Speaking on "Emerging Trends in Enterprise Location Solutions," S.J. Camarata, ESRI's vice-president and director, observed, "Traditional IT applications -- the CRM [customer relationship management], ERP [enterprise resource planning], HR [human resource]-type applications -- these back-office tools that businesses and government agencies had in the past kept in enterprise perspective are now being integrated with GIS. In some cases, it's very simple ... you use standard protocols and APIs available in the enterprise platforms to make GIS a part of them. GIS is now viewed, if you will, on top of all that information."

So why haven't we heard much about the GIS-ERP success stories, about the businesses and agencies that have managed to wrestle huge returns on their geospatial investments? "But they won't talk about it," Camarata said. "That gives them a competitive edge over their competition."

Banana Republic Geocoded
One example of such integrations, CH2M HILL's vice-president Brian Cullis pointed out, can be found at Dole Organic, a Web site Dole Food has set up to let consumers verify the origin of their purchases. Suppose you bought a bunch of Dole bananas at your local Safeway. At this site, you can enter the three-digit code printed on the label into the search box to identify where it came from. Code 776, for instance, can be traced to Don Pedro Farm in La Guajira, Colombia, which received its organic certification in 2005. A link on the site takes you directly to the farm's location in Google Earth.

Robert Uleman, IBM's consulting IT specialist, observed, "It's about what you do when you start tracking moving things. That's where the explosion is now, I believe. Everything now has some way to locate itself, via GPS-enabled cell phones or RFID [radio frequency identification] tags." And that can create new headaches for the IT chiefs, he warned. "You'll get a lot of data streaming in; you need to be able to catch all those data."

Good Decision Requires Precision
During the track titled "Bad Data, Missing Metadata and Other Geospatial Data Tribulations," Keith Armonaitis, president and CEO of the location analytics software firm Cubistix, spoke from first-hand experience how inaccurate geospatial data could lead to a wall -- literally. "One time I was driving along," he said. "[The navigation device] told me to make a right turn to a through street. I made a right turn -- there was a wall there."

Even when geospatial data is flawless, if critical local intelligence is unavailable and routing algorithms are imperfect, you still might not get to your destination. In another navigation experiment, Armonaitis traveled from New Jersey to Brooklyn. "I tried following the exact directions on the device and took any local knowledge out of the interpretation of my route. [The onboard navigation system] took me down the New Jersey Turnpike, off the Turnpike, then back on the Turnpike, so I paid an extra $4 in tolls. ... By the time I got to the bridge, it was closed for repair."

From these and many similar episodes, Armonaitis pondered, "It makes me wonder how often [data providers] update their data. ... I'm sure all of us in the LBS [location-based services] space realize there's not an exactness to some of the stuff we do. ... In fact, not only do we rely on other people's data, we rely on their relationship with their data provider. ... There's still an issue of people using faulty data to route where they're going."

Accuracy Has a Price
Armonaitis was followed by Pankaj Mathur, vice-president of sales at InfoUSA, a data provider. On its site, the company states that it employs "over 600 full-time people to compile and update the databases from thousands of public sources such as yellow pages, white pages, newspapers, incorporation records, real estate deed transfers and various other sources."

"It's not so much about what we can compile, but about how much the market can support this economics," Mathur observed. He revealed that it costs roughly $40 million a year to collect and clean up the data.

Athar Naqi, a senior account executive at NAVTEQ, one of the biggest road data suppliers, said, "Our network of field teams are constantly updating the database to ensure our customers have access to the most up-to-date and comprehensive map content. NAVTEQ's customers understand that refreshing the data once every two years is not a viable option if you want to provide a high-quality solution."

Where Are My Urban Warriors?
Geoff Zeiss, director of technology for Autodesk Geospatial Business Unit, was among the attendees. He brought along a laptop loaded with iMOUT, an Autodesk product that unites CAD, GIS, BIM (building information modeling) and 3D visualization technologies.

When Zeiss launched the program, it revealed a cityscape, not unlike the view inside a videogame. The Web-based navigation tools let him move seamlessly from the outdoor setting to the interior of a building. Along the way, he turned on and off various walls and roofs to reveal the skeleton structure beneath the cement shell, checked the line of sight accessible from a window and took note of various heating and ventilation elements that could interfere with emergency operations. While he conducted his walkthrough, a 2D floor plan remained visible on a panel next to the viewing window. To render the urban environment on the fly, iMOUT tapped into real-world geospatial data, as-built architectural data and the visualization power of Autodesk Media and Entertainment products, he revealed.

Autodesk iMOUT, a solution conceived for military operations in urban terrain, may be also used by first responders in emergency situations. The product combines BIM, CAD, GIS and videogame-style visualization.

"It's different from [Microsoft] Virtual Earth or Google Earth," Zeiss pointed out. "[The building] is a BIM model. The elevator shafts could have come from a mechanical program. The road data could have come from a civil engineering application. Other data could have come from CAD, GIS, 3D city models and subterranean utility infrastructure data." Though conceived originally for commanders of military operations in urban terrain, "anybody who needs to respond to emergency situations" will find it useful, he said.

Who Are My Customers? Where Are My Employees?
A few yards away from the workshops, Mike Profita, chief operating officer of SSS-Research, demonstrated how financial institutions, law enforcements, retailers and entertainment venue operators might use his company's products: GeoTrack and GeoBoost.

GeoBoost is described as a "Web 2.0-based technology platform ... a real-time, collaborative spatial environment." With the ability to read both common map formats (OGC WMS, WFS, MrSID, JPEG2000, NGA/RPF, AutoCAD, etc.) and databases (WFS, XML, Oracle and Oracle Spatial, Javabeans, ESRI ArcSDE, Microsoft SQL, etc.), GeoBoost provides browser-based visualization of interactive maps and charts. A customized interface for a bank, for example, might display icons and points on a map representing customers and their locations. Furthermore, these items can be associated with the type of accounts they own and the transactions they've made, identifiable in the color-coded pie charts and bar graphs.

GeoTrack, which can read RFID and GPS feeds, can be used as a management tool to monitor employees and assets. A casino operator might, for example, use the software to identify idle employees on the floor and prevent removal of properties from restricted areas, or geofenced zones.

 

In the demonstration by SSS-Research, imaginary casino operator Top Hat uses GeoTrack to monitor idle employees and valuable assets. Items equipped with RFID trigger alerts when they are taken beyond the geofenced zones, represented in yellow. (Image copyright SSS Research; used with permission)

Location Intelligence Conference ran April 16-18, and Web 2.0 Expo ran April 15-18. Google was the platinum sponsor of both.

Source: cadalyst