​Seeking Insights on Esri Advantage Program and ArcGIS Enterprise Administration Training

[JonJones1]

Hey everyone, I have a question about Esri's Advantage Program. I'm trying to understand exactly what you get when you sign up. From what I gather, if you're part of the Advantage Program, you get direct access to an Esri contact—someone you can reach out to for direct support and guidance. It seems to differ from Esri's standard support, which has both free and paid tiers.

Here's the link to the Advantage Program I'm referring to: https://www.esri.com/en-us/arcgis/services/advantage-program

In addition to having a dedicated Esri contact, it looks like the Advantage Program provides points that you can use for instructor-led training, either online or in-person (though most seem to prefer online). I noticed that approximately 1.5 points can cover one day of online instructor-led training.

Alternatively, you can directly purchase access to individual online courses, such as this ArcGIS Enterprise course: https://www.esri.com/training/catalog/5c352f7ed1805d450c6ce78e/arcgis-enterprise%3A-administration-w...

I'm curious—those of you who have experience with Esri training, do you typically just buy direct access to these courses individually, or have any of you opted into the Advantage Program? If you're part of the Advantage Program, are you satisfied with it, and would you recommend it? I've seen an online mention that the Advantage Program can run around $38K a year; does that sound accurate?

Lastly, for those who manage ArcGIS Enterprise, do you find formal training courses valuable, or do you primarily rely on community forums, YouTube tutorials, and free resources shared by Esri? If so do you have links you would be willing to share? 

Context: My company is transitioning from ArcGIS Online to ArcGIS Enterprise, and I'll be the administrator of the new Enterprise system. I'm exploring options for training and support to make the transition as smooth as possible.

[CodyPatterson]

Hey @JonJones1 

I take the side of community forums, YouTube tutorials and free resources. I am the caller for our Enterprise environment so I have reached out to ESRI support for some questions, but those were during setup.

I started with zero knowledge of GIS around a year and a half ago. I was told that I needed to setup the multi-machine enterprise environment from this point, and it went relatively okay! The main issues were the upgrades and the need to use a reverse proxy, which ESRI cannot help with as it is third-party. To learn everything I did, I observed the free ESRI support documents, asked the Community for best practices, and constantly learned from every step I could. I personally do not believe that a training course is necessary for being an Enterprise Administrator, there could be some points where it would be helpful for something formal, but I've been administrating our Enterprise system for around a year and a quarter and have been constantly and consistently learning. If you'd like to know of any of the documents, videos, or posts, I can surely send them over!

Cody

[JonJones1]

Hello Cody!

Thanks so much for your thoughtful response—it truly means a lot! I'd absolutely love any resources you have that fall into the "things I wish I'd known a year ago" category. Documents, videos, community posts—anything that helped you along the way would be incredibly valuable to me.

Something I didn't mention earlier is that we've hired a third-party firm to handle the initial setup of our Enterprise environment and PostgreSQL database. My company also agreed to have them manage annual updates and system checks. Additionally, our IT department will assist as needed to ensure security compliance and reliable access.

However, the day-to-day management, loading data, creating maps and apps, and overall operations will be on me.

I'm really grateful someone else is covering the heavy lifting of the initial setup, and any resources you frequently reference or consider essential would be hugely appreciated.

Thanks again—I look forward to checking out your recommendations!

[George_Thompson]

The Advantage Program is an overall enablement program that helps enable your organization to become more efficient, tackle challenges, and be successful with Esri technology.

There are multiple facets to the Advantage Program and would suggest that you contact your Esri Account Manager to discuss in more detail.

As you mentioned, you get "credits" as part of the program that can be used for consulting services (1 credits = 2 hours of consulting), training, Esri conferences, and more (https://www.esri.com/en-us/c/services/advantage-program#consulting-services).

You also get an Advisor who works with you along the way. This is different from technical support, think of them as a sherpa to help you on your journey.

Hope this helps!

P.S. - I am an Advisor and do this for multiple clients.