Selling ArcGIS Pro

Question

All,

beyond all the major talking points of ArcGIS Pro...

can anyone help we out with how to sell ArcGIS Pro as a useful too within the company?

what would you say to a boss who says well i already have desktop, why should we roll out Pro?

thanks

Dave

BenGrod · Answer

Hi Dave,

This isn't necessarily a selling topic but I attended the Esri UC. I sat in on two technical session where they demo'd new or beta products, both of the sessions utilized tools that will only be available in ArcGIS Pro. Esri is developing and releasing products that are not backwards compatible with ArcMap/Catalog. It will be a long time before ArcMap/Catalog are no longer on your desktop but it seems inevitable. I can remember the days of ArcInfo and ArcView and I would say learning ArcGIS Pro and slowly transitioning to it is important for the future of your company if they utilize GIS.

CharlesFinley2 · Answer

If you make a lot of maps for your company, Pro has some great cartographic improvements upon arcmap:

- Text anti-aliasing and more dynamic graphic inputs make for appealing map products.

- Multiple layout functionality and the demise of those ridiculously slow dialog windows for everything from labeling and symbology to text and graphic input make for more streamlined production.

- The side-by 3D views are super cool, but without the hardware and network support capabilities, they will crash your system, and make you question the meaning of your cubicle-bound existence.

It's definitely got great capability, however I'm not yet seeing the intuitiveness, and speed, for which is being touted.

KirstenPinkston · Answer

Thanks for this question, Dave. There are some great answers above-- also informing your boss and colleagues that the ArcMap and ArcGIS Pro applications can run on the same machine at the same time, might be helpful. If you're already running 64bit machines, it's easy to get started with Pro, learn about what it has to offer and incorporate it where it fits best for your workflows overtime. A lot of great functionality is planned for future releases of Pro, so suggesting that your colleagues install it and take advantage of the in-app automatic update notifications, will also give them immediate access to the latest functionality as it comes.

Of course, identifying the functionality that might benefit your current workflows and needs is likely what your boss is looking for (i.e. maybe it's the ability to view multiple maps and layouts in one application for example, the ability to publish webmaps to ArcGIS Online and/ or Portal, or maybe the use of Tasks to capture best practice workflows and improve efficiency, etc.). What are your primary uses of ArcGIS for Desktop (ArcMap) currently?