Competition is always a good thing. It forces us to do our best. A monopoly renders people complacent and satisfied with mediocrity. — Nancy Pearcey
So, ESRI, in its infinite monopolistic power, is raising its rates. They’re allowing the international franchises to determine how much to increase rates, and at the date of this blog I haven’t heard about the increases for the US. As soon as I find out I’ll update this passage. Regardless, below is a screencap of the email that ESRI Down Under sent out. According the the original poster of this they are raising prices by 20%
Below is an aggregate of a ten-tweet thread I posted on Christmas Eve day, 2022. The tweets have been cleaned up since there isn’t a character limit here, but the message has not been altered. This will be a living blog entry, and I’ll update and change it as things become more precise, but away we go:
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While I don’t have #ESRI as a line item in any of my budgets, our research group and a couple of our sister companies do. And they have to fight tooth and nail for those one and two comma expenses to purchase their software, and this price hike may kill that.
While we are not a “Geospatial” company, we are a “Spatially Aware” company. Folks on our sales and consulting teams have masters in Remote Sensing and GIS. Our scientists utilize location data in all their models. Geospatial is in the DNA of insurance.
From a day-to-day perspective, QGIS is in our software center, and even with the insane IT policies we have, anyone can grab and install it. That's not the same for #ArcGIS, where we have to provide a business reason to do it. Or have “geospatial” in our title.
Off the desktop, we’ve moved everything off ESRI Servers and Libraries and are moving off their base maps over the next year. This is only due to cost issues; we aren’t talking about performance. But that is why the “server” geospatial groups don’t use #ArcGIS.
While we are “Just One Company” we are the industry leader in NatCat Modeling and Event Response. And we’re private sector with private sector clients, and as the economy gets weird, we’ll look for cost savings. The curious thing to me is what's going to happen in government.
I know when I was working with the Feds, it was a no-brainer to pay the X amount for whatever drek #ESRI was pumping out. But, as the economy stays weird, they’ll also start looking for cost savings. As more EO Data comes online that will eat into those budgets.
Now, I’m more than just biased. I’ve always advocated for #FOSS4G software; my reasons are many, but mostly because, at its core, it's about building people’s skill sets. Pushing folks to learn to code, create tools, or understand IT standards.
I’ve taught a number of people SpatialSQL over the past, God, 12 years. And not only do they start thinking about data differently it empowers people to learn “Normal” SQL so they can increase their skill set, and better integrate Tabular and Spatial Data.
Hybrid solutions are on the rise. Still, this price hike might push folks to take a harder look at #FOSS4G technology, and as a by-product, increase folk’s skillset, and empower them to think spatially, outside of an #ESRI environment. Blending data and tech.
My coffee is almost done, so imma going to wrap this up. By breaking free of proprietary software, it opens up new lines of thinking; everything is not seen through a peephole of “What is Redlands pushing this week” to “How can we make this all work together?”
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The FOSS4G tech investment isn’t in software, as much as it is an investment in your people. When places are a pure ESRI shop, it does speak volumes about how they see their people, button mashers or thinkers.
While prices do need to rise, a huge hike, especially now isn’t the best for business. What do you think?
