Why should I buy extensions for ArcView 3.x when there is a new ArcView available?

Although the answer looks pretty easy - several things must be considered before making a decision.

1. ArcView 8.1 - what is the cost of implementation?
2. All of us are going to implement the new ArcView (tomorrow, in several months or in couple of years). What is the best way to do it?
3. Why do I (my company) need(s) EditTools 3.2 if ArcView 8.1 is already available ?

1. ArcView 8.1 - the cost of implementation

• ArcView 8.1 offers many improvements in the mapping and cartographic capabilities.
• The geoprocessing and editing functions of AV 8.1 have improved a bit in comparison with the basic ArcView 3.2, but there are no dramatic improvements

2. What skills you (your company) have and need to carry on with the running projects.

• ArcView 3.x
  • generally a long experience
  • good skills - developed for the last five or so years
  • a lot of supporting scripts and extensions.

Questions:

Who is using only the basic ArcView 3.x functions today?!

How many (non standard) extensions you (or your employees) are using in your (their) everyday work?

• ArcView 8.1
  • brand new technology
  • skills - yet to be developed
  • no add ons yet

You have to define for yourself what this aspect of implementation is going to cost you. Consider the following costs:

1. Cost of training.
2. Cost of redesigning the available applications for ArcView 3.x
3. Additional costs due to the decreased productivity during the transitional period

• Full package - about US $ 1500 (Single license)
• Upgrade from ArcView 3.2 - about US $600 (Single license). NOTE: You keep your ArcView 3.x license

2. What PC you need to run ArcView 8.1

• An average processor of 600 MHz
• The RAM should be at least 256 MB if you want to get a good performance

3. What operating system you need:

• Windows NT 4.0 or 2000
• Windows 95 / 98 are not supported

The costs to be considered here:

1. Cost of ArcView 8.1
2. Cost of hardware
3. Cost of operating system upgrade

2. How to implement ArcView 8.1

ArcView 8.1 and the whole family of products (ArcGIS) is a big step foreword. However a certain effort will be required to take this step (the bigger the step, the bigger the effort to climb it). How to take this step painlessly?

ESRI have provided us with the most important factor for painless transition to AV8.1 - the upgrade from AV 3.2 to AV8.1 allows keeping the old version of ArcView on the same machine with AV 8.1. We can do our production work in an environment we feel comfortable with, and at the same time can experiment with the new product.

3. Why do I need EditTools when I've got ArcView 8.1 already.

If you are working everyday with GIS data, and your main software tool is ArcView, you must know how labor intensive and time consuming is the data editing process. EditTools increases the productivity of the data capture and editing in ArcView with above 50 % in average. It makes possible some tasks that can not be accomplished with the standard ArcView 3.x and the new ArcView 8.1.

What do GIS consultants charge?

According to some articles (see Bill Huber's article "What do GIS consultants charge?" in Directions Magazine) the minimum rate for a GIS consultant in United States is US $25 per hour. In some other countries it might go down to some $15 or even $5 (very unlikely) per hour.
Lets take as an example the very low end consultant or employee ($5 per hour). He costs the company a $200 a week (8 hours a day). If he is involved in data editing and EditTools improves his productivity with 50% the company will recover the costs for the extension (US $110) for less than two weeks. Think about how long it will take for this consultant (employee) to be productive with a completely new product like ArcView 8.1, have in mind that AV 8.1 is not much better in editing than the standard AV3.2 .

Will there be a version of EditTools for ArcView 8.x ?

See ET GeoWizards and ET GeoTools