, transportation, shipbuilding, retail and agriculture.
As the first forest products company in North America, JDI, used ESRI technology back in 1983 and have used GIS in their forestry operations to manage more than six million acres of land in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Maine. In 2010, JDI completed an enterprise GIS deployment that has centralised geographic information throughout the organisation and extended its GIS to other business areas. The new GIS platform has also allowed JDI to centrally manage workflows for its forestry operations, resulting in more efficient processes. The award, which recognises outstanding achievements in the application of GIS, was presented during 2010 ESRI Canada User Conference in Fredericton.
Alex Miller, president, ESRI Canada, said, “While the use of GIS data and maps is inherent in forest management, users across their different lines of businesses can apply and benefit from advanced geographic analysis through their enterprise GIS. This allows them to gain unprecedented insight about their resources and workflows, enhance decision making and strengthen JDI’s ability to meet its broad range of environmental and business objectives.”
JDI also implemented the Job Tracking for ArcGIS Server extension (JTX) to improve workflow management for processes including harvesting timber, planting trees, managing wildlife habitat, building roads and managing land ownership.
JTX automates and tracks each job in the GIS workflow including loading field data, editing the enterprise geodatabase and producing maps and reports. The system passes the job from one user to the next, prompting for input and approvals until the entire workflow is completed. It improves user productivity by automating tasks and helps JDI to effectively manage a dispersed workforce by distributing work geographically.
“Centralising our geographic information into one enterprise system has created significant efficiencies and allowed us to create standards for managing GIS data and workflows,” said Joe Pelham, GIS IS Leader, IT Division, JDI. “The system has helped to improve the quality of data and increased our capability for developing targeted applications to support the diverse needs of our various businesses.”
Source: ESRI Canada
