The news in much of the field of geospatial seems to be running counter to the general economic news and that is good news for many of us. While bookings can change, we have booked more business in 2009 than we have ever booked before. Indeed, business success in bad economic times is the topic of a paper by us at the 7th Geodiffusion Conference - Economic Panic is a Good Thing. (See the paper XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX.)
Our Success is based on those who work with us - and the efforts of our clients to clearly articulate what they want. The people who have contributed to our success over the past year by working with us include: Ann Blair (strategic planning), Dr. Stan Aronoff (research, questionnaire design, and analysis), Dr. Kevin Lim (geospatial technology and related assessments, representing us in India), Dr. Tina Cary (USA Market and policies), Mr. Jon Fairall (Australian policies and industry activities), Dr. Alan Stevens (USA and international SDI policies), and Terry Fisher (SDI Technology). The list of those associated with helping us complete our work is growing - as is the list of groups we are working with to contribute to their success.
Our Work Around the World Continues. Since our last Newsletter we have been busy in strategic planning, data policy, market studies and evaluations, preparation of materials for clients, business development, and other areas of expertise. We have been building on our in-house expertise as well as the expertise of our team of consultants. The first quarter of 2009 has been the best quarter on record in terms of both income and business booked.
Bermuda. We successfully completed another contract in Bermuda helping them develop a national geospatial data policy.
Thailand. Our work with GISTDA was again dealing with the Thai Earth Observing System (THEOS) satellite that was successfully launched on October 1st. We look forward to continuing our relationship with our colleagues at GISTDA.
World Bank. We are proud that we qualified for a major World Bank contract dealing with forestry, carbon accounting and climate change. Almost all of the others that qualified were major non-profit organizations with multi-million dollar R&D budgets. While we decided not to bid, following our no-bid decision we did give a presentation at the World Bank on the ideas developed with Fugro Earth Data on how to solve the thorny question of doing carbon accounting in the tropics. For further information on that topic do contact us.
We are also in the negotiation stage for another international contract that we won. This contract, with World Bank funding, is to help with the strategic planning and then implementation of a national geospatial data infrastructure.
International Space Business. Another of our international contracts precludes us from identifying the client. Needless to say, however, that we are proud to have been selected from competitors around the world to support a well-known multi-billion $ space contractor.
Cary Lidar Study. We have been pleased to have contributed in a minor way to some of the international aspect of The Global Market for Airborne Lidar Systems and Services Report available from our US-based associated Tina Cary of Cary and Associates. See http://www.caryandassociates.com/marketing_tools/market_reports/rpt4.html
Some Interesting Contracts in Canada Too.
While much of our work is international, we have also been busy on the home front since our last Newsletter.
Carbon Accounting. We completed a market analysis for a start-up looking at the retail carbon market. As part of this we conducted interviews and a survey across North America and Europe.
Mass Market Geomatics Impact Study. We won (and completed) a study for the Government of Canada of the impact of mass market geomatics firms on governments. See the results at YYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY Mass market geomatics firms are defined as those that provide free or nearly free geospatial information to a wide audience. Google Earth and Microsoft’s Virtual Earth are but two examples. For this study we developed a questionnaire that was completed by a sample of over 300 geomatics specialists from around the world. Each respondent provided responses to up to 90 separate questions that together provide us with an amazing snap-shot of the field - where it has been, where it is, and where it is going. If you have a question about the market and the intentions of those in the field, perhaps we may be able to use our proprietary survey information to help you. Contact us!
National Mapping Strategy Support. We won and are in the process of completing our consultant’s report on the development of what is called a National Mapping Strategy for Canada - but which is actually a national geomatics or geospatial strategy. This has been one of the most exciting and rewarding activities in which we have been engaged for some time. The results from our series of strategic planning workshops (visioning, strategy building, and the like) were what one would expect with the participation of some of the best minds in the field in Canada from government, academe and industry. The ideas emanating from the Working Group we have had the honour of working with were brilliant. They found a way to bring together the traditional views of the world of geomatics while accounting for new worldviews including citizen mapping, wiki-mapping, and the like. As soon as a report is public we will post it on this site.
Some of our Presentations
We presented a paper to the ASPRS Annual Meeting on our work with the Government of Bermuda. It describes an approach to bringing geospatial into small island states. The approach is workable for any small or developing country. It builds on the expertise we have in strategic planning.
With our colleagues from Fugro Earth Data, Steve Shaffer and Mark Williams we gave a presentation to the World Bank titled “GeoSAR: A New Tool for Carbon Accounting, Forest and Base Mapping in Tropical Environments.”
As noted above the presentation to the Geodiffusion Conference titled “Economic Panic is a Good thing follows up on our column of the same name for Directions Francais.
The Future
While the future looks bright, and while we are busy these days, we are always looking for interesting assignments at home or abroad.
The way we do business is “funny.” We continue in the tradition of working on assignments that both require our unique skills and are interesting to do. As our clients will attest, we also like to work on assignments that are fun and that involve interesting and likeable people. At a trade mission we attended in the USA we introduced the company as one that would only work on assignments that were interesting with likeable clients. One prospective client asked “You mean to tell me that if you don’t like me, you won’t work with me?” When we said “In a word, yes,” he replied that this was a “funny way to do business.” It may be, but we find that if we find the work interesting and if the client is easy to get along with and likes how we work, then we do better work, the client is happier, and so are we. So if you have an interesting assignment and like our approach to business, do contact us.
Meetings. Look for us at the Geomatics Leader’s Forum in Ottawa in June. We are Gold Sponsors of this event.
We are already looking forward to the Asian Conference on Remote Sensing in October in Beijing, and the ASPRS next year in San Diego. We are quite certain that you will also find us at various other meetings in Canada, the USA, and elsewhere.
