ACD Systems International, makers of ACDSee photo management software and Canvas technical illustration software, announced today its affiliation with the ESRI Business Partner Program. "The growing need to visually analyze large, complex sets of GIS data has resulted in an increase in the use of GIS applications within a wide range of scientific, engineering, government, and business environments," says Doug Vandekerkhove, chairman, chief executive officer and president of ACD Systems. "We are very pleased to join the ranks of ESRI application developers, software consultants, value-added resellers, and data providers and are looking forward to collaborating closely with ESRI and the community of global partners in meeting this need." Canvas GIS+ is a full-featured GIS data visualization and publishing solution that operates in a fully georeferenced environment and allows GIS professionals' unprecedented abilities to visualize, communicate, and effectively share the results of their research quickly. With Canvas GIS+, complex GIS projects can be visually enhanced using a broad range of award winning symbol, colorization, illustration and image-editing tools. When completed, a project can be distributed in a number of cost-effective formats including print, PDF, and Web content. Canvas GIS+'s flexibility and comprehensive functionality is used in a variety of applications that include: oil and resource exploration, city planning, transportation management, forest and wildlife management, census/demographic analysis and visualization, law enforcement, and military applications. The ESRI Business Partner Program is a network of more than 1,600 domestic and international developers, consultants, data publishers, and resellers who, utilizing ESRI technology, provide solutions to meet the geographic information system (GIS) needs of every industry. Working together, ESRI and its business partners solve business problems with new software applications, data, and value-added services.