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SpatialNews.com Feature
GeoSpatial World 2003 Keynote - Preetha Pulusani, President IMGS
by GeoCommunity, May 2003
Last week in New Orleans, LA. Intergraph's Preetha Pulusani, President IMGS, kicked off GeoSpatial World 2003 by presenting the opening keynote to a standing room only crowd at the New Orleans Hyatt.
INDUSTRY OVERVIEW
Commencing with a brief overview of the industry, Pulusani emphasized the solid 8% annual growth rate of the $1.9 billion geomatics industry over the past 10 years. With Integraph's nearly $200 million dollars in annual revenues she reminded the audience that Intergraph is the 2nd largest GIS company in the world. With over $500 million in cash and virtually no debt, Intergraph is the picture of health in this tough economy. On a sidenote, just last Friday, the stock (INGR) price closed at slightly above $21 - an all time high - a milestone that the company is extremely proud of [and rightfuly so]. Adding even more clout to the numbers,
this past year the company was named to the Forbes 500 list. By de-emphasizing or eliminating struggling business units - namely hardware - and focusing on core geomatics technologies, they have been able to build a solid balance sheet. Recall, in October of 2002, Z/I Imaging was merged into the Intergraph Mapping & Geospatial Solutions Division (IMGS) and Utilities & Communications was brought into the fold in Q4 of 2002. Further, they have added an Intellectual Property Division to safeguard against the theft of Intergraph developed technologies.
FUTURE OF THE INDUSTRY
Pulusani then presented her views on the future of the geomatics industry and what she feels is critical to ensure continued growth and success. She views data with a locational component as a "treasure chest for the organization" and noted how extremely undervalued it is in its current light. In many cases, it is the locational piece of the data that is the most valuable asset and must be utilized and preserved. She sees this as being just "the tip of the iceberg" in what geospatial data can bring to the enterprise. To take full advantage of the spatial component and to guarantee its long-term value, attendees were reminded that interoperability must be ubiquitous, no proprietary middleware must exist, and GIS should be viewed as an enabling technology but not an end in itself. The emphasis must become an IT centric one that integrates GIS into the IT infrastructure.
"We are now at a key point in the evolution of the industry", stated Pulusani. And because of this she stressed that the industry must make an investment in standards. "Geospatial technologies must converge with IT and proprietary barriers must be removed." In her presentation it is apparent that she is very proud of Intergraph's role with the OGC and noted that they were the first private sector member of the OGC. They are very proud of the investment Intergraph has made in the future and of their efforts in developing completely open technology platforms, working towards strengthening the spatial database, and focusing on high performance technologies. Also central to Intergraph's fundamental beliefs are the importance of value added partnerships and open development environments.
As the keynote progressed it then shifted to a discussion of the company's vertical divisions or areas within Intergraph: Land Information Management, Data, Remote Sensing & Photogrammetry, Geospatial Resource Management, and GIS Intelligence. The audience was then led on an interactive World Tour highlighting enterprise solutions and their technological and geospatial innovations within military intelligence, national governments, local and regional governments, commercial data production, and transportation. She honored 4 organizations with the 2003 Geospatial Innovation in Transportation awards. The Iowa DOT was recognized for their innovative linear feature management solution, the Florida DOT for its Turnpike Enterprise Asset Management System, the Arkansas DOT for their historic bridge management systems, and the Pennsylvania DOT for its integrated web portal. Congratulations to all!
In an update of the company's "Edu" progress it was noted that more than 80 educational institutions have joined the Registered Research Laboratory Program (RRL). The RRL Program works with universities, laboratories and post-secondary institutions around the world to strengthen the future of the geosciences, providing leading-edge technology and development support for non-commercial applied research activities, including developing solutions. Members are granted access to GeoMedia, GeoMedia Professional, GeoMedia WebMap Professional, GeoMedia Terrain, GeoMedia Grid, Spatial Metadata Management System (SMMS), and SMMS GeoConnect for research projects.
Finally, in summarizing the Intergraph User Community, Pulusani made reference to the open technologies being used by Intergraph users, the innovative solutions, the measureable benefits, and the list of world class users. Her message to Intergraph's users in the audience... "In short, you're in great company".
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