Have you ever wondered the differences between the main GIS/Map providers? We have too. So we asked 6 of the largest providers 6 questions to help us better understand. We will be rolling out the answers we received in a series of blog posts. This is the sixth and last in the series and covers our next topic: partners. Please note, the answers provided in this blog series is text supplied by each of the providers. We have not edited any of this text. We will in the last post of the series write a summary of the information provided.

Question 6: Do you have a partner program? Why might your clients turn to your partners for help?

Pitney Bowes

We have an extensive partner program across our Software division. Most recently we announced last month two big partners we’re working with, Cloudera and Hortonworks, that are leveraging both our data and geospatial capabilities, which I mentioned earlier. Our partners are crucial to our growth and provide expert services and essential applications, enhancing the Pitney Bowes suite of offerings. We work shoulder to shoulder with our partners and we are committed to efficient and mutually beneficial relationships that keep our client’s success at the center of everything that we do together. These partners leverage Pitney Bowes technologies and data to develop unique solutions which enable all of us to be competitive, stay relevant and win the global marketplace, and we believe that our partnerships are a testament to our technology and really highlight the value organizations find in integrating our capabilities.

Carto

We have multiple levels of partners, including OEM partners and systems integrators. Clients often work with specialized consultants with rich domain expertise in a specific vertical or cross-vertical use case. Some of our most successful customers have rich, tailor-made implementations developed by our partners. Example: the NYC Mayor’s Office Dashboard, developed by our partner Vizzuality.

GISCloud

Yes, we have GIS Cloud Partners program.

Our partners around the globe often work with local markets and on local languages and time zones, which makes it convenient for our clients to work with them. Also, some of our partners work in more specialized – vertical niches where they offer custom solutions for land management, local governments and so on.

There is a convenience of a user support in local language and a time zone, additional on-site training, as well as custom solutions and consulting opportunities. Sometimes, our partners offer GIS Cloud to their existing clients as an additional way to improve their business. In other case, some of our clients might prefer working with local company that might have a better insight into a particular niche or a local environment they are in (for example, drone mapping industry or data regulations in Eastern Asia).

Boundless

Excellent question – yes, we have a partner program and are going to being growing out the list of partners this year.

Traditionally, our partner program has consisted of our international distributors who sell the supported Boundless technology outside the U.S. and Canada. But we are seeing an increasing demand of technology integration partners who are looking to establish partnerships with Boundless, providing an OEM / supported geospatial technology stack within their solutions.

Additionally, there are many data and analytical service companies who are looking to distribute their content through our ecosystem. There will be several announcements in the coming months about what services will be available in our Desktop and Web products. We are going to continue to onboard more data / analytic partnerships through the course of the year, adding value to our open GIS platform.

Yes, we have the Esri Partner Program with over 2000 partners that provides a rich ecosystem of GIS and computing expertise. Our partners provide numerous consulting opportunities, expertise, and help –including large IT systems, tools, and consulting. There are big companies, partners that we work with very closely on engineering our tools to work with theirs, and there are literally hundreds of solution partners who provide services and applications that extend our basic platform. This year, many, many young startups are getting into the GIS business, creating a whole new creative wave of GIS applications.

Enterprise partners include large IT partners such as Amazon, Cisco, Citrix, Dell, IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, SAP, SAS, and Salesforce to name a few.

Imagery and content partners like Digital Globe and Near Map.

Esri sponsors dozens of small startups

Over 5,000 non-profit organizations and NGO’s as well as educational institutions across universities, K12 schools, and museums are supported as well.

Esri also partners with developer organizations of all sizes who build great GIS apps using ArcGIS.

Mapbox

We have a large partner community. Somewhat different to other programs, our focus is on those looking to build custom apps and integration’s with Mapbox technology. Visit http://mapbox.com/partners for more information.

Mango

We don’t yet have an official partner program but we do work with partners with expertise in niche fields such as franchise mapping, business analysis and drone imagery and refer customers to these partners when they need additional expertise.

We are planning to roll-out an official partner program in Q4 2017.

Read our reflections on the blog post series:

Author: Matt Sheehan

Matt Sheehan is a Principal at WebMapSolutions. Matt evangelizes GIS and location intelligence around the world through keynotes, articles, tweets and his books. Follow him on Twitter: