[7][8] Founded in 1969 as a land-use consulting firm, Esri currently has 49 offices worldwide including 11 research and development centers in the United States, Europe, the Middle East and Africa and Asia Pacific.

Esri was established when the couple started working on the technology to integrate human development with environmental stewardship at Harvard University’s lab for computer graphics and spatial analysis in the early 1960s.

Inspired by the early mapmaking software in development at the lab, Jack and Laura Dangermond conceptualized using computer-powered mapping and analysis for complex problem-solving.

[19][20] Esri uses the name ArcGIS to refer to its suite of GIS software products, which operate on desktop, server, and mobile platforms.

The term GIS-Centric, however, has been specifically defined as the use of the Esri ArcGIS geodatabase as the asset and feature data repository central to computerized maintenance management systems (CMMS) as a part of enterprise asset management and analytical software systems.

The older ArcGIS Desktop consisted of several integrated applications, including ArcMap, ArcCatalog, ArcToolbox, ArcScene, and ArcGlobe.

Esri's desktop products allow users to author, analyze, map, manage, share, and publish geographic information.

[citation needed] ArcGIS Explorer, ArcReader, and ArcExplorer are basic freeware applications for viewing GIS data.

ArcGIS technology can be deployed on a range of mobile systems from lightweight devices to PDAs, laptops, and Tablet PCs.

[26] The company hosts the Esri International User Conference, which was first held on the Redlands campus in 1981 with 16 attendees.

[29] The company has provided free access to ArcGIS Online to over 100,000 K-12 schools in the U.S. as part of Barack Obama’s ConnectED initiative.

Esri’s ArcGIS platform has provided GIS data, analytics software, and training to thousands of non-profit organizations and individual conservation projects since 1993.

The data hub will allow countries to measure, monitor, and report on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in a geographic context.

[32][33] In 2019, Esri partnered with the Jane Goodall Institute to develop tools to help communities map and manage their surrounding ecosystems using GIS software.