Lockheed Martin teams with ESRI on GIS solutions

Lockheed Martin Corp. is the first federal systems integrator to join a new program for developing geospatial intelligence solutions based on technology from Redlands, Calif.-based ESRI Inc.

As part of ESRI's Authorized Systems Integrator Program, Lockheed Martin and ESRI will develop and market system solutions and services for defense, intelligence and homeland security. Engineers from the two companies will work on prototypes to demonstrate the integration of ESRI technology in geospatial-intelligence analysis and production, multi-intelligence data fusion and exploitation and horizontal integration.

"ESRI is committed to building strong relationships with system integrators skilled in ESRI technology to help them achieve their practice objectives," said Jack Dangermond, president of ESRI, in a statement.

According to Lockheed Martin officials, closer collaboration means better support for geospatial database architecture development and integration, system architecture design and customer needs assessments.

Mike Thomas, vice president of Lockheed Martin's Geospatial Intelligence Solutions business, said the companies have worked together for a long time, but the formal relationship will help Lockheed Martin better deliver mission-critical systems to the government.

ESRI's off-the-shelf geographic information systems software is used in GIS solutions that allow analysts to collect, integrate, visualize and analyze geospatial data, including commercial and government imagery.

With more than 300,000 customers worldwide, ESRI had 2003 sales of $497 million.

Bethesda, Md.-based Lockheed Martin ranks No. 1 on Washington Technology's 2004 Top 100 list, based on 2003 prime government IT revenue of $5.5 billion.