About Us

Empowered by the Silvacom FMS™ geospatial cloud-based forest management applications, forestry companies can plan harvesting activities, track operations, plan and track silviculture, generate georeferenced maps and much, much more.

With no upfront software licensing cost, our Software as a Service (SaaS) model offers affordable monthly subscription fees which cover all software, hosting, and maintenance – significantly reducing the total cost of managing your forest management system.

Silvacom Ltd. was established in Edmonton in 1983 by Tom Grabowski and Bob Morton, two foresters who met at University. For over 35 years Silvacom has provided award-winning consulting and software solutions for the forest industry. Silvacom pioneered the use of technology in the forest industry – whether it was handheld computers and data collectors for log scaling and timber cruising, GPS equipment for tracking log trucks and site prep equipment, or the application of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to manage forestlands, Silvacom has been at the forefront of the practical application of technology to help forestry professionals manage the forest and their businesses. We are both forestry professionals and computer geeks. We understand the complexity and challenge of running a successful forestry operation and how to successfully deploy technology in a productive and cost-effective fashion.

The Silvacom FMS Story

1983

Silvacom has been developing forest management software since the mid-1980s. We started on handheld and desktop computers with scaling and cruising applications.

1990

When GIS became robust in the late 1980s and early 1990s, we were early adopters. We pioneered the development of server-based GIS applications (on-premises) for forestry and suffered for years with the maintenance issues that are inherent with this model of software deployment. Clients were burdened with the cost and expense of maintaining servers, complex databases, and GIS licensing. This was not and is not their core business.

2001

What we call Silvacom FMS began in 2001 when the underlying Esri GIS technology started to become web-enabled. There was no “cloud” in 2001, so we built our own cloud and hosted our clients’ data on our system. There was no Software as a Service (SaaS) in 2001, but we introduced a subscription-only service for our clients which cut out all the upfront license fees and expensive backend data management which had to be done by our clients previously. Our first offerings were rudimentary – they solved some basic business needs (like the generation of high-quality maps from a pick list) and empowered forestry professionals to serve themselves and get back into the field.

2004

Silvacom FMS became increasingly more powerful as we deployed new web-based technologies. Just a few years ago the technology evolved to allow full and rich GIS editing in a web environment. For the first time ever, we could fulfill our vision of a full, robust forest management software system 100% in the cloud.

2019

We launched our new website and brand in 2019 with the intention of reaching forestry companies across the globe. Silvacom FMS has, and always will be, built by forestry professionals, for forestry professionals.