Redlands, California - October 22, 2007 — Initial reports indicate that the dress rehearsals currently being conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau for its new field data collection automation (FDCA) program are going well.

ESRI's ArcPad technology is being deployed as part of the FDCA program for the 2010 Census by Harris Corporation  (HRS), the systems integrator and prime contractor for the project. ArcPad will serve as the geographic information system (GIS) used to support the field personnel (enumerators) in their collection of data with handheld devices.

The testing of the new FDCA equipment and automated procedures has been successful, according to sources at the U.S. Census Bureau. "The field test and dress rehearsals have gone very well thus far," says Rick Ayers, ESRI's manager for federal partner business development. "Harris Corporation has done a terrific job at streamlining ArcPad functions to perform exactly what enumerators need the handheld device to do. With the simplified user interface that Harris has created, it is fairly easy to learn and use the handheld GIS software, which is a huge benefit since the Census Bureau will be recruiting more than 500,000 temporary enumerators to conduct the follow-up surveys."

It is anticipated that FDCA will not only dramatically reduce the amount of paper that was used in 2000 but will also make the data collection process quicker, easier, and more accurate. Cost savings are expected to exceed $1 billion.

This significant GIS implementation extends a longtime working relationship that ESRI has enjoyed with the U.S. Census Bureau. The bureau's initial agreement with ESRI to "investigate new technology that would enable the Census Bureau to update its digital map database and develop new products to enhance the display of its socioeconomic data on maps" led to a blanket purchase agreement (BPA) for ESRI technology about five years ago.

Comments Rich Leadbeater, ESRI's state government industry manager, "The BPA effectively made ESRI's software the de facto GIS platform at the U.S. Census Bureau. Because of this business relationship and the flexible architecture of ArcPad, it just made sense for Harris Corporation, and in turn the U.S. Census Bureau, to select ESRI GIS technology to support the 2010 Census."

About Harris Corporation

Harris is an international communications and information technology company serving government and commercial markets in more than 150 countries. Headquartered in Melbourne, Florida, the company has annual revenue of about $4 billion and more than 14,000 employees including more than 6,000 engineers and scientists. Harris is dedicated to developing best-in-class assured communications products, systems, and services for global markets, including government communications, RF communications, broadcast communications, and wireless transmission network solutions. Harris common stock is listed and traded on the New York Stock Exchange; ticker symbol: HRS. Visit Harris on the Web at www.harris.com .

About ESRI

Since 1969, ESRI has been giving customers around the world the power to think and plan geographically. The market leader in GIS, ESRI software is used in more than 300,000 organizations worldwide including each of the 200 largest cities in the United States, most national governments, more than two-thirds of Fortune 500 companies, and more than 7,000 colleges and universities. ESRI applications, running on more than one million desktops and thousands of Web and enterprise servers, provide the backbone for the world's mapping and spatial analysis. ESRI is the only vendor that provides complete technical solutions for desktop, mobile, server, and Internet platforms. Visit us at www.esri.com .

Press Information:

Jim Baumann
ESRI
Tel.: 909-793-2853, ext. 1-1807
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