GISCafe Industry Predictions for 2019 Part II

Welcome to Part II of our GISCafe Industry Predictions for 2019.

As we had so many responses to our request for predictions, this series will take several parts. This installment includes writings from Pitney Bowes, VESTRA, Presagis, and Microdrones.

Joe Francica, Pitney Bowes

From: Joe Francica, Managing Director of Location Intelligence, Pitney Bowes.

In 2019, we’re coming full circle back to the era of geospatial data and the importance of location analytics. As a reminder, during the genesis of geographic information systems, much time and expense was spent on capturing, processing and validating basic Earth-related data: soils, vegetation, infrastructure, geology, etc. From field-based surveying to remotely-sensed data; from airborne and space-born platforms, there was a critical need to map the planet. As such, both government and private industry expended resources to map surface and subsurface assets for applications in exploration, urban planning, transportation, telecommunications and many others.

Fast forward to today, people, mobile and fixed assets have sensors to track location and augment that location with other ambient data such as weather, biometric or other dynamic bits of information. As a result, geoscientists are inundated with highly precise location-based data and associated attribution.

Therefore, the coming year presents geospatial data scientists with certain challenges: how to manage more data and how to analyze these data for expediency. The good news is that the capacity to do both by implementing big data platforms and machine learning solutions, provides a means to utilize these data in both GIS and business intelligence applications. And already there is evidence of this happening.

Cities are implementing intelligent infrastructure solutions to manage fixed and mobile assets to help make their urban environments “smarter” to serve the citizen. The insurance industry is utilizing highly accurate addressing data with the help of unmanned aerial vehicles to assess catastrophic weather incidents; and the banking industry is mitigating fraud more expediently by binding transaction with location-based data. The wireless industry is planning for the rollout of 5G thus putting in place the assets to foster connectivity between people, places and things. In all, the geospatial technology sector is building the foundation for a true knowledge community.”

Joe Francica is the Managing Director of Geospatial Industry Solutions for Pitney Bowes Software and Data. He is recognized as one most influential people in geospatial technology and the leading proponent of Location Intelligence (LI) solutions for over 30 years, having founded the Location Intelligence Conference in 2004. Francica has published and broadcast over 500 articles and podcasts on LI and has contributed to three books: Profiting from a GIS (published in 1993 by GIS World Books; edited by G. Castle), Geographic Information Systems in Business (published in 2005 by Idea Group Publishing; edited by J. Pick), and the Encyclopedia of GIS (published by Springer).

Solomon Pulapkura, VESTRA Business Development Manager with more than 12 years of experience in the GIS industry.

ArcGIS Pro

There should be greater momentum in ArcGIS Pro adoption among customers who have not yet made the shift from ArcMap to ArcGIS Pro. Major updates to the product such as support for Utility Networks and continued addition of rich features will help drive this switch-over.

ArcGIS Enterprise

Quite a few organizations still use a traditional GIS model (ArcGIS Server and SDE). However, there has been an increasing trend where organizations have been making the change and transforming their architectures to the ArcGIS Enterprise model, especially by implementing Portal for ArcGIS, and truly begin leveraging the ArcGIS Platform. In 2019, this trend is expected to continue to grow. VESTRA has helped many organizations make this shift and achieve high success with their GIS.

ArcGIS Hub and Open Data

The ArcGIS Hub is an excellent platform for public agencies to remain transparent, engage and collaborate with their stakeholders. There is a growing trend among local government agencies to publish Open Data, performance indicators and collaborate with citizens and other agencies on various initiatives. ArcGIS Hub fills this need very well and there should be an increased demand for ArcGIS Hub implementations in 2019. Implementing ArcGIS Hub tends to be a common recommendation by VESTRA when performing Location Strategy Assessments for clients.

ArcGIS Indoors

Many organizations are realizing the value of indoor mapping for various reasons such as public safety, resource tracking, tracking foot traffic, etc. This is expected to increase this year with the release of ArcGIS Indoors.

Managed Services

Organizations of all sizes are increasingly looking to the Cloud as an option for hosting their Enterprise GIS for various reasons such as cost savings. Allowing experienced managed service providers to maintain and administer the Enterprise GIS in Cloud environments allows customers to focus on business priorities and remain worry free about day-to-day GIS infrastructure maintenance. VESTRA currently provides managed cloud services in Amazon with Azure based services coming very soon.”

Solomon Pulapkura is VESTRA’s Business Development Manager with more than 12 years of experience in the GIS industry.

Stéphane Blondin, Presagis

From: Stéphane Blondin, Vice President, Product Management and Marketing, Presagis

Presagis has over 20 years of experience providing geospatial processing tools and services to the Defense and Security Simulation Training industry. Stéphane Blondin, Presagis’ Vice President of Product Management and Marketing, sees 2019 as a watershed year that will see the introduction of new processes, workflows and tools.

“The GEOINT industry is witnessing an explosion in the amount of data collected on a daily basis. The use of 3D, cloud computing, automation and AI-driven computer vision will become essential in the effort to deal with the influx of data – whether it be from satellites, drones, mobile phones, autonomous vehicles, open or commercial sources, or any other means.”

“Agencies and organizations will rethink the way they produce maps, charts, and simulation terrain databases,” adds Blondin, “A product such as VELOCITY gives agencies a cloud-ready solution where all source data is continually integrated into a central geospatial data repository from which specialized derivative geospatial products are extracted.”

Designed to specifically respond to these market needs, Presagis built VELOCITY.  By automating data cleanup and formalizing transformation processes through AI and machine learning, VELOCITY provides traceability and repeatability and allows users to drastically reduce and sometimes even remove man-in-the-loop operations.

An automated solution supporting the continual production of 3D terrain and maps, VELOCITY is especially suited for use in geo-intelligence, defense and security personnel training, critical mission planning and intelligence analysis.

Stéphane Blondin joined Presagis in April 2013 as Vice President of Product Management and Marketing. In this role, Stephane oversees products and pricing strategy, positioning, messeaging, and marketing content development. His duties also include the management of third party vendors and partners as well as competitive analysis. Stéphane brings to Presagis more than 20 years of experience in software industry in product and engineering management. Stéphane holds a Bachelors degree in Computer Engineering from Ecole Polytechnic de Montreal.

Vivien Heriard Dubreuil, Microdrones

From: Vivien Heriard Dubreuil, President, Microdrones, news@microdrones.com

Microdrones:  Expanding the Lineup of Fully Integrated Systems

For more than a decade, Microdrones has been engineering and perfecting unmanned aerial vehicles and integrating our drones with the most advanced equipment, sensors, and software. Looking ahead to 2019, we will continue to build upon our entire family of fully integrated aerial systems, with cutting edge technology, so that our customers can work smarter while cutting costs, saving time, and completing projects more easily.

Microdrones is more than just a drone company- we’re a solutions company. That’s why we call our product lineup mdSolutions. We began with the mdMapper series of photogrammetry-based packages. Then came mdTector, an easy to use methane gas detection system. Recently, we saw the need for very quick processing of data to create 3D point cloud models, which lead to the development of mdLiDAR1000, the first in a series of fully integrated LiDAR solutions.

LiDAR will play an important role in our future at Microdrones. Our most recent entry, the mdLiDAR3000, offers the complete package of a high-end UAV LiDAR and camera all integrated into one system.  The camera and laser technology, integrated with the mdLiDAR3000, accommodates high end requirements for data collection in the areas of construction, mining, and engineering, as well as surveying and research.

We will also continue to offer the smaller laser-based solution in the mdLiDAR1000. This lighter model has one integrated laser scanner and is presented as an entry-level UAV LiDAR solution. Having multiple entries in our LiDAR series enables our customers to select the best possible solution to meet their needs more efficiently.

In addition to a new LiDAR system, we’ve added two new systems to round out our mdMapper offering. Our top-line entry, mdMapper1000DG, uses direct georeferencing, saving time by using fewer or no ground control points for less sidelap and more productivity.

If you don’t need the power of direct georeferencing then the mdMapper1000PPK will provide high accuracy with just 1-3 ground control points.

At an even lower price point comes the new mdMapper1000+. This system is ideal for those who do not need DG or PPK and are willing to install ground control points on site for their projects. Best of all the mdMapper1000PPK and the mdMapper1000+ are both ready to expand with the user with a practical and affordable firmware upgrade.

At Microdrones, our aim is to be the global leader in providing professionals with the hardware, software, workflow, training and support they need to produce the right data. By expanding our lineup we’re able to provide the full suite of solutions to meet our customers where they are price wise and in terms of accuracy and technology. Then the question is no longer should I chose a Microdrones system, but rather which Microdrones system is right for me.

Tags: ArcGIS, Autodesk, climate change, cloud, crowdsourcing, data, ESRI, geospatial, GIS, GPS, imagery, indoor mapping, Infrastructure, intelligence, LiDAR, location, mapping, maps, mobile, mobile mapping, reality modeling, remote sensing, satellite imagery, situational intelligence, small sats, underground mapping

Categories: 3D Cities, 3D designs, airports, analytics, ArcGIS, Big Data, citizen science, climate change, cloud, cloud network analytics, crowd source, data, developers, DigitalGlobe, disaster relief, drones, earthquakes, emergency response, Esri, field GIS, flight paths, GEOINT, geomatics, geospatial, GIS, government, GPS, indoor location technology, insurance, Intergraph, location based sensor fusion, location based services, location intelligence, MapInfo, mapping, mobile, Open Source, Oracle Spatial, Pitney Bowes, Planet Labs, public safety, remote sensing, resilient cities, satellite based tracking, satellite imagery, sensors, smartphones, space-based flight tracking, spatial data, subsurface utilities, survey, UAS, UAV, UAVs, utilities, YII 2018

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