You might recall that 2018 kicked off with a big announcement from Esri. They made the decision – following feedback they received during the 2017 Esri User Conference – to allow ArcGIS Enterprise customers to add Viewers (Level 1 Named Users) at no additional cost. You might not recall that Level 1 users were first introduced in December of 2016, so perhaps it’s fitting, following this annual cadence, that we wrap up 2018 with another big announcement from Esri: the introduction of several new User Types:
- Viewer (formerly Level 1);
- Editor (new);
- Field Worker (new);
- Creator (formerly Level 2); and
- GIS Professional (new).
These continued, iterative licensing improvements are extremely positive for Esri customers looking to right-size their use of the ArcGIS platform, and come alongside our observation of ever-increasing adoption of Web GIS implementations worldwide. Our impression is that Esri is listening to (and understanding) their customers’ needs.
Meanwhile, Geocortex Essentials software is in the middle of an evolution, and 2018 has been a big year for the Geocortex Essentials 5-Series, which we introduced with the launch of Geocortex Workflow 5 in mid-2017. This product has enabled our customers to easily automate guided end-user interactions in a SaaS environment. Since then, we’ve been busy building four completely new 5-Series products inspired by capabilities in Geocortex Essentials 4.x:
- Geocortex Reporting 5 was released in June, designed to help users create production quality, printable reports using spatial and non-spatial data, maps, and charts. We’re thrilled to see customers worldwide adopting the software in both Geocortex Viewer for HTML5 apps, and within Web AppBuilder for ArcGIS®
- Geocortex Printing 5 follows in the footsteps of Geocortex Reporting, and will allow you to generate high-quality, high-resolution map print outputs in all sizes. We’re aiming to release the product in February of 2019
- Geocortex Web Viewer 5 represents the next generation of HTML viewer technology from Geocortex using Esri’s latest ArcGIS API for JavaScript 4.x, and is currently gearing up for the public beta in January. This new viewer framework will allow you to create beautiful, fast, flexible applications that can combine the 2D and 3D capabilities of Esri’s latest JavaScript APIs
- Geocortex Mobile Viewer 5 will fast become the world’s most capable framework for building mobile, offline, native apps on top of the ArcGIS platform, and the public beta is also scheduled for January
What’s really cool about the 5-Series is the new patterns we’re seeing customers take advantage of: from using the software entirely in the cloud SaaS environment at apps.geocortex.com or deploying workflows and reports into Web AppBuilder for ArcGIS (Developer Edition). We’ve even seen one of our Belgian partners, SIGGIS, integrate Geocortex Reporting 5 capabilities into ArcGIS Pro! These opportunities come alongside new Geocortex Essentials commercial offerings, which allow you to pick and choose the components and deployment patterns you need for your business or organization.
With five new products in the 5-Series, two already launched, and three more on the doorstep, we’re thrilled to say that Geocortex Essentials 5 has officially arrived!
Today, over 1,500 customers use Geocortex Essentials across a broad spectrum of industries and use cases, and we continue to serve those applications by improving Geocortex Essentials 4.x and the popular Geocortex Viewer for HTML5. In the summer, we released a significant performance improvement, resulting in a 50% decrease in startup time across all browsers.
Hundreds of customers use Geocortex Analytics to monitor the use of their Geocortex applications and their broader GIS infrastructure. In early 2018, we released a major update to the product to improve reliability and include reporting on specific end-user activity. We’re committed to ensuring that Geocortex Essentials 4.x and Geocortex Analytics remain premium software packages for all our customers, in parallel to developments happening in the Geocortex Essentials 5-Series.
We’ve now drafted our product portfolio strategic plan for 2019: who’s going to work on Project A and Project B and for how long, and when are we going to release Feature X or Feature Y. This time of the year is exciting because we’re charting out the details of our next chapter on our march towards our long-term product vision. As mentioned, we have three major product releases coming in Q1, and you can expect momentum to continue across all 5-Series products, as well as Geocortex Essentials 4.x and Geocortex Analytics. We’re also scheduling a sixth 5-Series product planned for Q4 – stay tuned for information about that one… for now, we’ll leave you in suspense ????.
Here’s wishing you a happy holiday season as we wrap up a terrific 2018 and look forward to another fast-paced and action-packed 2019!