eMaps, Interactive Online Mapping Named
Top Project in “Geospatial: Web Publishing” Category
Exton, Pa. – Mississauga, Canada’s sixth-largest city, has won a 2006 BE Award for its eMaps project. The award category was “Geospatial: Web Publishing.”
The BE Awards of Excellence, which are judged by an independent panel of industry experts and presented at an evening ceremony during the annual BE Conference, honor the extraordinary work of Bentley users improving the world’s infrastructure. These projects set benchmarks for their industries and showcase the imagination and technical mastery of the organizations that created them.
In 2003 Mississauga launched its eCity portal – with a goal of making all major city services available online. The portal offers residents, businesses, and visitors better customer service while realizing savings for the city through a cost-avoidance model.
The portal’s development plans include a robust, multifunctional, interactive online mapping system called eMaps. The system is based on Bentley Geo Web Publisher and is closely tied to the city’s enterprise systems and processes. It provides eCity users with 24/7 access to accurate, integrated geospatial data through a user-friendly browser-based interface. In its current phase-one implementation, eMaps allows users to quickly and easily search and display property-related mapping and aerial imagery.
Over time, the city expects this fast access to up-to-date geospatial information to dramatically reduce the phone and walk-in inquiries it receives from the public. This could save Mississauga tens of thousands of dollars in support costs.
In addition, the city is already realizing major benefits from the transformation of its mapping services. Through the new eMaps system, workflows have been automated, ensuring that all geospatial data is current and accurate. Nightly batch routines are run to update the mapping from the city’s conventional maintenance procedures. Moreover, attribute data is leveraged from enterprise systems, where it is maintained by the city’s business units.
The eMaps system also enables city staff to easily access integrated geospatial data to overlay mapping themes, query data, and generate custom maps. As a result, the city’s highly trained GIS and CAD staff spend less time producing simple maps and more time on GIS analysis, automation, and data maintenance.
Likewise, because of eMaps, staff in the city’s Geomatics section now spend fewer hours maintaining standard mapping products in MicroStation and outputting updated maps as PDFs for the eCity portal. The integration of these mapping products into eMaps ensures that the information is always up to date, reducing the requirement to maintain PDF maps.
For more information on Mississauga’s winning project and all of the other 2006 BE Award projects, visit www.bentley.com/en-US/Community/Be+Awards. For more information on the Bentley products used in this project, visit www.bentley.com/geospatial.
About Mississauga
With a population of 700,000, Mississauga is Canada’s sixth-largest city. The city, which has well-established infrastructure and state-of-the-art facilities, delivers quality municipal programs and services to its citizens. Mississauga is recognized as Canada’s safest city. For more information, visit www.mississauga.ca.
About the BE Conference
The BE Conference, which consistently scores a 99 percent attendee satisfaction rating, is a once-a-year learning opportunity for Bentley user organizations offering professional training, technology updates, keynotes, and best practice sharing. At these sessions, attendees better themselves, better their organizations, and better the ways they can improve the world’s infrastructure.
For more information on BE Conference 2007, taking place April 29-May 3 in Los Angeles, and BE Conference Europe, taking place June 10-14 in London, go to www.bentley.com/en-US/Community/Be+Conference.
For information on the 2007 BE Conference Call for Presentations, visit www.bentley.com/en-US/Community/Be+Conference. The deadline for application submissions is Nov. 30, 2006. The benefits of being a presenter include recognition as an industry expert plus a waiver of all conference fees.
About Bentley
Bentley Systems, Incorporated provides software for the lifecycle of the world’s infrastructure. The company’s comprehensive portfolio for the building, plant, civil, and geospatial verticals spans architecture, engineering, construction (AEC) and operations. With 2005 revenues of $336 million and more than 2000 colleagues around the world, Bentley is the leading provider of AEC software to the Engineering News-Record Top 500 Design Firms and major owner-operators and was named the world’s No. 2 provider of GIS/geospatial software solutions in a recent Daratech research study.
To receive Bentley press releases as they are issued, visit www.bentley.com/bentleywire. For more information, visit www.bentley.com. To view a copy of Bentley’s May 2006 Annual Report online, go to www.bentley.com/May2006annualreport.
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Bentley, the “B” logo, BE, BE Awards of Excellence, Geo Web Publisher, and MicroStation are either registered or unregistered trademarks or service marks of Bentley Systems, Incorporated or one of its direct or indirect wholly-owned subsidiaries. Other brands and product names are trademarks of their respective owners.