ArcGIS 9.3 Improves GIS Workflow

ESRI's ArcGIS 9.3, which began shipping today, offers a complete suite of software that improves organizational workflows. With ArcGIS, users also get the benefits of an established and active user community, instructor-led and online training, and new online resource centers. The resource centers offer a unified location from which to access online help, documentation, support pages, user forums, blogs, maps, and more.

Manage Spatial Information More Efficiently
ArcGIS 9.3 offers more tools to access data within an organization including support for Microsoft SQL Server 2008 and PostgreSQL. ArcGIS 9.3 also makes it easier to connect to and manage data from other systems via direct backward compatibility, new version management features, enhancements to geodatabase replication, and better geocoding. A new image service within ArcGIS Server also advances an organization's data management capabilities.

Make Better Maps
ArcGIS 9.3 includes many enhancements that make it easier to create and share production-quality maps. For example, a new Disperse Markers tool allows you to spread out representation markers when they coincide. Feature attributes can be included when exporting a map to Adobe PDFs and accessed interactively by Adobe Reader users. In addition, Maplex for ArcGIS now includes better contour labeling and more control over where labels are placed inside and around polygons.

Send and Receive Information to and from the Field
The new ArcGIS Mobile application allows people to quickly deploy mobile geographic information systems (GIS) and is configurable out of the box. The ArcGIS Mobile Software Developer Kit (SDK) now includes enhanced map control rendering to support multiple data sources and graphic layers, improved data storage capabilities with support for large compressed basemaps, and expanded projections.

Share Common Operating Information
ArcGIS 9.3 makes dissemination of geographic information much easier. For example, ArcGIS Server 9.3 has new tools to facilitate map cache management. ArcGIS Server users can now selectively build map cache for the areas that are the most popular and enable on-demand caching to let the map cache grow as end users access the map service. ArcGIS Server 9.3 also includes a series of JavaScript APIs for mashup-style development. The ArcGIS JavaScript APIs take advantage of the new REST interface.

Perform Better Planning and Analysis
In ArcGIS 9.3, many modeling tools have been enhanced and some entirely new tools have been added to help users get more answers from their data. A new scatterplot matrix graph lets users explore relationships between sets of related variables, and new advanced Ordinary Least Squares and Geographically Weighted Regression tools help users understand how processes vary over space. In addition, a new vehicle routing problem (VRP) solver in ArcGIS Network Analyst generates routes for fleets of vehicles.

To learn more about ArcGIS 9.3, visit www.esri.com/whatsnew.