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JAN-FEB 2020 » VOLUME 10 » ISSUE 05 | ISSN 2277–3134 www.geospatialworld.net
FUTURE
IN MY MIND
To keep up with fast-paced technology innovation,
transforming business models and existential threats such as
the global economic uncertainty and geopolitical volatility,
geospatial industry leaders of today are increasingly turning
proactive and future-oriented.
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A lot can happen in a year. The geospa-
tial industry, which has been evolving
rapidly, stands witness to that. Perhaps
tion of sensors, will play a significant role in
this process.
A lot has happened in a year, and like
fill — both in multiple choice and elaborative
format — and in many cases one on one. We
acknowledge the time and patience showed
that is why, it isn’t perturbed by frequent last time, Geospatial World is ready with by them while approaching the task. We are
disruptions, and has in fact placed disrup- the latest trends and developments that will glad to feature the thoughts of 90 select
tions caused by technology innovations at go on to shape the future of the industry. leaders in this edition.
the core. That is also why it is today wary of Geospatial World Business Leaders’ Outlook We also ran a survey on the Geospatial
geopolitical uncertainty and an impending 2020 gives insights into the evolving busi- World website calling on industry
global economic slowdown, rather than ness landscape and emerging technologies. professionals to give inputs on a variety
stringent government regulations. For this exercise, we reached out to 300+ of questions. We received responses
With hope taking over fear, as far as industry leaders — the people who are inte- from over 2,200 geospatial professionals.
automation is concerned, and innovation gral to the ecosystem, and whose actions We are thankful to our readers for their
taking precedence over everything else, the and decisions will impact the industry’s valuable insights.
geospatial industry is now gearing up for an future — and received responses from 100+ Based on their thoughts on issues
all new transformative journey, which will be executives. Our endeavor was also to cover ranging from potential threats facing the
defined by collaborations and partnerships. a mix of companies, in terms of geographies, industry to preferred business destinations,
And advancements in Artificial Intelligence, technologies and revenues. The leaders we bring you unmatched analysis and
along with miniaturization and commoditiza- were given a detailed questionnaire to insights. Read on!
Editorial6 Steven Hagan Barry Matsumori

Out of Turn 7 Oracle42 BridgeComm 72
Payam Banazadeh Manlio Allegra
KEY TRENDS Capella Space 44 Polaris Wireless 73
Be Disruptive or be Irrelevant 8
Xiaohua Wen Christopher Richins
Tersus GNSS 46 RBC Signals 74
Disruption, New Constant 12
Emiliano Kargieman Max Gulde
Fear of Global Slowdown 13 Satellogic 48 ConstellR74
Proactive, Not Reactive 14 George Zhao Alexandre Pestov
Restructuring to Stay Relevant 15 CHCNAV50 vGIS75
AI for Business Optimization 16 Matthew Zenus Patrick Cozzi
AI, Automation to Create New Jobs 17 SAP52 Cesium76
Power of Partnership 18 Sunil Kumar Sreeramam GV
GroundTruth61 NeoGeoinfo Technologies 78
New User Segments to
Drive Future Growth 19 Lily Xu James Slifierz
SpaceWill62 SkyWatch80
Best Place for Business 20
James Crawford Zee Zheng
Data Privacy: The Balancing Act 22
Orbital Insight 64 SpaceChain80
Finding the Right Skillset 28
Michael Jones Sunil Mittal
INDUSTRY OUTLOOK Niantic 65 CSS Corp 81
Jonathan Neufeld John Renard
Jack Dangermond TECTERRA66 Cyient82
Esri32
Max Polyakov Dr Abhay Kimmatkar
Ola Rollén EOS Data Analytics 68 Ceinsys82
Hexagon34
Mark Heine Brijesh Pandey
Rob Painter
Trimble36 Fugro68 GarudaUAV83
François Lombard Thomas Walle Amr Raafat
Airbus Defence and Space 38 Unacast71 Windover Construction 84
Ed Parsons Javier de la Torre Igor Starkov
Google40 CARTO71 EcoDomus84
Nicolas Mangon Ganesh Pattabiraman Gaetano Volpe
Autodesk41 NextNav72 Latitudo40 85
4 | GEOSPATIAL WORLD | JAN-FEB 2020

VOLUME: 10 | ISSUE: 05
Richard Baker Alexander Wiechert
GeoSpock86 Vexcel Imaging 99
Willy Govender Sajid Mukhtar Chairman
Data World 86 Roter Group 99 M P Narayanan
Glenn Cockerton Kiran Manchikanti
Spatial Vision 87 Mapsol99
Wouter Brokx Dheeraj Mehra Editor & Publisher
Imagem88 Micronet100 Sanjay Kumar
Mike Davie Dheeraj Sharma
Quadrant88 GIS Consortium India 100 Managing Editor
Georgy Potapov Kevin Spry
GeoAlert89 Prof. Arup Dasgupta
GeoG2102
Adam Benson Natasha Ridley
Inpixon90 Editor — Defence & Internal
Nearmap102
Jan Erik Solem
Mapillary90
Tommy Van Der Heijden Security
Marxact102 Lt Gen (Dr) AKS Chandele (Retd)
Marc Kegelaers
Unifly 91 Chris McCormick
PlanetIQ103
Patrick Sheehan Executive Editor
GZA91 Pierrick Poulenas
Picterra103 Anusuya Datta
Sara Holoubek
Luminary Labs 92 Scott Harvey Sr. Associate Editor
Fritz Schlereth Civil Maps 103 Remco Takken
Descartes Labs 92 Bibhrajit Halder
Associate Editor
Ron Lopez SafeAI104
Astroscale93 Kedar Kulkarni
Avneep Dhingra
Rafael Guzman HyperVerge104 Assistant Editor
Satlantis 93 Yogesh Khandelwal Aditya Chaturvedi
John Serafini GeoAMPS104 Correspondent
HawkEye 360 94 Rajesh Paul
Jonathan Thompson
Mahashreveta Choudhary
Excel Geomatics 105
East View Geospatial 94 Mughlian Thiru Swamy
Anthony Baker Skylark Drones 105 Design
Satellite Vu 95
Rahul Srivastava Subhash Kumar
Prateek Srivastava Smart IMS 105
Terra Drone India 95
Devashish Fuloria Disclaimer
Shrikant Agarwal GeoIQ106 Geospatial World does not necessarily subscribe
KK Geosystems 96 to the views expressed in the publication. All
Ramakrishnan Ramamurthy
Greg Gloor views expressed in this issue are those of the
Geokno106
Dresdner Robin 96 contributors. Geospatial World is not responsible
Dr Florian Petit for any loss to anyone due to the information
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JAN-FEB 2020 | GEOSPATIAL WORLD | 5

Editorial
It Isn’t Disruption; It’s Continuum of Evolution
D
isruption is not a word in the technical vocabulary. It has come into being through
management jargon. Technology does not disrupt because it is forever evolving. There is
always an opportunity to develop a better mousetrap. Technology evolution follows an ‘S’
curve. There is a slow start, which picks up as technology is adopted by more people and
then it begins to plateau out. Innovators recognize this process and begin to evaluate new emerging
technologies to take over from the older technology as it begins to plateau. Of late, the process has
speeded up, which leaves slow adopters behind — hence causing disruption.
For example, consider the evolution of photography. Initially it was a film-based process and names like
Kodak and Polaroid ruled for many years. Then came digital imaging, and it was not Kodak and Polaroid
but Canon and Nikon that ruled. To slow moving Kodak and Polaroid, digital photography was indeed
disruptive, because it destroyed their market. They failed to see what Canon and Nikon saw and capitalized
on by moving away from film to digital. The old digital cameras were clunky and low resolution, but as
people began to adopt them, the specifications became better and have now unseated professional film
cameras. However, in this market, Canon and Nikon still rule because they foresaw the end of film as a
medium. That is not disruption, that is innovation. Now, Canon and Nikon are being challenged by iPhone
and Samsung. Again, it is not disruption but a continuum of evolution of imaging technology.
Geospatial systems are not unfamiliar to this process and undergo transformations, which may
be disruptive for some, but it creates innovative opportunities for the others. Small satellites now
enable everyday imaging, which improves the data acquisition cycle. Drones provide versatility
that surpasses aerial imaging. Position location has become more accurate through better satellites, Prof. Arup Dasgupta
Managing Editor
instrumentation and processing software. Diverse data sources have become available through arup@geospatialmedia.net
technologies like IoT. Social media has become a source of opportunistic geospatial data. The
challenge is putting these together to address human needs, in particular the challenges of sustainable
development in the face of Climate Change.
Big Data provides a tool for managing data of such variety, volume and velocity. However, there is a need to move away from
static, data-centric models of analysis to dynamic analysis-centric models based on diverse data opportunities. Big Data Analytics
(BDA) is yet to make a significant mark in geospatial analytics specific to sustainable development and Climate Change. It is to the
credit of meteorological scientists that they have a much better handle on Big Data for dynamic modelling of climate and climatic
events, though they might not recognize the term BDA. In the same way, Artificial Intelligence has to become the go-to tool for
predictive analytics, but here too, geospatial professionals are lagging behind.
Innovation is needed in many areas for innovative technology and applications to flourish. The biggest area where innovation is
needed is in capacity building in the fields of BDA and AI for geospatial. The pace of revision and augmentation of geospatial curricula
is unable to keep up with rapid changes in technology. This requires a much closer interaction between academia and industry. In the
short-term, geospatial courses need to include subjects that are in demand in the industry. However, educational institutions have a
long-term goal, and the industry needs to recognize these goals and support long-term research financially and by loaning experts.
Another area is regulatory, and in particular, privacy related. High resolution imagery, in situ data collection and harvesting of
social media, lays open sensitive personal data which impacts the privacy of individuals and groups if not suitably anonymized. Laws
regarding such issues are in place like GDPR in Europe. There is a need to examine these laws in the context of geospatial data.
Disruption happens when enough attention is not paid to evolving technologies and their possible consequences. Smart
professionals, institutions and governments need to be aware of the changes and importantly, the rate of change. Good managements
deal with the risk of disruption by devising means of avoiding it.

Out of Turn
Staying Ahead Versus Staying Relevant
I
nnovation, which was at the core of the human evolution, is probably the most-trending word
of the modern era. Today, the concept of ‘Disruptive Innovation’, which drives cut-throat
competition through new business models with short gestation periods, is gaining momen-
tum. Disruption becoming an integral part of the innovation process is a worrisome trend.
I often find myself in a dilemma about the rationale of ‘being ahead’ instead of ‘being relevant’ in
local markets.
Karl Marx, the influential German philosopher and economist, is regarded as the most ambitious
and scathing critic of capitalism. However, not too many people know that he admired the revolution-
ary potential of the then nascent system that mustered productive forces on a scale unparalleled in
human history, and paved the way for unimaginable industrialization and innovation. However, Marx
believed that the contradictions at the heart of capitalism, if left unresolved, would ring its death knell.
One of Marx’s prognosis that is indisputably true till date is of an impersonal colossal system that
takes efficiency and productivity at unprecedented levels, but in the process reduces the human to a
commodified cog in a giant wheel, estranging himself from his individual essence, fruits of his labor, as
well as the society, which is commonly known as his Theory of Alienation. Marx was a strong advocate
of protecting ‘creativity’ (innovation) of the ‘artisans’ (people) for a sustainable local ecosystem. Simi-
larly, the Gandhian philosophy promoted the idea of cottage industry as a means of sustainable living.
As globalization of economy brought in interdependence of market practices and behavior
amidst consistently growing volatile nature of world order, Marx’s premise that capitalism is antago-
nistic to individual liberty and creativity may not hold true anymore, but his argument that it would Sanjay Kumar
increase competition and culminate in the alienation of human species from one’s own neighbor- sanjay@geospatialmedia.net
hood and creativity, is becoming more relevant than ever.
The Fourth Industrial Revolution is supposedly based on innovative disruptions and consistently
challenging/reducing the gestation period of any prevailing economic model. Speed and scalability are
fundamentally a game of deep-pocket economies that can afford to invest upfront and create and capture
markets worldwide in a very short span of time. So, what happens to the majority of countries who don’t
have the wherewithal to innovate, disrupt and compete?
While we struggle to deal with social, economic and political disparities in different parts of the world
and have just started to work towards bridging the gap between ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’, the digital divide is
entrenching the existing divide. As we enter into the Fourth Industrial Age, there are several geographies that
haven’t yet developed sufficient capacities to reap the value and benefits of the Third Industrial Age.
As a result of growing disenchantment and alienation in the society, there is already talk around why
enterprises should once again focus on ‘stakeholders’ (employees and the larger society), and not just on
‘shareholders’.
The big questions regarding ‘sustainability’ and ‘relevance’ for the local neighborhood remain unan-
swered. How do we ensure democratization of innovation at local levels to find relevant and sustainable
solutions for our neighborhood, instead of making them productive arms of global industrial process?
How do we empower those who have been lagging behind for centuries, to reap the benefits of the Fourth
Industrial Age?
There doesn’t seem to be an easy answer here.

Industry Trends
W
e are living in
a disruptive
world. Data is
proliferating and
technology is
becoming more complex. From auto-
mation to Artificial Intelligence (AI),
Internet of Things (IoT), Big Data,
customized apps to digital services, the
sheer speed of technological advance-
ments represents one of the biggest
ons. As technology
threats to today’s businesses. Business
ds constant disrupti
The digital age deman down gestation periods, it’s time to ask
models that have lasted for decades are
now becoming antiquated, pushing the
cally cut
transformations drasti ons and take tough decisions. industry leaders to constantly transform
tough questi
to open up new revenue streams.
By Anusuya Datta
Adding to this challenging digital
landscape are problems like geopolitical

LeaderSpeak
uncertainty, growing protectionism and a challenge the status quo. Our survey reveals technology advancements had completely
volatile global economy. There is no such that the geospatial industry leaders have reshaped competition in the geospatial
thing as an independent country, or economy adopted an attitude of positivity. The industry, industry, while the other half agreed that they
anymore; our world is very complex, and it which seemed overwhelmed with disruptions had a significant impact.
is going to get even more complicated in the in the past two years, is finally settling down, Innovation cannot simply be a buzzword;
near future. accepting disruptions as the new normal. it needs to be integrated at all levels within
So, how is the geospatial industry faring? While our 2018 survey had revealed that the organization. The 2020 Business Leaders’
How does it view the technology changes about 85% of executives thought fast-paced Outlook reveals that an overwhelming major-
and subsequent disruptions? Is there a fear of technology innovations were causing too many ity of executives — 94% — believe in inno-
an impending global economic slowdown? disruptions for the geospatial industry, two vating and disrupting the industry, rather than
Geospatial World Business Leaders’ Outlook years later, this figure has dropped to 21%. Inter- waiting to be disrupted. However, the fact that
2020, which comprises of a survey of 100+ estingly, in 2018, 65% of the respondents had this comes after thorough introspection and
CEOs and industry leaders from across the also agreed that some of these innovations and not just false bravado becomes evident when
ecosystem, throws up some interesting insights. much of the disruption were generated from the next moment, they identify “inability to
outside the core geospatial industry, mostly by innovate” as the biggest internal challenge.
Evolving mindsets venture capital-backed startups.
A fast transforming industry requires leaders Significantly, the 2019 survey revealed Resilience in the face of disruptions
who can question long-held assumptions and that about half of the respondents believed Resilience requires companies to go on the

ew
Industry Trends
le a d e rs a g re e t h at n t h e
I n d u st ry w ill d rive g ro wt h i n ll
a
u s e r a re a s m e s. W h ile a l m o st o n
offensive, disrupting own legacy systems and strategies. As the speed of co m i n g t i e st i n at io n s s li pp e d e
h
technology transformation continues to increase and lifespan continues
to decline, industry leaders also realize they need to be quick footed to
b u s i n e ss d n ce s co re ’, a m o n g t
e ed
adapt to the speed of disruption, while being aware of the market and t h e ‘co nf id I n dia, w h ich s li pp d
competitive landscape. wo rst- h it is e co n d m o st p re f e r re
In our 2019 survey, we found the business leaders optimistic f ro m t h e s t h e s e ve nt h s p o t.
about the global economic scenario and their own organizations’ re g io n t o
growth prospects. As we enter 2020, we discover that while they are
upbeat about organizational growth, there is a growing anxiety about
existential threats such as an impending global economic slowdown,
geopolitical volatility and global warming. Stifling regulations, slow workers skilled in emerging technologies, they recognize upskilling the
pace of technology adoption and data quality and availability also existing workforce as a way to bridge the skill gap.
continue to pose challenges. Further, concerns over Climate Change,
debate over data privacy and disruptions caused by new technologies Growth drivers
are creating new levels of uncertainty for businesses. With the processes of geospatial data capture, processing and analysis
The CEOs are increasingly focused on building organizational resil- getting dramatically reshaped, the lines separating industries, companies
ience needed to overcome the diverse challenges and maintain growth and technologies are fast disappearing. While the past decade saw a
momentum. About two-third of them said they were already restructur- proliferation of M&As, there is a process of consolidation now within the
ing their leadership teams to stay relevant. They added that their focus industry. With the realization that no one CEO or company can have all
areas in the coming times would be strengthening product portfolios via of these technologies or products available to solve all the customer prob-
investments in new technologies and foraying into new markets. lems, the geospatial industry is visibly adopting a partnership approach.
The partnership model has emerged as the most preferred business model.
Tackling Technology 4.0 There is also a shift in terms of most preferred business destina-
Growth in digital infrastructure and digital technology ecosystems, tions. The regions that were lucrative a year ago, now appear unexcit-
along with maturity of technologies such as Big Data and Cloud, ing. While almost all regions slipped on the ‘confidence score’, among
Artificial Intelligence and Internet of Things, is expanding the the worst-hit is India, which slipped from the second most preferred
geospatial industry’s global reach and contribution. While the use of destination to the seventh spot. As location technology gets into chip-
geospatial in traditional sectors continues to rise, the future growth sets, cars, drones, enterprise software and traffic management systems,
will be determined by how well geospatial and emerging technologies there is a growing need for accurate spatial data to make these services
such as AI and automation augment and enable each other. more reliable. The industry leaders resoundingly agree that new user
For the geospatial industry in particular, AI and its subsets, areas will drive growth in the coming times.
Machine Learning and Deep Learning, present two scenarios. First, It is interesting to note that among the traditional sectors, they
AI and associated technologies augmenting geospatial; and second, identified urban development and utilities as two of the most lucrative
geospatial enabling autonomous technologies and robotics. areas for business, thus underlining the increasing need for geospatial
About 60% of the executives said they have already implemented technologies in city infrastructure.
AI as part of their workflow. While identifying advancements in AI and
miniaturization and commoditization of sensors as the two fast emerging New competitive edge
technology trends, many of them were of the opinion that AI will prove The Fourth Industrial Revolution is leading to a new set of applications,
to be as big a disruption as the Internet. For an industry that primarily business practices and revenue models, even as the industry ecosystem
deals with data, AI comes as a magic wand which can be used to unearth augments and enhances the value of spatial information in real-time
insights from huge repositories of structured and unstructured data. analytics and monitoring capabilities. It is amid such shifting realities
However, driving Artificial Intelligence at enterprise scale presents that industry leaders are setting their short and long-term strategies.
significant challenges — primary among them being shortage of relevant As technology transformation drastically cuts down gestation peri-
skillset. Our survey reveals organizational resistance too, with employees ods, it would require business heads to ask tough questions, take tough
feeling that companies are not doing enough to train them in emerging decisions, and think both short and long term. The geospatial industry
technologies and worrying that AI and robots will take away their jobs. leaders are doing all of that, and more. Find out what business leaders
Automation of business processes could take away not just blue-col- think about some of the most pressing issues facing the geospatial
lar jobs, but also affect all kinds of jobs. While this seismic shift poses industry by turning to Pg-12
wider questions for the society and governments, for industries and
business leaders, it means a fundamental shift in their hiring strategies. Anusuya Datta, Executive Editor
While majority of the executives admit that it is a challenge to find anusuya@geospatialmedia.net

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Industry Trends
DISRUPTION, NEW CONSTANT

As geospatial technology expands its value chain through integration with mainstream IT and digital
disciplines, the industry that was once struggling to keep pace with disruptions, seems to have now
placed innovation caused by disruptions at its core. A comparative analysis of 2020 and 2018.
71%
21%
8%
Are fast-paced technology innovations
causing too many disruptions for the
geospatial industry? Outlook
No Yes Not sure 2020
85%
7%
8%
Do you think geospatial industry has seen Outlook

a lot of disruption in the past few years? 2018
Yes No Not sure
Geospatial World Business Leaders’ Outlook 2020

Industry Trends
FEAR OF GLOBAL SLOWDOWN

Last year, geospatial industry leaders from all over the world were optimistic about both the global
economic scenario and the growth of their organizations. This year, while they still appear certain
about the growth of their companies, they fear that the impending global economic slowdown and the
increasing geopolitical volatility may adversely impact their businesses.
Do you see the world economy changing? How sure are you about business growth?
40% 75%
28% 4%
18% 21%
Improve Very
14%
Same Somewhat
Decline Outlook Not
Outlook
Not sure 2019
2019
Are we on the brink of a slowdown? How sure are you about business growth?
52% 78%
19% 22%
29% Yes Very
No Somewhat
Outlook Not sure Outlook
2020 2020
What is the biggest threat to growth?

10
9
8
5
4
3
2
1
Geopolitical Global Slow Tech Stifling Data Skill Data Climate New Retaining
Uncertainty Recession Adoption Regulations Quality Gap Privacy Change Disruptions Customers

Industry Trends
PROACTIVE, NOT REACTIVE

With technology transforming at breakneck pace, altering the industry dynamics at short intervals, the
business leaders of today know that they have to be proactive to survive and succeed. That’s why an
overwhelming majority feels that they would rather cause a disruption than wait for one to happen.
They also realize that innovation is the key, and thus view the inability to innovate as one of the
biggest internal challenges.
Will you cause a disruption
than wait for one to happen?
%
94 %
6
Exploring
Quality New
re of Standards Markets
Failu tegic
Stra tives
g Initia
Risin sts
C o
HR
Inability to
Innovate
Which are the biggest

internal challenges in a
disruptive environment?

Industry Trends
RESTRUCTURING TO STAY RELEVANT

With the looming threat of a global economic downturn and a constantly changing business
environment, the industry leaders understand that they need to have their best resources taking up
leadership roles. That’s why they are restructuring their leadership teams to stay relevant.
Are you restructuring and transforming your leadership teams?
YES NO
65% 29%
Not Sure
6%

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TopTalk
Industry Trends 1011111010101010100000000101111
110101010101010101010101010101101
101010001010011101010011110100001
AI FOR BUSINESS OPTIMIZATION

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Advancements in Artificial Intelligence, particularly Machine Learning
101and101Deep
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Rise of Artificial Intelligence

Will AI prove to be a disruption Have you implemented AI as
as big as the Internet? part of your workflows?
53% 63%
29% 30%
18% 7%
Yes No Not sure Yes No Not sure


1110100101010010101000011101011001
0101010010101000011101011001
0001010101010010101000011101011001
100101010010101000011101011001 TopTalk
LeaderSpeak
Industry Trends
0101010010101000011101011001
101110100101010010101000011101011001
AI, AUTOMATION TO CREATE NEW JOBS

00011101011001
1010100101010010101000011101011001
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0001000111Contrary
0101010to1the
011common
0000110perception
101010110that 01 is built around the fear of machines taking over the tasks
1100010101010101000110101101101011001 view that AI and automation will go on to create new jobs,
humans perform, the industry is of the
0001101010rather
10101than
0100taking
10011away
1010the
110existing
01 ones.
0011010101001101010101010111001
11000101010010110100010101000011101011001
0010101001010100001110101How 1001will AI and automation impact the job scenario?
0101010101010101010010101000011101011001
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010101101010001101010010101000011101011001
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1111010101010100101010010101000011101011001
1001110100110101101011001000011101011001
66%
1010101010100011110101010101011001
Create New Jobs
18% Take Away Old Jobs
16%
Not Sure
TopTalk
Industry Trends
POWER OF PARTNERSHIP
While the past decade saw a proliferation of M&As, the reshaping of processes of geospatial
data capture, processing and analysis in recent times has witnessed a growing preference for
collaboration. There is a realization that no one company can do all the things at the same time. So,
partnership has emerged as the most sought-after business model, as compared to X as a service
model, which topped the charts in 2019.
Preferred Business Models
Partnership X as a Service
X as a Service Subscription
Product Consultation
Consultation Platform
Outlook 2020 Outlook 2019

LeaderSpeak
Industry Trends
NEW USER SEGMENTS TO

DRIVE FUTURE GROWTH
As location technology gets into chipsets, cars, drones, enterprise software and traffic management
systems, there is a growing need for accurate spatial data to make these services reliable.
Proliferation of location-based technologies has accelerated the development of applications for user
needs. Industry leaders strongly feel that new user segments will drive growth in the coming times.
Will the next phase of Which are the new user

growth come from new users? segments that will drive growth?
9%
6%
85%
Asset Monitoring
Logistics
Energy
Weather
Marine Services
Retail and
Supply Chain
BFSI
Yes No Not sure
Which traditional sectors will drive growth?
10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
Urban Utilities Defense Agriculture Environment Land Water Natural Natural Governance
Development Use Disasters Resources

TopTalk
Industry Trends
BEST PLACE FOR BUSINESS

-3 Middle East
China -1
2020 Score: 35
2020 Score: 43
United States 2019 Score: 58
2019 Score: 65
2020 Score: 74
2019 Score: 83
+1 Europe
2020 Score: 63
2019 Score: 73
APAC +2
2020 Score: 55
2019 Score: 58
2 5
1
9
7
3
8
4
6
-5 India
2020 Score: 40
2019 Score: 74
-1 Africa
+5 Latin America
2020 Score: 36
2020 Score: 45
2019 Score: 32
2019 Score: 55
+2 Australia
2020 Score: 43
2019 Score: 51
The regions that looked lucrative for doing business a year ago, now appear unexciting. While almost
all regions slipped on the ‘confidence score’, among the worst-hit is India, which slipped from the
second most preferred destination to the seventh spot in the outlook for 2020. Geopolitical tension in
Middle East and Africa regions pushed them to the last two spots this year. However, the APAC and
Latin America regions improved their performance during this period.

Industry Trends
FOCUS ON NEW PRODUCT

LAUNCHES AND MARKETS
Most business leaders feel that the major focus areas for them in the coming future will be launching
new products, venturing into new markets and building new alliances. Organic growth, and
upskilling the workforce with an eye on restructuring will also be some of the other target areas.
New Product
Launches
Foray into
New Markets
Workforce
Upskilling
New
Alliances/M&As
Organic
Growth
Collaboration Outsourcing
Restructuring
with
for Cost
Startups
Efficiency Selling
Business

TopTalk
Data Privacy
11101010000111
0
00
1100
11
1
Data privacy is an ongoing debate fraught with complexities. But there is an increasing awareness among
the people and an acknowledgement from the industry that they need to inform consumers before
using their data. Will the future be witness to a scenario where all concerns around privacy — personal,
business and security — are addressed? By Aditya Chaturvedi
18 zettabytes 175 zettabytes 2.5 quintillion 90% 40,000 1.5 billion 66%
Total data Total data Data created Of this data Searches processed People active Of the global
created, captured market size to each day at our was generated in by Google on Facebook population now
or replicated so far touch by 2025 current pace the last two years every second every day own a mobile phone

KKGEOSYSTEM PVT LTD
RUSSIA
GNSS SYSTEM
D
ata has been termed the fuel of extrapolated with location data, the privacy
the information age, in which concerns come up. Location data of one
REACH RS2
applications ranging from individual isn’t usually valuable — it
interconnected devices to smart becomes useful only when it is aggregated Multi-band RTK GNSS System
mobility would primarily hinge on data. and combined at a population level. Multi frequency with 184 channels
However, this profusion of information Majority of the 2,000-plus industry
has also given birth to concerns around data professionals who participated in the
Rs 445000/-
+GST for complete system
privacy, which has emerged as a conten- Geospatial World Annual Readership

tious and polarizing issue. The Cambridge Survey 2020 approved of location tracking
Analytica-Facebook scandal is only the tip of but with a caveat that they were informed
the iceberg. how their data is being used.
In 2019, 47% people were okay with
Location for smart analytics location tracking (Graph 1), as compared
Data usually has two components: spatial to 40% this year (Graph 2). However, a
and non-spatial. The traditional geospa- whopping 87% people in 2019 (Graph 3)
tial data, which includes satellite imagery, and 92% in 2020 (Graph 4) had no issues
national maps, etc. does not come with in sharing data, provided companies notify REACH RS+
a privacy rider, as it is purely fact-based. them when they are being tracked and tell
However, when this data gets merged or them what they do with that data. RTK GNSS System
Multi frequency with 72 channels
With location data being used in myriad of services, do you approve 24*7 location tracking? Rs 295000/-
+GST for complete system
10% 5%
Graph11 47% 40%

h11 Graph Graph
43%
Graph22
55% Graph
Graph 1 Graph 1 33
Graph
G
REACH M+
Yes No Not Sure Yes No Not Sure RTK GNSS module for precise
navigation and UAV mapping
Geospatial World Readership Survey 2019 Geospatial World Readership Survey 2020
Do you think companies should notify you when your location is being tracked
and where your data is being used?
10%
3% 4% 4%
44 Graph55
Graph Graph66
Graph
Graph 3 Graph 4 Graph
Graph 5 77
Graph
87% 92%
Contact:
shrikant@kkgeosystem.com
Yes No Not Sure Yes No Not Sure Mobile: +91 9824040077
rohatash@kkgeosystem.com
Mobile: +91 9824440077
www.kkgeosystem.com
www.kksales.in
Data Privacy
Is it okay if third party companies

Data breach trust more: national governments or big tech use your data?
The Cambridge Analytica-Facebook fiasco, players.
due to which a visibly embarrassed Mark It is an open secret now that most tech
Zuckerberg had to appear in a senate players sell user data to third party aggregators.
25%
hearing and Facebook was slapped with All of our smartphones have a record of our 33%
a $5 billion fine, can arguably be listed as data and most Android apps gain access to
Graph
scandal1in history. Graph
our data.1There is also an Graph2 5
the biggest data privacy the phone and store Graph
In its aftermath, there was a massive issue of our smartphones/laptops recording
outrage against privacy breach by large audio without authorization. Using this data,
corporations. A political consultancy firm, anything ranging from behavior manipulation 42%
Cambridge Analytica harvested Facebook to influencing consumer behaviors, voting pat-
profile of over 50 million users and targeted terns, or even something downright nefarious,
them with ads and content that was likely to can be done. Yes No Not Sure
resonate with them. Location-based targeted advertising is a Geospatial World Business Leaders’ Outlook 2020
In the beginning of 2019, Google was fined thriving business and most marketers/adver-
EUR 50 million ($55 million) by French data tisers want to know where their prospective Are you okay if companies sell your data
regulator CNIL for violating the European customers are at any point of time, and what with third-party aggregators?
Union’s data protection rules. CNIL said that would they most likely buy. This has created
the hefty fine was imposed due to lack of a new business model which has data at the 15% 12%
transparency and absence of a ‘valid consent heart of it. As a result, there is a rapid rise
regarding ad personalization’. It was ascertained in companies who engage in collating and
that people were not adequately informed analyzing user data. Most of these firms are
about how the data isGraph 4
used to customize adver- Graph 5
third-party data aggregators. Graph 6
tisements. British Airways too came under The Geospatial World Annual Business
the scanner and was fined GBP 183 million Leaders’ Outlook 2020 (a survey of 100+
73%
($241 million). industry leaders) reveals that top executives are
In July 2019, the Federal Trade Com- split on sharing data with third party aggrega-
mission and Consumer Financial Protection tors. While 42% were against sharing their data Yes No Not Sure
Bureau fined Equifax around $700 million for a with any third-party aggregators, 33% were
Geospatial World Readership Survey 2020
2017 data breach that leaked data of more than okay with it, while 25% were unsure (Graph 5).
143 million people in the US alone. On the other hand, an overwhelming majority debate around data privacy and escalating
This led to heated debates on one of the of professionals (73%) were vehemently against public pressure on governments to put in place
most pressing issues of the day — contours of companies selling their data with third party comprehensive data privacy legislations.
data privacy. There are also demands for data aggregators (Graph 6). The European Union implemented the
localization and data sovereignty from some General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
quarters, which is fraught with many compli- Privacy regulations in April 2018. Europe’s GDPR — which has
cations as people are not sure who should they Against this backdrop, there has been a global become the gold standard of all data privacy
58%
COUNTRIES WITH
LEGISLATION
Graph 8 Graph 9 Graph 10

21%
COUNTRIES WITH
NO LEGISLATION
10%
COUNTRIES WITH
DRAFT LEGISLATION

KKGEOSYSTEM PVT LTD
Focus Laser Scanner Series –

legislations — has had a far-reaching impact of countries around the world have put in
the perfect instruments for 3D
on the global consensus around privacy, place some form of legislation to secure the
reality capture for measurement
fostering greater transparency, being a catalyst protection of data and privacy.
in Industries Architecture,
in the incubation of similar laws and laying the
Engineering, Construction, 3D
onus on companies to protect user data. After Are policies the solution?
mapping & Surveying
the implementation of GDPR, companies At a time when there is heightened awareness
are required to handle user data with more and clamor against data breach, bolstered by
responsibility and accountability.
GDPR requires enterprises to protect the
stringent regulations like GDPR and CCPA,
Graph
consumers are sharing more1location data
FARO
Graph3D Laser Scanner G
® 1
personal data and privacy of EU citizens for than ever. As per a research report by HERE,
• Reliablelife-likevisualization,evenunder
transactions that occur within EU states. It most consumers across the world (76%) extremelightingconditionsandlargedistance
also looks into the exportation of personal are willing to share their location data with • Safeandfastas-builtdatacapturingwith
data outside the EU. According to GDPR, navigation and mapping services, public superiorcolourdetail
location data is considered as “personal data” in transport, taxis, and ride-hailing services. • Reducedcomplexitybyintegratedscanning
Article 4 (1). Under this clause, personal data Mobility as a Service (MaaS) that includes andimagingworkflowforallkindsof
is granted extended rights, including the right mapping companies and transport and scanningtasks
to access and the right to erasure. Under the mobility applications, is certainly a sector that
right to access, users can obtain confirmation enjoys overall high public confidence.
about whether data concerning them is being Hardened public attitudes do not change
processed, where and for what purpose. in a couple of years normally, but if people
Taking a cue from the GDPR, the US can clearly see the impact before their eyes,
state of California enacted a similar regula- they are compelled to reassess their stance.
tion known as CCPA (California Consumer In the 2019 Geospatial World Readership
Privacy Act). According to the CCPA, a con- Survey, a vast Graph
majority of4 respondents were Graph 5
sumer has the right to request that a business not confident that a GDPR-like regulation
that collects his/ her personal information dis- is equipped to address core privacy issues.
closes it. Also, the business has to inform them Only 27% people were of the opinion that
about the purposeGraph
for which 3
data is being GDPR could be a solution, while 41% were
collected. A business cannot use personal not sure and 32% believed that it wouldn’t be
information collected for additional purposes of much use (Graph 7).
without providing the consumer with notice In less than a year, there has been a sea
consistent with this section. change in their attitude, with majority of the
While these two are the most compre- people not only endorsing the need of data
hensive privacy legislations that address all privacy legislations, but also recognizing its
facets of data privacy, according to the findings importance in innovations. In the 2020 sur-
of the United Nations Conference on Trade vey, more than 73% said they believe laws like
and Development, as of January 2020, 58% GDPR can address privacy issues (Graph 8).
Do you think data regulations like GDPR can really solve privacy issues globally?
18%
27%
41% 9%
Graph 7 Graph 8 Graph 9
73%
32%
Contact:
shrikant@kkgeosystem.com
Yes No Not Sure Yes No Not Sure Mobile: +91 9824040077
Mobile: +91 9824440077
www.kkgeosystem.com
www.kksales.in
the act, a consumer has the right to control over how their personal information
Key global data regulations request that a business that collects a is collected and used. Personal information
consumer’s personal information discloses is defined as anything that identifies an
it. Also, the business has to inform them individual or can easily be combined with
EU: The General Data about the purpose for which data is being other information to do so.
Protection Regulation (GDPR) collected.
Australia: In 2019, the
came into effect in April 2018.
Japan: Companies operating Australian federal govern-
It requires enterprises to protect the
in Japan must comply with its ment amended the Privacy
personal data and privacy of EU citizens for
Act on Protection of Personal Act, 1988, increasing the penalties for data
transactions that occur within EU member
Information (APPI). APPI was one of the breaches. The penalty for repeat offenders
states, and also looks into the exportation
first data protection regulations in Asia. It was raised from AUD 2.1 million to the
of personal data outside the EU. Under this
was overhauled in September 2015 after greater of AUD 10 million; or three times
law, personal data is granted extended
a series of high profile data making it the value of any benefit obtained through
rights, including the right to access and the
amply clear APPI was no longer equipped the misuse of information; or 10% of a
right to erasure
to cater to present needs. The amended company’s annual Australian turnover
US: US state of California APPI was enforced on 30 May 2017, a
India: The Personal Data
enacted a regulation known year before GDPR.
Protection Bill, 2019 regulates
as CCPA (California Consumer
South Korea: PIPA (Personal the processing of personal
Privacy Act) on June 28, 2018. It became
Information Protection Act) data of individuals by government and
effective on January 1, 2020. According to
PIPA gives South Koreans private entities incorporated in India and
On the same lines, a vast majority of While the tenor of data privacy privacy and infringement, while in the
the industry leaders surveyed this year also legislations could be harmonizing and reso- developing parts of the world, there is com-
agreed that a comprehensive data privacy nate globally, there would a strong variance plete lack of awareness about data privacy
policy is the answer. About 59% of executives in practice depending on the prevalent social, infringements or the rights associated with
welcomed data privacy legislations saying cultural norms and the nature of the state. it. For instance, in a vibrant democracy like
they will positively impact innovations, while Where there is free flow of informa- India that is characterized by a lot of con-
16% believed they will negatively impact and tion, right to protest and individual rights tested debates and disagreements, there is
25% were not sure (Graph 9). enshrined, people can demand accounta- a lot of bustle around privacy. Even though
bility and transparency, like in the western awareness is not up to the level of developed
Politics of data countries. For instance, in June 2018, the countries, an active and engaged civil soci-
Data privacy is not merely about advertise- American Civil Liberties Union, along with ety ensures that it is recognized as an issue
ments on Facebook. It is more expansive and Amazon shareholders, mustered a campaign and steps are taken to safeguard it.
includes a lot of factors. Orwellian surveil- to demand that the company gets out of
lance machinery and ‘Big Brother’ eyeing you creeping surveillance business. The issue People at the core
might be the stuff of dystopian thrillers, but was Amazon’s Rekognition service that uses Data privacy is a complex issue and increasing
the line between facts and fiction does get facial recognition to spot people, which the digitalization of the world and interconnec-
a little blurred when we look at some of the Internet behemoth sells to government. tivity is making things more intricate. In this
secret surveillance programs and revelations In authoritarian or oligarchic setups, it background, data privacy legislations need
by whistleblowers like Edward Snowden. would not be the same and state surveillance to be an ongoing balancing act, with security
Will strong data privacy policies positively and relentless profiling and data gathering is interests on one side and the interest of the
impact innovation? a given. In China, the government meticu- people on the other.
lously compiles user data and uses it for the In Geospatial World Business Outlook 2020,
controversial social credit system and other an overwhelming 70% of the industry leaders
25% similar programs. Even advanced innovation said there was a dire need of a new paradigm that
and entrepreneurship hubs with an enviable puts the data generators — i.e. the people — at
standard of living are not completely clean on the core of data business and not those who
Graph 9 this. The world’s only smart nation, Singa- profit from it (Graph 10). On the other hand, an
59%
16% pore, collects citizen data and extrapolates astounding 85% of the professionals who partic-
new information every day to build on further ipated in the readers’ survey believed that users
citizen-centric services. should be at the core of data business (Graph
Another big issue is the divide over 11). It is obvious that there is a consensus
awareness in the developed world vs the among the majority that people should at the
Yes No Not Sure developing world. In Western countries, core of any debate around data privacy.
Geospatial World Business Leaders’ Outlook 2020 there is a well-established concept of Users generate data and companies profit

KKGEOSYSTEM PVT LTD
abroad. It also requires that a serving copy

we Earn’, is a proponent of the idea that since
of personal data be stored within the
territory of India
companies profit from the data pooled in by
multitude of users, the economic dividends
Thailand: In March 2019, should accrue to the users as well, and not
Thailand approved the
just remain in the coffers of a handful few
Personal Data Protection
businesses. He cites the Alaskan Permanent
Act(PDPA), which aims at regulating the
Graph 63
Graph
lawful collection, use, or disclosure of
Fund, wherein all citizens of Alaska are given
personal data that can directly or indirectly a dividend by the Graph 7 that explore
oil companies
identify a person. oil in Alaska. While this approach may sound
a bit too radical, it is just one of the many
Brazil: The Brazilian General
approaches that focus on users being at the
Data Protection Law (LGPD),
core of the data business and thus entitled to
Most suitable
modeled on EU’s GDPR, will be
enforced starting from August 2020. It have a say in the way their data is being used,
also calls for the creation of a national or receive a share in profit.
TOUGHPAD
enforcement authority— the National Data The Neo-Liberal economic consensus is
Protection Authority (Autoridade Nacional being shattered and leading business tycoons
de Proteção de Dados) (ANPD) that will are more than vocal in calling for reimagining
supervise and enforce data protection
regulations and sanctions.
capitalism and shifting the focus from share-
holders to more inclusive stakeholders. Data (CONTROLLER)
for GNSS system
business, which is at the core of tech innova-
Do we need a business model that puts data tions and disruptive paradigms of the future,
generators at the core?
cannot function the way it hitherto has.
Graph 7
17%
Another interesting approach that
companies are getting interested in & drones (UAV’s)
is ‘Privacy by Design’, which refers to
by-default privacy in a system becoming
13% Graph 10 a prime concernGraph 11 This
of any enterprise.
70% is not only ethical but would also boost
consumer confidence, which would
translate to better brand image and abiding
relationship with the customers. Innovation
requires transparency, accountability and
Yes No Not Sure a conducive environment. All of these are
Geospatial World Business Leaders’ Outlook 2020 interlinked, with transparency being the
first prerequisite for making any system
Do you think consumer should be at the secure and robust. Embedding privacy at
core of data business?
the core should be done in such a way that
it doesn’t hamper functionality or make the
12% system or app counterproductive. ‘Privacy
3% by design’ is a proactive approach that will
preempt privacy breach. It also improves
the functionality of a system and enhances
Graph 11 accountability, openness and compliance.
Ed Parsons, Geospatial Technologist,
85%
Google, sums it up perfectly: “Data privacy
is largely about transparency and education.
It’s about making it clear when information
Yes No Not Sure is gathered about an individual, what that
Geospatial World Readership Survey 2020
information is going to be used for, and giv-
ing control to that individual about whether
enormously from it, so users should have that information is used or not.” Contact:
some stake or incentive in it. Chris Hughes, shrikant@kkgeosystem.com
Mobile: +91 9824040077
Facebook co-founder and author of the best- Aditya Chaturvedi, Assistant Editor,
seller ‘Fair Shot: Rethinking Inequality and How aditya@geospatialmedia.net
Mobile: +91 9824440077
www.kkgeosystem.com
www.kksales.in
Skill Gap
h e
iF nd ni g t
gi h t Fi t
R For an industry that is forever innovating, having
a workforce which is up to date with the latest
developments and is always willing to learn
and unlearn, has always been a challenge. As
geospatial assumes greater significance in global
sustainable development, the big question is: are
there enough skilled people to get the job done?
By Avneep Dhingra
T
he global geospatial industry has been transforming at
breakneck pace, witnessing too many, and too frequent
disruptions. While the business leaders seem to have
accepted and embraced this reality, the people working in
the industry are clearly struggling to keep pace with technology inno-
vation. Perhaps that is why, a whopping 84% of over 2,000 industry
professionals who took part in Geospatial World Annual Readership
Survey 2020 acknowledged that there was a skill gap in terms of what
the industry needs and what professionals coming out of universities
have to offer (Graph 1).

KKGEOSYSTEM PVT LTD
NETWORK
Do you think there is an existing skill gap in Is the current workforce equipped to train
the geospatial industry? in emerging tech like AI & ML?
8%
8%
21% SURVEY
VEHICLE
27%
Graph
Graph 33
(NSV)
Graph Graph
Graph 22
Graph 11
84%
52%
Yes No Not Sure Yes No Not Sure

Geospatial World Annual Readership Survey 2020 Geospatial World Annual Readership Survey 2020
New developments in technology are tech breakthroughs, especially in the rapidly

fundamentally reorienting the industry, innovating field of GIS. There is a time lag
and there is an immediate need to gear the in staffing up,” says Jack Dangermond,
process towards ongoing innovations. This Founder & President, Esri.
requires a set of dedicated professionals who There was also a broader consensus
are proficient in new technologies and can among these professionals about the exist-
Graph
Graph 55
smoothly handle them.Graph Currently,4
Graph 4there is a
striking demand-supply gap that is creating
ing workforce not being equipped to train
in emerging technologies like Artificial
ViaPPS
challenges for the industry and slowing the Intelligence and Machine Learning. More
• Automaticinspectionofroadsurfaceand
pace of automation. than half of the responders (52%) said that 3Dmobilemappinginonesystem
The biggest reason for this widening gap, professionals cutting across companies and • Automaticreports,datainstantlyavailable
as cited by the industry professionals in the positions weren’t equipped, while 21% felt • Provenreliabilitysince2006
survey, was that the professional courses they otherwise and 27% weren’t sure (Graph 2). • 100000km.surveyperformedbyViaPPS
had pursued were not aligned with the require- As we move into the new digital everyyear
ments of the industry. There is a gap between age, which will be powered by AI and • 100m.Range
what the industry desires in terms of human automation, this skill gap will only widen. • Accuratepositioningofdata
resources and the education/training model The disruption unleashed at the advent of • Highresolutioncamera
prepared by universities to meet that desire. Industry 4.0 would be unparalleled and • Roadtexturescanner
One of the main issues is that the curriculum overhaul a lot of the industrial sectors
is not in sync with the emerging technologies, and their workflows. As per a report, the
and often students learn about methodologies number of qualified researchers in the
and frameworks that are fast becoming obso- field of AI is approximately 300,000, while
lete. The curriculum needs to be constantly companies require a million or more for
updated, with more emphasis on hands-on their engineering needs. This is a huge gap
training, workshops and mock practices that which can only be bridged if companies
prepare the students for the industry. Imparting prioritize reskilling their employees and
skillsets that are not industry-specific would prepare for the changing paradigm.
lead to a workforce that is woefully under So, are big businesses preparing their
skilled and create a talent deficit, taking a toll staff for a smooth transition? Apparently
on the economy. Academia and industry need not. 44% of the respondents felt that
to collaborate more widely to address this issue. the companies are not equipping their
The survey also highlighted concerns workforce for a new tech-driven age, while
around lack of training from the industry and its 27% were not sure (Graph 3). Maybe Contact:
inability to articulate its demand. “It has always that is why, majority of professionals felt shrikant@kkgeosystem.com
been difficult to find application programmers that attracting strategic talent, followed Mobile: +91 9824040077
and analysts who are up to speed with the latest by reskilling the current workforce and rohatash@kkgeosystem.com
Mobile: +91 9824440077
www.kkgeosystem.com
www.kksales.in
Skill Gap
THE HUMAN RESOURCE CHALLENGE

Geospatial is a niche domain and has traditionally been underprivileged as far as the availability
of skilled workforce is concerned. As technologies evolve and integrate, the business leaders are
finding it increasingly difficult to get the right workforce.
How to bridge the skill gap?
Upskilling of Changing Establishing a Hiring from Outside Direct Collaboration Hiring from IT/User
Existing Workforce Composition Strong Pipeline the Industry with Academia Companies
AI-based technologies and their applications offer an opportunity to the geospatial industry to
completely transform organizational performance. As executives identified piloting emerging
technology and optimal use of data analytics as the top two technology challenges, the next three
pressing issues were related to the skill gap.
What is the biggest challenge in this regard?
Piloting Emerging Optimal Use of Data Attracting New Integrating Cognitive Reskilling Current
Technologies Analytics Talent Technologies Workforce

Are companies equipping workforce in the from all over the world, while rising HR costs is not have an adverse impact on their hiring
digital age of AI and automation?
one of the biggest internal challenges for them, policies. “Actually, technology is not adding
there isn’t too much concern around bridging complexity to our hiring strategies. We are
the skill gap. “The good news in our business is continually transforming our employee base
27% 29% that there is no shortage of people interested in through acquisition of capability, new hiring
Graph 1
learning Graph
about and2working in technology. The Graph
as the result 3 and an active internal
of attrition
Graph 3 biggest challenge is ensuring we have a diverse training program. This is a normal evolutionary
workforce by all accounts — demographic, response to a changing world landscape,” says
geographic, psychographic, etc. The future Trimble President and CEO Rob Painter.
44% of technology is the future of humanity, and
we need to be sure that our workforce reflects Dire need
the people we aim to serve,” says Ola Rollén, The next wave of the Industrial Revolution,
Yes No Not Sure President & CEO, Hexagon. which is often termed the Fourth Indus-
Geospatial World Annual Readership Survey 2020 When business leaders were quizzed trial Revolution, will drastically change
about the top ten threats to growth, the skill our world. The fact that machines, devices,
How will automation impact the job market?
gap featured on the sixth spot. However, the sensors and people will be able to commu-
industry leaders did have an opinion on ways nicate with each other, will create different
to bridge this gap. Among the top remedies levels of interoperability and connectivity. In
16%
were changing workforce composition, such a progressively interconnected world,
upskilling of existence workforce, hiring from the Graph 5 way of exploring the phys-
most powerful
2 Graph Graph Graph
5 4 3 mainstream IT and user companies, and ical and digital landscapes for individuals,
54% establishing a strong pipeline. businesses and governments will be through
30% There are speculations that automation the ‘where’ dimension. Regardless of the
would be a mixed bag as far as employment veracity of that statement that “80% of all the
issues are concerned. The anxiety over data in the world has a spatial relation”, there
a “Rise of Machines” future is certainly world has seen an exponential increase in
Job Cuts No Job Cuts Not Sure unfounded, at least in the near future, and the amount of spatial information in the last
Geospatial World Annual Readership Survey 2020
while a lot of current jobs would become few years. From smartphones, self-driving
redundant, new jobs that require highly cars to machines that think, the sheer level
specialized skills would be created. And auto- of ubiquity is subsuming geospatial systems
mation would not supersede humans, but into common everyday processes.
17% 17% compliment them. Though we need to buckle In such a scenario, for the geospatial
up and focus on upgrading existing skillsets. industry to have the desired impact, it would
Leading industry titans have often reiterated require the availability of a highly skilled and
Graph 5 that AI would be overall beneficial to the dedicated workforce. While there is cer-
society and massively increase productivity. tainly no dearth of talent, the onus is on all
As far as the fear of job cuts due to stakeholders to make new professionals more
66% automation goes, the views presented by employable and reskill the existing staff to stay
the industry professionals and leaders relevant. The current skill gap can be mitigated
were highly contradictory. When asked if by following a comprehensive approach that
Add Jobs Cut Jobs Not Sure increasing automation will lead to massive takes into the account the changing industry
Geospatial World Business Leaders’ Outlook 2020 job cuts, 54% of professionals said yes, while dynamics, specific needs of businesses and the
16% weren’t sure (Graph 4). On the other skillset imbibed by the workforce. Because as
developing leadership skills will be some of hand, 66% of business leaders felt that AI and American lawyer-politician Brad Henry says,
the major tasks in front of the industry in the automation will in fact create new jobs, rather “No other investment yields as great a return
times to come. than taking away the existing ones. Only as the investment in education. An educated
17% of the industry leaders thought that the workforce is the foundation of every commu-
Different concerns number of jobs will reduce (Graph 5). nity and the future of every economy.”
According to the Geospatial World Business Contrary to the common perception,
Leaders’ Outlook 2020, which is based on there were industry leaders who said that Avneep Dhingra, Associate Editor
responses of more than 100 industry heads the frequent technology advancements did avneep@geospatialmedia.net

TopTalk
INTELLIGENT
NERVOUS SYSTEM FOR THE
PLANET
Jack Dangermond, Founder & President, Esri
R
ecent technological advances are creating an enor-
mous impact across the broad geospatial community,
enabling users to not only share their data, but to
synthesize it into interesting collections of advanced
information for the planet. Increasingly, maps and geographic
information are being organized into all types of layers that
help us understand almost everything about our world. This
fast-growing trend has been adopted by hundreds of thousands
of organizations worldwide, enabling more people to use GIS to
explore the numerous geographic patterns about our world.
This recent evolutionary stride is transforming GIS into a sys-
tem of distributed web services (shared by many organizations
globally) that can be accessed and leveraged on the web by inter-
ested communities. GIS adoption and use are rapidly spreading
beyond GIS professionals to become relevant to virtually every-
one. Because all GIS items are shared web services, you can open
and interact with any item by simply referencing its URL.
We like to imagine this global GIS as the “intelligent nervous
system for the planet”. The more people are able to collaborate
and share information, the stronger this GIS foundation becomes.
Marrying technologies
Spatial analysis and modeling have historically been a desktop
GIS task. Traditionally, GIS commands and tools were used
throughout the GIS community and compiled into geopro-
cessing scripts for scientific modeling and computation. With
cloud computing, Python scripts and Jupyter, notebooks are
rapidly being adopted for spatial analysis and data science for
processing and analyzing this data across vast networks of cloud
computing. These scripts are being taken to where data resides
(in data cubes in the Cloud). Python scripts are also incorpo-
rating and applying Machine Learning, statistical modeling and

TopTalk
LeaderSpeak
Deep Learning logic, marrying these with all (and responding to) their needs. Most Our GIS portals play a critical role in
kinds of other scientific computing methods. users see the work that they do as being maintaining and controlling information
Meanwhile, IoT networks are providing supportive of their own organizations. access through identity and logins. This
rich observations in these Cloud networks In this new age of activism, we are seeing configuration work is performed by each
and data is being integrated into rich spatial the impact and contributions of the GIS organization. In turn, each organization
analytics. Geoprocessing and maps provide community reaching beyond individual determines access to each information item
the integrating language of GIS. Esri’s ArcGIS organizations to enable bigger achieve- that it provides and manages. They can set
platform includes over 1500 tools that can ments and impact. access to be publicly open, to be shared
be used to program sophisticated analytical, with individuals or named groups, or to
data science and automation workflows. Democratizing information keep these items private for the individual
These can be integrated with other scientific ArcGIS Portal is part of both ArcGIS creator or provider.
tools to develop advanced analytic results. Online and ArcGIS Enterprise. Portals
provide a critical technology that controls Going beyond simple data sharing
Investing in innovation access to appropriate information that you We haven’t really felt the impact of the
At Esri, our goal has always been to focus are entitled to view and use. They also global economic downturn in a strong
on the changing needs and aspirations of prohibit you from accessing information way. While there is no magic mantra to
our users. We are a strong business with a that you do not have rights to view or use. tide over recession, one way we like to
stable financial foundation for supporting the Your identity (single sign-on) is how infor- think about what we do is going beyond
work we do. However, we do invest heavily mation access is controlled. Each organiza- simple data sharing to generate higher
in building and enabling GIS software. tion establishes and controls identity and level information items and interpretations
Each year, we invest about one-third of information access through its portal. One that provide users with deeper insights.
our revenue in advancing our fundamental of the key goals of the ArcGIS portal is These information items will be the most
technologies. We also work hard to develop for small workgroups and organizations to important asset for organizations, and GIS
training and support, books, blogs and news- assign identity to members and to control provides a framework for data that gives
letters for helping our professional commu- information access and collaboration. it context and meaning — that’s why it is
nity stay current. These capabilities extend beyond organiza- called ‘Location Intelligence’.
User adoption of the ArcGIS Online Web tions to communities. Geospatial technologies can definitely
GIS throughout the world is increasing at an Web GIS is about participation, access help in this area. Applying GIS helps organ-
annual rate of close to 30%. Currently, this and sharing. You are granted access to the izations make better decisions, work more
community is generating 2-3 billion online information that is appropriate for you. efficiently and increase overall understand-
maps daily. It has created and shared over 27 In this way, through your identity, portals ing. One major advantage that these tech-
million items in its collective Online GIS, provide shared access across communi- nologies offer is transparency and insight.
and the rate for adding new items in 2019 ties of interest. As far as building trust is
exceeded 40%. This information sharing concerned, there are multiple aspects to Combining different skillsets
ethic has added tremendous value to the that, which include protecting personally It has always been difficult to find
ArcGIS platform. identifiable information and supporting and application programmers and analysts
Interestingly, our investments in GIS sustaining community efforts. We are careful who are up to speed with the latest tech
are advancing beyond our expectations about how we manage system identity in breakthroughs, especially in the rapidly
for reach and impact. Our users represent our community-based Web GIS. We feel innovating field of GIS. There is a time lag
organizations throughout the world that community systems in which information is in staffing up. For example, web program-
are creating and managing change using shared and used requires a system of identity mers are in high demand. And so are
GIS. Our goals have been around support- in which users can be granted access when advanced GIS analysts, who have deep
ing our users’ good work and learning from appropriate. experience with traditional professional
GIS tasks combined with experience at
IN THIS NEW AGE OF ACTIVISM, WE implementing new Web GIS patterns.
ARE SEEING THE IMPACT OF THE GIS Interestingly, both these GIS
communities are combining their invest-
COMMUNITY REACHING BEYOND ments and missions to create and share
INDIVIDUAL ORGANIZATIONS TO amazing data collections as well as to
create web maps and apps that fuel the
ENABLE BIGGER ACHIEVEMENTS broader Web GIS trend.

TopTalk
A
utomation has certain-
ly increased efficiency
and productivity, but
machines with only
fixed, automated functions are not
capable of dealing with changing
real-world situations. In the auton-
omous future we are empowering,
tasks, work processes, entire opera-
tions and industries will be able to
adapt intelligently and autonomous-
ly. Smart, ecosystem-wide solutions
will dwarf the impact of recent
disruptions like Internet of Things
Ola Rollén, President & CEO, Hexagon
and Big Data.

TopTalk
LeaderSpeak
Increased connectivity through 5G will such innovation is achieved by deceiving ments of all types and sizes create Smart
accelerate our ability to capture and process the user or customer in some way. To me, Digital Realities. These digital replicas of
data. This is powerful, but we need the ability that is not innovative. the physical world allow us to see what was
to leverage this data autonomously. Otherwise, I think a company can gain its user/cus- and what is, and to understand what could
we will be incapable of keeping up with the tomer’s trust by providing solutions that put be, what should be and what will be. This
increasing gap between the amount of data data to work in a way that clearly supports combination of data capture, data intelli-
being created and that being put to use. sustainable growth — both economically gence, and ultimately, data leverage is the
and environmentally. We hear a lot about foundation for a more efficient, productive
Driving digitalization, innovation advanced technologies such as Artificial and sustainable future using fewer resources
Hexagon is a global leader in sensors, Intelligence, edge computing, mobility and and creating less waste. The core objective
software and autonomous solutions that interoperable systems, and the promise they of our business is innovation.
are driving digitalization in the geospatial have to solve many of our problems. The
industry. So, it’s incumbent upon us to challenge is delivering on these promises, but Having diverse workforce
continue developing technologies that push those that do — and do so through transpar- The good news in our business is that there is
the boundaries of what is possible. We are ent and ethical business practices — will earn no shortage of people interested in learning
committed to further innovation in reality the trust of the industry. about and working in technology. The biggest
capture, analysis and visualization that will challenge is ensuring we have a diverse
put data to work for better results, no matter Anticipating challenges workforce by all accounts — demographic,
the application — from construction sites, Trade tensions and other geopolitical geographic, psychographic, etc. The future of
infrastructure projects to entire cities. factors undoubtedly are affecting how the technology is the future of humanity, and we
Innovation is a pillar of Hexagon’s busi-
ness model, and we will continue to invest
heavily in R&D as we have for decades. In
THE COMBINATION OF DATA CAPTURE,
the past few years, 10-12% of our revenue has DATA INTELLIGENCE AND DATA
been reinvested in research and development.
We have nearly 4,000 patents registered to
LEVERAGE IS THE FOUNDATION FOR A
our business units and have nearly 4,000 MORE EFFICIENT AND SUSTAINABLE
employees in R&D across the world.
We are committed to empowering an
FUTURE USING FEWER RESOURCES AND
autonomous future where humanity can CREATING LESSER WASTE
thrive sustainably. That means investing in
today with a vision for a better tomorrow. industry approaches strategy and planning. need to be sure that our workforce reflects
That also means looking at innovative Unfortunately, it is unknown at the moment the people we aim to serve. Since Hexagon
technologies that will help our customers how much these factors will positively or works in critical ecosystems spanning manu-
perform well, while having minimal impact negatively impact the economy. We must facturing to mobility and cities to nations,
on the environment. We believe that these continue to plan, knowing uncertainty is that means pretty much everyone.
two things go hand in hand — by putting on the horizon. Fortunately, that is how we The pace at which technology is advancing
data to work to help our customers boost conduct business every day, no matter the requires us to do both upskill and reskill. We
efficiency, productivity and quality across situation. Our mission to empower an auton- have to combine the valuable experience
any application, we will do good for the omous future that sees humanity thriving brought from our existing workforce with
planet as well. sustainably will continue to guide everything fresh thinking and new ideas brought in from
we do at Hexagon. the next generation of technology workers.
Customer in mind Since we are not in control of many Companies and industries which are able to
In today’s day and age, companies can factors, we must continue to move for- strike this balance will be the most successful.
simultaneously ensure innovation and ward, anticipating the potential challenges Autonomy will change the way humans
privacy. Truly innovative and transform- before they affect us and adapting when work, but it will not mean the end of work for
ative companies always have the user and the unexpected happens. We can build a humans. The faster we embrace this and work
customer in mind, so these two concepts are sustainable future regardless of the economy together to leverage our unique skills and
inextricably tied to each other. To suggest we are dealing with. The ability to com- perspectives across generations, the better
that innovation can be achieved without bine sensors, software and autonomous equipped we will be to handle the challenges
considering privacy would be to suggest technologies helps industries and govern- of the future.

TopTalk
INVESTMENT
IN INNOVATION AT CORE OF
BUSINESS Rob Painter, President & CEO, Trimble
T
echnology is a significant contrib-
utor to the digital transformation
that is changing our society. In the
geospatial industry, we have seen
several major technological advances over the
last few decades. The first advancement has
been sensor focused, where data collection,
either in an airborne or terrestrial application
(LiDAR, GPS, etc.), has increased productivity
and quality exponentially. The second shift has
involved sensor fusion, where positioning and
data collection capabilities (GNSS, scanning
and imaging total stations, terrestrial LiDAR,
etc.) have been combined to create sensors that
enable accurate and timely data collection and
positioning in environments that were once
inaccessible to single-sensor systems. The third
shift has been industry-specific solutions. We
believe the next phase will be integrating along
an industry continuum and providing solutions
to customer problems through analytics.
Pursuing increased connectivity

The mission of our founder, Charlie Trimble,
was that of an innovation in which GPS would
become the “next utility.” Although the acronym

IoT was unknown at that time, his vision was create a hedge during a downturn. Firstly, we focus on sustaining innovation
that GPS would be one of many positioning The geospatial industry is a multi-bil- by continuing to innovate with an existing
and information nodes that various industries lion-dollar industry and provides jobs solution. For example, sustaining innovation
could utilize. When Steve Berglund took to millions of individuals worldwide. In in the transformation of GPS to GNSS. Sec-
over, his mission was to transform the way the addition, the technologies, capabilities ondly, we dedicate a considerable amount of
world works by utilizing multiple IoT nodes and services of the industry fuel multi-tril- our R&D budget to new innovations where
(technologies) coupled with field and enter- lion-dollar markets such as construction, we look at new technologies and how they
prise software to solve specific industry-re- agriculture, transportation, forestry and can be integrated and adapted to our various
lated problems. He focused on overlaying an utilities. These markets form the basis of the industries. The Trimble SX10 or SiteVision
industry workflow to significantly enhance GDP of many regions and countries, which are examples of new innovation.
innovation. This transformation revolution- impacts the worldwide macro-economic
ized the industry and catapulted Trimble to a environment. In addition, on a local level, Encouraging, engaging youth
10x growth trajectory. analytics developed from data from these We are continually transforming our
As Trimble’s third CEO, my focus will be industries can be used as a leading indicator employee base through acquisition of capa-
to pursue an era of increased connectivity with of a potential downturn. bility, new hiring as the result of attrition
the workflows and lifecycles in the markets we and an active internal training program.
serve. This will integrate these technologies Building customer trust This is a normal evolutionary response to a
and enable the corresponding stakeholders to Trimble typically invests approximately changing world landscape. This has enabled
further improve productivity, quality, transpar- 13-14% of its revenue in R&D and product Trimble to continue to be on the forefront
ency, safety and sustainability in agriculture, development. Acquisitions, for example, of technology in the geospatial industry.
construction, geospatial and transportation
industries. Automation is a key element of our
strategy to accomplish this integration.
THE GEOSPATIAL INDUSTRY PROVIDES
Meanwhile, advances in the back-haul JOBS TO MILLIONS OF INDIVIDUALS
systems such as 5G will enable more tasks to
be done at the point of work. This can facil-
WORLDWIDE. IN ADDITION, THE
itate and accelerate the automation of work TECHNOLOGIES AND SERVICES FUEL
processes in several sectors. Also, 5G will
enable training, support and service to occur
MULTI-TRILLION-DOLLAR MARKETS LIKE
at the site, where the work is done, because CONSTRUCTION AND TRANSPORTATION
rich content can be sent bi-directionally. In
addition, because of timely access to field have played a role in our strategy to establish As an industry, we all have an obligation to
data, 5G is expected to enable near real-time beachheads in new market, fill in product line encourage and engage more youth who are
visualization and analytics. gaps or add new technologies to our solu- interested in this exciting profession and the
tions’ portfolio. More importantly, continued opportunities it provides. We have a diverse
Solutions to enhance productivity innovation and industry domain experi- and capable workforce that we believe is
Everyone has had some impact of the global ence are the primary drivers that will allow the best. They are extremely self motivated
economic slowdown. However, the diversity Trimble to focus on organic growth as our to learn new technologies and are not threat-
in Trimble’s solutions, markets and geog- principal strategy in the industries we serve. ened by bringing in individuals with new
raphies is our strength, which allows us to Trust from our customers does not come skillsets. Our culture is to embrace change,
balance the ebbs and flows of the macro from our technology investments, it comes not run from it.
economy. In addition, our solutions create from developing high-quality and affordable
significant scale in productivity, which bene- solutions that solve their problems efficiently. Strengthening data privacy
fits our customers both during an economic In addition, trust comes from having a world- Data privacy is both required and expected.
high and a downturn. Our solutions improve wide dealer and partner network, along with Innovations in how we collect, process,
the productivity, quality, transparency, safety a support and service organization that can analyze and present data can actually
and sustainability of our customers’ busi- assist our customers 24/7, even in the most strengthen data privacy. Trimble works with
nesses. Since Trimble’s core market segments remote areas of the world. leaders in the industry, such as Amazon,
(construction, agriculture, geospatial, Trimble’s investment in innovation is core Google and Microsoft, to augment our
transportation and others) only have a minor to our business as well as the industries that solutions and ensure data privacy is a key
overlap, the market and geography diversity we serve. There are two levels of investment. attribute of our applications.

TopTalk
Multi-intelligence
Solutions for a
Better Future
rançois Lombard, Director, Intelligence Business,
F
Airbus Defence and Space
G
eospatial data is increasingly touching the lives of people
on a daily basis and is appreciated as a valuable source of
foundation and contextual information. As a result, the
geospatial market has enjoyed a fast-paced growth in the
recent years. It is supported both by the defence and institutional
community, and also by an increasing take-up in the commercial sec-
tor, with large rounds of funding and several new players in data and
analytics segments. We saw the first phase of consolidation two years
ago, mainly on the data supply side, and I expect this consolidation
phase to continue through acquisitions or partnerships, and include
analytics and services.
The main reasons I see for this concentration is that it is neces-
sary to perform in the market and find the right balance between
differentiating products that bring higher value to the customer,
disrupting innovations that provide new capabilities and opera-
tional excellence through on-time, on-cost, on-quality delivery and
reactive customer service.
Delivering trusted data

It is against this background that Airbus is evolving fast. We position
ourselves on the higher end of the market and will launch our next disparate sources of information. The trend involves Artificial
generation of assets (Pléiades Neo) this year and deliver high-quality Intelligence in forecasting events and better planning measures and
30cm resolution data. We are convinced of responses. Therefore, we are increasingly
the need for partnerships with innovative investing both in new sensors (optical,
companies and pioneers, such as HawkEye360 radar, SIGINT and HAPS) as well as in AI
for signal intelligence data and Orbital Insight The ability to capabilities to analyse the available real-
for analytics. The ability to deliver trusted time and non-real-time data, with the aim
data will always remain core to everything
deliver trusted data of creating actionable intelligence, to the
we do in the geospatial world. By providing will always remain benefit of our customers.
our customers with timely and trustworthy
information, we enable them to make the right
core to everything Building robust services
decisions and respond to challenges faster and we do in the We are still at the beginning of the journey to
more securely. digitize all our products and services, though
Today’s geospatial users have the need to
geospatial world much remains to be done to build more and
extract the most valuable information and to more robust and performant services, ease
leverage it to their best advantage. Artificial access to these products, and allow flexible
Intelligence and Machine Learning help deployment to embed these services in
in unlocking the wall of data and creating automated workflows. the workflows of our customers. It is not only a technical challenge,
We believe that the future lies in multi-intelligence solutions but also a change of mindset and culture, and that’s what makes the
that efficiently fuse sensors and heterogeneous, and sometimes journey so exciting.

INTELLIGENCE.
FLY
WE MAKE IT
At Airbus, we offer an unprecedented
intelligence portfolio for our defence
and security partners. Based on
our own high-resolution satellite
constellation, and over 30 years
of commercial and institutional
expertise, our multi intelligence
solutions cover the full operational
cycle – from data collection and
analysis to information dissemination
and monitoring.
Insight. We make it fly.
airbus.com
TopTalk
There’s a Bit of
Geo in Everything
Ed Parsons, Geospatial Technologist, Google
T
echnology is increasingly becoming invisible, as it becomes
a part of our daily lives. We think less about the devices that
we carry around, be they laptops or phones, as it becomes
a part of the fabric of our day-to-day lives. All of this has hap-
pened in the past 30 years or so, because we have been able to digitize a
lot of what we do. Since this process has been relatively gradual, it’s been
almost invisible. The idea of me telling my phone to book a reservation
in a restaurant in London, while I am in Monterey, California, feels like
science fiction, but it’s practical. That only works because all these tasks
are part of a process, part of industries that have been digitized.
Positively using automation

When it comes to Machine Learning, analysts call it geospatial data- The geospatial Better
sets. So, you can look at the analyses of traffic patterns in a city over accessibility to
a period of time and can apply Machine Learning to spot patterns
industry can be too bridge digital
that emerge during the day. You might want to visualize that just to introspective. We divide
control the traffic lights differently. That’s a relatively organic process. There is clearly an
You are looking at development of algorithms and tools that analysts
are always worrying issue in terms of
call ‘techniques’, which we might have developed using a human. But about pushing technology accessi-
we can now do it at scale. Therefore, in one sense, it’s just another bility. There is actually
technological development, and like all technologies, when it comes
harder. But the past a lot of work going
to their use, any technology can be put to good or bad use. I think 20 years have been a on to try and make
you have to extract the policy for social issues around the develop- access to Internet
ment and use of tools. Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning
great success story more broadly available.
are broadly about automation. We are now applying automation to But on the flip side,
geospatial technology. This hasn’t happened much in the past because a lot of innovation
the digitization process hadn’t happened. around products and services are actually coming from those parts
of the world that have less access and have been forced to come up
Transparency, education must for data privacy with more innovative solutions. I think there are broad infrastructure
Data privacy is largely about transparency and education. It’s about problems that need resolution.
making it clear when information is gathered about an individual,
what that information is going to be used for, and giving control to Geography, a horizontal activity
that individual about whether that information is used or not. Much I think geography has been a relatively horizontal activity. There is a
of the focus at the moment is around control —particularly the idea little bit of geography in all disciplines and professions. Because of its
of information being collected by one organization and then being horizontal nature, a little bit of geospatial technology is encapsulated in
shared with another. The focus should be around people. almost all other processes. That’s been a huge growth area. At Google, we
The thing that GDPR has done is that it has put in place frame- reflect that a lot. A number of Google products and services use a little
works, best practices and knowledge about transparency, giving part of Google Maps. I sometimes worry about the geospatial industry
people control and access to their information. Sometimes there are being too introspective. We are always looking at ourselves and worrying
broader benefits of sharing information. But without education and about pushing harder and having more people to love us for what we do.
transparency, we can’t really have these discussions. But what has happened in the past 20 years is a great success story.

TopTalk
LeaderSpeak
Integration of
Geospatial and
AEC Inevitable
icolas Mangon
N
Vice-President, AEC Syrategy and
Marketing, Autodesk
C
onsumer adoption of Internet-con-
nected devices are continuing to
rise. As consumer applications
grow, strategic industry-specific
implementations will also grow. The Inter-
national Data Corporation reports that over Autodesk maintains privacy principles and
30 billion ‘things’ will be connected to the We are likely to see has implemented governance structures, poli-
Internet by 2020, and all these will feed into a cies and controls to collect, use, share and retain
‘Big Data’ machinery. For example, in the in- more collaborative personal data. Our users have ways to control
frastructure space, cellular data can be used to working, in which how certain data is collected and used through
collect traffic data. Combined with analytics, access to “choices and preferences”. How we
various systems can use this data to predict everyone has access manage privacy and data security will evolve as
traffic patterns and assess routes that may be to accurate, real-time the regulatory landscape, customer demands
prone to congestion at certain times of the day. and needs of our business change.
Inevitably, automation led by Artificial data that is linked to
Intelligence and Internet of Things (IoT) will location information Capitalizing on data abundance
drive innovations for the geospatial industry. Experts predict that by 2020, trillions of
Information derived from non-personal data gigabytes of data will be generated daily. All this
collected from sensors and other connected data and its conversion into useful information
devices will be augmented and integrated with commitments to data privacy and security. is what will underpin the process of digitali-
other types of information, including BIM At Autodesk, we understand that addressing zation in the AEC industry. By using modern
design data, to become more ‘interconnected’. data privacy and security concerns is more approaches that take advantage of Artificial
This will likely cause a paradigm shift in the important than ever, and we treat customer Intelligence, Machine Learning, Internet of
geospatial industry, where 2D maps are not the data as a protected asset. Companies must Things and data analytics, we are starting to see
primary output and GIS professionals become deal with customer data responsibly and have the AEC industry capitalize on this abundance
part of engineering and design teams. We are governance, programs and controls in place of data to gain insights to help address the
likely to see more collaborative working, in to drive accountability. It also means that data global social, economic and environmental
which everyone has access to accurate, real- is used for legitimate business purposes that challenges, including demands for construction
time data that is linked to location information, offer benefits to customers. and rehabilitation of buildings and infrastruc-
providing context about the built and natural Autodesk has implemented analytics pro- ture to support the growing population.
environment. In the end, geospatial and AEC grams intended to help us understand how our Automation is needed to help businesses
professionals will be working together to help customers use our products and services, so and society meet the demands of our growing
improve transparency of data collected and we can personalize their experiences and build and urbanizing global population. We recog-
value of such data to the customers. better software. By analyzing usage trends and nize that it also contributes to job disruptions,
patterns, we can optimize current features, and that Autodesk has a responsibility to help
Customer data as protected asset make positive changes for future releases, workers adapt. We are committed to putting
We believe companies can foster innovation provide more useful communications and people at the center of this future of work
while maintaining customer trust though improve performance and quality. transformation.

TopTalk
Geospatial at the in Machine Learning and AI have been incorporated into our
Autonomous Database Platform. The second is how a technological
core of Resource
advancement, specifically persistent memory, is quickly evaluated
for impact and viability and incorporated into our technology often
years ahead of the competition. The IDC and Accenture reports
Management
provide more details on the ML/AI augmented self-managing and
self-healing autonomous database. Geospatial data management and
analytics are a core capability of this database.
Our R&D investment and product development is guided by two
teven Hagan, Vice-President,
S main things — the priorities and pain points of our customers and
Engineering Database, Oracle the creativity and competence of our people and business partners.
One direct result of this is our continued investment and focus on an
D
igitalization has resulted in enormous amounts of data inherently secure and scalable Cloud platform with an integrated set
and consequently in the need for technology to acquire, of solutions for data management, analytics and applications.
access, analyze and act upon information or insights
gleaned from that data. The more valuable information Managing slowdown
and insights, such as those determining or helping decide the next Changes in the geopolitical environment are a constant factor in
best action, have come from data harmonization and exploration the business world. While there are always regional fluctuations
from multiple perspectives. Hence, with continuous innovation, our in business, we are not experiencing any global impact. Efficient
database as well as our Autonomous Data Platform have evolved into use of geospatial and other technologies enables effective resource
a converged infrastructure for efficiently handling diverse work- utilization, be they physical, human, or other resources. Geospatial
loads (such as analytical or transactional) and data types (such as technology in particular helps efficiently and effectively identify,
structured or unstructured, tabular, document, key-value, graph, or access and develop these resources.
spatio-temporal data).
Solutions for Efficient use of

customers
Customers use our
geospatial and other
solutions to solve technologies enables
their most challenging
operational and
effective resource
analytical workflows utilization — physical
and tasks. This helps
them see their data in
or human — to
new ways, discover enhance efficiencies
insights and unlock
endless possibilities.
in workflows
For example, Outfront
Media semi-auto-
mated a previously laborious process of analyzing media spend data
by designated market area (DMA). Consequently, they could assess
various media mix models and effectively identify local and regional
advertisers. Similarly, the US Census Bureau automated significant
portions of its data collection, collation, validation and analysis
processes. This will help them conduct the 2020 Census at a lower
cost and in less time, while meeting their very high standards of
accuracy and privacy.
Embracing change
I would like to cite two examples to highlight the organization wide
focus on embracing change and innovating. The first is how advances

Discover
Spatial Insights
With Oracle’s
Converged Data Platform
Advanced Spatial Features
Designed for Developers
On Premises, in the Cloud and in
Autonomous Database
oracle.com/goto/spatial
TopTalk
How We Monitor Earth the market and creating democratic access to analysis will surface insights and prioritize
ayam Banazadeh,
P
earth insights. Rapid changes in the remote pressing information.
CEO & Founder, Capella Space
sensing world are ushering in an exciting future, Industries will further push the boundaries
where we will access instant knowledge of any of technological capabilities and adoption,
W
e live in an ‘always-on’ location across the globe. including AI, Internet of Things (IoT), Aug-
world. Commercial markets mented/ Virtual Reality, Robotics, autono-
and governments increas- Forecast 2020 mous vehicles and space.
ingly demand real-time Real-time earth observation data
insights about activity on our planet to Governments and enterprises will move past Worldwide monitoring imminent
improve budgets, stay competitive and most data that arrives up to a day late and instead Despite the capability to see anywhere, we
importantly, save lives. Yet most industries use real-time Earth data to make more are unable to see everywhere. Satellites can
still rely on information from legacy elec- informed decisions about everything, from currently provide a scan of a particular spot or
tro-optical satellites that can’t see in the dark natural disaster response to military defense. a strip of land anywhere on the globe, but there
or through cloud cover and take up to a day The Australian wildfires are an especially aren’t enough constellations to provide real-
to deliver mission-critical information. sobering example of how vital real-time time monitoring of everywhere on the planet
Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) holds imagery is to governments and other agen- at once. As more satellites are launched into
tremendous potential for solving the equation cies for responding to natural calamities. SAR
by providing information about any area of satellites can see at night and through cloud
interest on the planet, irrespective of the time of cover and smoke; this type of data in real- As robust networks
the day, remoteness of the location or weather time can help firefighters strategize a combat enable the power
conditions. Historically, legacy companies have plan and predict the fire’s likely path.
been the sole providers of SAR data, though a As robust networks enable the power of of the smartphone,
range of new market the smartphone, real-time insights will spark real-time insights
entrants are world-changing applications that were earlier
now trans- not possible. We will also see the military will spark world
forming access persistent SAR data to monitor rapidly changing applications
changing situations on the ground.
that were earlier
AI, ML to boost change detection not possible
Markets need reliable and persistent moni-
toring from space in all weather and light
conditions, coupled with additional layers of
information as change occurs. High-tempo-
ral-resolution interferometric (InSAR) stacks space, they will provide hourly revisits, giving
can contain tens or even hundreds of images customers access to everywhere on Earth every
— challenging for humans to sort through, hour and delivering game-changing intelli-
but ideal for Machine Learning applications gence about events as they happen.
focused on change detection. The future will move faster than ever, and
In the future, governments will be to power that speed, visibility and data are
alerted when a tank moves from a base or a vital. At Capella Space, we foresee a world in
vessel vanishes from a harbor. It will also be which SAR data is combined with other meas-
possible to detect more subtle changes urements to create near omniscience about
on, say, a bridge to determine the how Earth is operating, helping us to rapidly
amount of decay appearing over identify problems and resolve them. Busi-
time. When combined with nesses will run more efficiently, governments
Artificial Intelligence and will be better informed and first responders
Machine Learning, automatic will save more lives.

PERSISTENT MONITORING
FROM SPACE
Capella Space sets a new standard for high quality, frequent

and timely SAR data to monitor change on our planet.
With flexible imaging modes and the fastest reaction time from
order to tasking to downlink to delivery, we make reliable, 0.5 meter
very high resolution Earth observation more available, accessible
and affordable for governments and businesses.
FREQUENT TIMELY HIGH QUALITY
Up to hourly SAR Real-time tasking 0.5m very

imagery and with rapid delivery high-resolution,
compatible InSAR in 30 minutes low-noise data in
passes or less Spotlight mode
TopTalk
Geospatial Data Must for

More Efficient Society accurately and with higher repeatability. many applications will happen on the mobile
Xiaohua Wen, CEO, Tersus GNSS
This is helping the decision-makers in phone side. As far as Tersus is concerned,
T
he world is always developing optimizing their strategies. Positioning we will have some new app on the Android
and growing, but at different data is always one of the most important platform. We will invest more than double
times, it has different manifes- elements of a Digital Twin, and Tersus in research and development in the coming
tations. The phenomenon of GNSS is dedicated towards providing three years. We will release a more reliable
global recession means that the production high accuracy positioning. and powerful positioning engine and develop
efficiency needs to be boosted. Geospatial We strive to provide cost-effective more solutions to
data and technologies, like highly accurate GNSS centimeter accuracy positioning help our clients
positioning solutions, can contribute to the solutions to our customers. Since more to make their
automation of production. In developed and more applications are relying on work more
countries, in particular, the auto-steering accurate and dependable centimeter efficient.
system is already widely used in agriculture locations, such as agriculture, machine
for seeding, spraying and harvesting. The control, UAV related applications,
automatic control system is also widely used robotic system, etc. We bring in a more
in construction and earth work, like road cost-effective solution, which can help
roller, bulldozer and pile driver. It improves more applications — their creators
the productivity, safety of workers and can think about using high accuracy
quality of work. positioning solutions into the apps. We
Developing countries still have lots of believe that a highly accurate GNSS
infrastructure gaps, as compared to devel- positioning technology will not only be
oped countries. They can benefit more from used in professional industry, but will
new technologies and the experience of the also become part of people’s daily lives.
developed world. We think geospatial data
can bring a cleaner and more efficient society, Changes for the good
especially in developing countries. Since we Today, we see a lot of mobile carriers
are marketing our product globally and the rolling out a centimeter accuracy CORS
business covers almost all parts of the world, system in their mobile base station
we are not feeling the pinch of recession. tower. We see it as a positive signal since
In fact, we see a lot of growth coming from
developing countries, since there will be
more infrastructure construction, which Developing countries
needs geospatial tools. Further, automation
in developed countries also needs position- have lots of infra
ing systems. gaps, as compared to
Innovations benefitting industry developed countries.
Tersus always embraces new technologies. They can benefit from
We think innovations can make the world
better, especially in the geospatial area. As new technologies and
we can already see, the geospatial industry the experience of the
is benefitting from new techniques like
BIM, 3D scan, UAV, etc. These techniques developed world
are helping to digitalize the real world more

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TopTalk
Geospatial Data,
about our innovations, and continually share when we have made
progress towards achieving these goals.
AI Opening New
Technology solutions can and should help to build more resilient
processes and organizations. And resiliency is key in times of eco-
nomic downturn.
Business Avenues
When you are trying to do something that is difficult and others
consider impossible, you end up finding new ways of doing things.
That’s all there is to innovation. We invest in pushing the possibili-
ties of geospatial and satellite technology to help solve some of the
Emiliano Kargieman, CEO, Satellogic
world’s most pressing problems.
T
he volume of data that geospatial imagery and sensors
generate is too extensive for humans alone to process;
therefore, the importance of scalable computing, Machine
Learning and AI for the geospatial analytics industry is
immense. It is essential not only in processing and interrogating vast
amounts of data, but also in generating impactful insights.
Zooming out and looking at the larger geospatial analytics industry,
these same digitalization tools are helping turn data into insights for
customers in widely disparate industries. These tools allow us to lever-
age data to transform industries and make better decisions. Companies
are realizing the power of imagery when paired with AI and starting to
leverage geospatial technologies at an unprecedented rate.
Regulations and 5G
The geospatial analytics industry is global by design, which means that
you have to be able to operate within the regulatory constraints of many
disparate frameworks. Finding a balance between the possibilities of tech-
nology innovation and the realities of regulation is always a challenge.
5G is exciting for many reasons, including location. I think the
most overlooked benefit will be in its ability to provide the geospa-
tial analytics industry with faster data download and upload speeds,
enabling for a tighter integration of the large plethora of data layers
that are constantly being collected, analyzed and synthesized into
insights.
Building trust
Companies should strive to Technology solutions
be good global citizens and can help us build
to operate with transparency
within all the regulatory more resilient
frameworks that exist around processes and
the world. They also need to
ask how they can leverage inno- organizations. And
vation to help improve these resiliency is key in
frameworks to address the chal-
lenges arising from new techno- times of an economic
logical possibilities. Customers downturn
find it difficult to bestow trust
on companies that either
conceal their true objectives or end up departing from their stated
roadmap. We have never played those kinds of games. We are upfront

TopTalk
Embracing Technology Evolution

boosts our customer productivity, making In today’s day and age, extensive use of
George Zhao, CEO, CHCNAV their work more efficient. geospatial data and technologies in a wide
I
n today’s day and age, organic range of applications can achieve remark-
growth, exploring new markets for Investing in R&D for better growth able results. The increasing number of
boosting operations, investing into We are quickly embracing technology smart city and other infrastructure-related
new technologies and upskilling evolution (Cloud-based solutions, AI, Big projects all over the world are creating new
workforce are some of the key focus areas Data, IoT, etc.), as it creates more oppor- qualified jobs and positively impacting
for all companies in the geospatial industry. tunities for us. The integration of many growth in our industries. In addition, the
In an ever-changing business environment, diverse technologies into geospatial sensors continuous democratization of geospatial
these initiatives can ensure steady growth is a strong motivator for companies like technologies in various fields like agricul-
in the near future. CHCNAV to continuously increase their ture, construction, transportation, marine
The digitalization process that we are R&D capabilities and productivity by and many others is a strong contributor to
experiencing today is accelerating the bringing new talented research engineers in more efficient and eco-conscious economic
development of new geospatial technologies their teams. development.
and solutions. Even though this fast pace of From its foundation in 2003, CHCNAV
development is challenging, we believe that it has always invested heavily in core geo-
will improve our organization’s efficiency and spatial technologies, research and devel-
enhance our product management processes. opment. We are extending our financial
Practically, it implies the adoption of IT investments in R&D to keep pace with
solutions (ERP and product marketing) to recruitment of more engineers. At the same
create an effective interaction with our users time, we keep restructuring our organi-
and customers. zation (whenever necessary) to maintain
In such a scenario, solution providers a high level of performance. In a way, we
have no option, but to focus on user needs consider the need for continuous techno-
logical and marketing innovation to be one
of the most important internal priorities.
The digitalization Therefore, we seek to make progress on this
process that we front at every stage of our work.
are experiencing Overcoming economic odds

today is accelerating The uncertainty regarding the global
economic environment is for everyone to
the development see. However, CHC Navigation is a very
of new geospatial resilient company, and the current
economic slowdown does not
technologies affect our growth. In fact, our
and solutions growth has consistently been
above the industry stand-
ards. Our management
system, ongoing market
and the way technologies can address their diversification and
daily concerns. Our product managers and dynamic business
research and development staff are always culture allow us
working with end-users to explore their to face with
factual requirements and match the reality confidence
of their project workflows. The use of 3D more oppor-
scanning platforms (terrestrial, airborne and tunities and
marine) and traditional GNSS solutions challenges.

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TopTalk
greater innovation. It addresses the question

of ‘where’, so we can better fill the experience
gaps and determine what to do about them.
Customers expect seamless and elegant
product experiences. To deliver this, organ-
izations need to be transparent about their
solutions and address the availability, security/
privacy and data quality/lineage.
Overcoming data privacy challenge

Most projects fail because of challenges
related to getting sufficient data, integrating
data and data privacy. However, with the
correct architecture and data management
strategy that takes these challenges into
consideration, organizations can better
maintain innovation. The right foundations
will address problems like data sprawl and
data privacy. By pooling commercial, open
source data from multiple sources and utiliz-
ing anonymization capability within a single
Spatial Data Critical to As robust networks
Intelligent Enterprise
enable the power
of the smartphone,
Matthew Zenus, Global Vice-President, HANA & Analytics, Solution Strategy, SAP
real-time insights
will spark world-
A
utomation driven by Artificial Earning trust in digital world
Intelligence and Internet of Technology bridges the gap between experts,
changing applications
Things improves business departments and other silos. Digitalizing that were earlier
processes that would have businesses eventually means getting all
been time consuming and inefficient. These resources together to follow-up on one
not possible
technologies tremendously increase the business process towards a common goal. As
amount of geospatial data that is produced the digitalization process continues to evolve,
on a daily basis, and therefore, improve organizations need to understand how their data platform, organizations will be able to
decision-making abilities. Incorporating customers and employees are feeling so that develop new and innovative products far
location data and spatial analysis can bring they can deliver better and more personalized more efficiently than they can today.
businesses closer to process optimization experiences. Technology is making it easier It will be critical for companies to adopt
and improve strategic insights, innovations than ever for organizations to do this and a single platform that connects the right
and more. successfully manage experiences with their data with all of the data security and privacy
5G will increase the abilities of IoT and customers, employees, products and brand. capabilities built in directly, such as data
push the movement towards edge computing, Spatial data is a critical part of this experi- anonymization. With this, companies can
which will change how geospatial data gets ence management. It has become a ubiquitous bring in the right experience management
analyzed. Through a clear and defined data and critical data element in today’s Intelligent tools to collect experience data at every
management strategy, organizations will be Enterprise. Customers expect to seamlessly meaningful touchpoint. This will empower
able to collate all data from different sources leverage spatial and enterprise data together to them to analyze and understand customers’
and act on data-driven insights to make better unlock better insights, make more informed feelings regarding the handling of personal
decisions and improve innovations. business decisions and ultimately achieve data and improve customer trust.

TopTalk
LeaderSpeak
Location Integral to Modern Life

Sunil Kumar, CEO, GroundTruth possibility of also using it for e-commerce is other technologies can thrive to create value
on the horizon. for our stakeholders in future. We are watching
C
onnectivity lies at the heart of voice and AI very closely, because as these
digitalization. As 5G comes into Defined regulations for data privacy technologies grow and advance, the possibili-
the picture, its frequency range GroundTruth is pushing for more defined ties for the consumer will be limitless. We are
and implementation will improve data privacy regulations and we welcome also watching Blockchain, as we believe it has
location capabilities via improved shorter a legislation that addresses these concerns. the potential to disrupt the overall ecosystem.
cellphone tower distances, making location Often when we start to see the types of limi- A key objective of our business is to
targeting more accurate. In terms of measuring tations that can come from increased regula- make access to location marketing easier.
offline performance, 5G will allow retailers, tions, we see an increase in creative thinking At GroundTruth, we are looking at the
advertisers and service providers to leverage that pushes us beyond the current mould. future and moving beyond ad targeting and
real-time mobile data to deliver an easier, more To earn trust, companies must keep con- attribution by heavily investing in emerging
engaging and hyper-personalized experience sumer privacy at the forefront of their practices capabilities that are going to push the location
to consumers. and ensure that industry-wide regulations are industry forward. Another core objective of
In addition, 5G will be crucial in driving put in place to protect data privacy. Another our business is to provide intelligence that
Machine Learning integration into data analy- way to build trust is to put transparent data allows brands to develop more efficient acqui-
sis. As enterprises collect more complex data, privacy policies in place that explain how a con- sition and retention strategies — from watch-
predictive analytics will have an enormous sumer’s data is being shared and safeguarded. ing how voice is impacting customers in their
impact on decision-making. Analytics in 5G homes to how new smartphone offerings are
will evolve to learn from context, predict changing the ways consumers shop.
what will happen next and prescribe the best To earn consumer
response. The sheer speed of 5G will allow all trust, companies
this to happen instantaneously.
must keep privacy at
AI to cause paradigm shift the forefront of their
Location Intelligence will be a critical
component to the Internet of Things, as well practices and ensure
as many advanced services like AR/VR, AI that industry-wide
analysis and predictive modeling. Automa-
tion driven by AI will enhance predictive regulations are put in
modeling capabilities. To understand the place to protect privacy
paradigm shift it will cause, we can take, for
example, our recently announced Visit Opti-
mizer in Ads Manager. The new Machine
Learning-powered tool ensures that all types Investment in emerging tech
of campaigns will continually and automat- We are heavily investing in AI, IoT and
ically optimize the best performing tactics, other emerging capabilities, and are
thereby making location marketing easier working towards building a platform that
and accessible to all. is able to better predict store visitation
Location and geospatial technologies behavior across a myriad of channels. One
have become essential to modern life. Con- area that GroundTruth spends time on is
sumers are getting familiar with location as building proprietary — AI-driven targeting
a convenient addition to their lives. Due to tools to drive more efficient performance.
the increased role of digitization in consumer We strongly believe in the potential of loca-
targeting, GroundTruth is staying focused tion marketing, and as a result, we continue to
on building technology and products that invest in all aspects of our platform. There are
drive business performance for clients. The a lot of exciting avenues on which location and

TopTalk
the market. We prefer to focus on our areas of operations, such as

producing accurate geospatial satellite data, providing comprehensive
customer services and exploring more possibilities relevant to the
industry. As we move forward, we are exploring new technologies, new
partners and innovative ways of collaboration.
Digital revolution and geospatial industry

The digital revolution in geospatial contributes to the commercialization
and industrialization of the overall industry. The mainstreaming of our
industry involves various technologies for exploring wider development
angles. For example, SpaceWill applies Cloud-based services for its inter-
national partners. The adoption of Cloud increases data productivity,
user flexibility, apart from enhancing collaboration. The convergence of
multiple technologies such as AI, IoT, Big Data within and outside the
industry brings organic growth for new market explorations. We believe
that this is very important for the realization of digital transformation.
For SpaceWill, customers are always the top priority. We provide
the best and most optimal solutions to our customers in two ways:
accurate geospatial data
based on customer prefer-
ences and customer-centric Geospatial data
services. We provide data brings in the macro
with spatial resolution
ranging from 0.5m to 30m, and micro view of
spectral resolution ranging a specific domain,
from multispectral to hyper-
spectral, with applications in thereby giving a
location analytics, architec- boost to planning and
Tech Integration
ture infrastructure, national
geospatial uses and profes- monitoring
sional user domains.
Paving Way for Research and innovation

Innovative technologies replace or bring efficiency to traditional
Mainstreaming
methods by reducing time and cost, while increasing data accuracy
and user customization. This contributes to positive market growth
and expansion. Furthermore, the emergence of advancements opens
the door for geospatial to be placed in a wider set of applications.
This leads to new business models and brings more opportunities to
Lily Xu, CEO, SpaceWill collaborate and compete within and outside the industry. SpaceWill
welcomes new corporate possibilities with advanced technologies for
G
eospatial data brings in the macro and micro view of a providing best and most optimized solutions to customers.
specific domain, thereby giving a boost to planning and For us, R&D is significant and our research department puts a
monitoring. In the past few years, geospatial has emerged lot of focus in developing geospatial capabilities. In 2019, SpaceWill
in several environmental projects for observing global implemented MSTSpace, a platform providing efficient data man-
changes. One of the projects that we were a part of was about monitor- agement. Specifically, for mass geospatial data, MSTSpace increases
ing the changes in desert due to plantation by SuperView-1. The images productivity by enabling search for specific data. Functions like
captured by the satellite reflect the outcome of continued trees planted “segment, filter, visualize and analyze” help users to faster manage and
in China. This year, we will actively join more environmental projects. customize data based on their preferences. Moreover, MSTSpace can
The economic downturn that the world is talking about today be manipulated stand-alone, online, on public or private Cloud for
occurs in every decade, and there always are factors that influence flexible management.

SuperView-1
Launch time SV-1 01 / 02: 28 Dec.2016
SV-1 03 / 04: 09 Jan.2018
Spatial resolution PAN: 0.5m, MS: 2m (Nadir)
Sensor bands PAN+4MS
Stereo imaging Yes
Revisit time within 1 day/4 satellites
Qatar | SuperView-1 | 0.5m | March 11, 2018
SpaceWill Info. Co., Ltd.

+86 10 581 8811
globalteam@spacewillinfo.com
www.spacewillinfo.com
TopTalk
Leading Innovation vision and data science algorithms that the

customers need. Customers are at the center
to Keep Pace with it

of our operations and we keep striving to
help them gain an edge.
Seeing and doing

The main way in which geospatial technologies
James Crawford, Founder & CEO, Orbital Insight
and data can help governments and businesses
T
echnology has had tremendous such as the ones that turn crude oil into in case of a recession is by enabling them to
impact in our lives. Satellites and useable fuel of gasoline. see — from home construction to automo-
space hardware have become bile production. We have a lot of data which
cheaper, so it’s possible for Exploring new datasets we can pass on to our partners and based on
companies like Planet to launch 50 satellites In the last year we launched our geospatial which they can determine whether there is a
at a time. DigitalGlobe is planning its new platform, allowing customers to harness slowdown and can respond accordingly.
fleet and so is Airbus — all of this is quite multiple data sources in one single place — AI has massive potential to do good in
exciting. Today, there are many more data creating insights that are more powerful than the world, whether it is rooted in sustaina-
sources — radar, radio frequency, cell phone any single data source in isolation. SAR, for bility, economic development, or keeping
GPS, and millions of connected devices. example, can monitor at night and even see the peace and saving lives. And it’s not just
There is too much geospatial data for people through the clouds. Cell phone geolocation our values, but our tech-
to look at image-by-image, ping-by-ping. We provides a daily view into traffic patterns. nology is designed
are very close to a stage — though we are still for social good.
not there — in which we will have the whole We don’t work
world’s imagery every day. Geospatial technology on collecting or
providing data on
can help governments
Javad ad
Knowing things about our world
Technology is foundational to what we do.
The world is moving into a new industrial
and businesses in
individuals. We
always deal with
aggregate data.
revolution. At Orbital Insight, we help
case of a recession
prepare organizations for these changes by enabling them to
with new ways to access information and
identify the economic and societal trends.
see — from home
Our customers can see several types of construction to
things — the result of a drone attack at
Aramco and aftershock in the global energy
automobile production
markets; or how deforestation impacts
downstream food companies. You can pull
all of that out of geospatial data with the Customers can use AIS data to under-
help of Artificial Intelligence. stand more about commodity production
One of the applications that our clients and shipments, as opposed to second or
use is in agribusiness sustainability. Food third hand information. When it comes to
companies are working to source their innovation, we keep pace by leading it. At
commodities, such as palm oil and soy, Orbital Insight, we have a team that evaluates
more ethically. These crops are some of the every raw geospatial data source that can be
leading factors in global deforestation and we enhanced by AI and Machine Learning. This
can help navigate the world’s most complex effectively means that our customers can ask
supply chains — tracking warehouses, ports, us anything in the world and we will have
trucks and farms to identify suppliers they datasets to answer those questions.
didn’t know about. Visibility is the first step Our source-agnostic approach allows cus-
towards sustainability. tomers to spend more time accessing insights
We also help energy companies and and less time evaluating data sources. Our
financial institutions track global refineries, strong R&D arm produces new computer

TopTalk
LeaderSpeak
Personalization
of Technologies
Creating New
Markets
Michael Jones, Senior Executive & Advisor, Niantic
One of the trends

that have had a
T
he great thing about modern in the Americas. So, if you were a 12-year-old,
technology is that it has become you wouldn’t be scared away from it. huge impact on
personal. Your mobile phone is
geospatial industry
the extension of the entire Inter- AI as the answer
net and all electronics and computing. Every- The geospatial industry certainly needs Arti- is the advent of new
body is connected, not just to other people, ficial Intelligence. For decades, governments
global data sources
which the telephone allowed, but to the facts were trying to launch better satellites and
about the entire world. You have companies get more data. In the last 10 years, they have from small satellites
like Amazon telling you that the product you collected loads of data, but they don’t know
purchased would be delivered to your door- how to find what they need. So, finding the
step by 3 pm tomorrow. If you think about all picture you want from all the pictures you
the logistics involved in satisfying that order, have is the problem. This is exactly the issue are ultimately important because it is all
it’s quite remarkable. Today, transactions are with several large organizations. AI can be about people. I think the problem lies
completed and sales conversations are held the answer to this puzzle. in the way people think about the issue.
with the entire logistical chain instantly. It’s But then there is this problem of data gap People agree to things they don’t under-
an entirely new world. and all of us should be concerned about it. stand and companies express those things
People who use the Internet don’t feel guilty in vague ways. Towards the end, people
Impactful trends about the people who don’t have access. I don’t understand what’s happening and
One of the trends that have had a huge have not seen anybody crying about that. So, feel cheated.
impact on the geospatial industry is the in general, the people who need help (access) The way you can start building trust
advent of new global data sources from small are usually invisible to the people who could with customers is through interactions and
satellites. Small satellites are made by small help. In my personal opinion, their invisibil- assurances. You have to be upfront about
teams of startups or college students. So, ity means that they are not getting help. Most what you will and won’t do, say that we
there is new thinking in space that wasn’t companies don’t have the budget for doing can do this, but can’t do that. People don’t
there, and that is a big deal. Secondly, the nice things for people. Yes, the technology live forever, companies don’t live forever,
facility to access large amounts of data could be shared, and it makes a lot of differ- everything is moving around. So, if you
through happenstance of those data holders ence. And yes, it is shameful that half of the have done business with somebody that
using cloud computing is a trend that has planet has something the other half does not. changed to somebody else, what happens
been impactful. to things you did before? What happens to
The third one is a cultural trend around Understanding privacy concerns the understandings that was there before?
the idea of being a science person or engineer I strongly believe that data collection and There can be laws around those questions to
becoming ‘cool’. It’s like the STEM education exploitation is great. But privacy concerns address problems.

TopTalk
Real-time Understanding growth and move the state of geospatial

technology forward.
of Massive Datasets Privacy-first for users

New technology must be “privacy-first” for
the world and destroy jobs. However, it will stakeholders to continue to place their trust in
Jonathan Neufeld, CEO, TECTERRA
radically transform the way people work companies. The next decade will see a major
D
igitalization has reduced friction and will be a force multiplier in what we are shift in the way technology businesses handle
and accelerated interaction time. already doing. It is a shift from shovels to the issue of privacy. People are becoming
This means the analyses that backhoes, strengthening and enabling human more aware of the need for privacy and are
used to take days or months, can workforce to accomplish more than what we more willing to make choices that support
now be completed in hours. The downside have ever done. maintaining privacy. We can already see this
to digitalization is the mindset that “if it’s Once 5G fully becomes a part of this shift, as users abandon major social platforms.
not digital, it doesn’t exist”. There is a huge transformative process, it will have a major Even in the digital world, our relation-
opportunity to utilize the many historical impact on the way we create and consume ships are created on a person-to-person level
data assets that only exist in analog format. geospatial data. High data rates with low and trust is built the way it always has. Trust
If we incorporate this into the digital latency will mean that we will be able to is earned when you act with integrity, com-
mindset, we end up with incredibly precise move data to the Cloud faster and more passion and the intent to deal honestly with
models or outcomes. effectively, which will enable better process- your fellow humans.
Contrary to the perception of the main-
stream media, this decade of automation Growing in recession
and Artificial Intelligence will not take over
New technology must In the innovation business, slowdowns are in a
be “privacy-first” way “good times”. Most successful businesses
are created during slower periods, when
for stakeholders opportunities on the margins become more
to continue to attractive and people are more willing to take
chances. This downturn is notable because the
place their trust in tools to enable entrepreneurship are low cost
companies and ubiquitous, meaning anyone can make a
bet at low risk. I encourage everyone to look
at opportunities on the margins, where there
is a niche that no one else is attacking, and
ing and accuracy. This will lead to real-time consider whether it could multiply growth
understanding of massive raw datasets. tenfold over the next decade.
Geospatial technology can help us
Investing in R&D understand how people travel through their
As a non-profit dedicated to communities, their cities and the world.
supporting innovation in companies, This understanding can lead to optimizing
we are seeing a trend of continued our spending on infrastructure, social pro-
investment in R&D. Companies are grams, and the key areas to improve quality
using the historic low interest rates of life for everyone.
and high awareness of digital geospa-
tial technology to drive forward on Getting right mix of skillset
big opportunities. Today, technology Currently, we are seeing companies hire
has become the main intermediary people with a broad range of skills, and
between customers and businesses, each of these people engages with geospa-
and the former expect a positive tial in a unique way. More than ever, we
and near-effortless interaction. The need to think at a systems level to ensure
companies that we support are work- that we have specialists as well as general-
ing on innovative technologies and ists to allow companies to operate at their
businesses that will create jobs, enable highest efficiency.

TopTalk
Data Powering Digitalization However, despite the enormous availability of data, only 5% of
Max Polyakov, CEO, EOS Data Analytics the EO imagery ends up being used because there are still many
barriers preventing industry from making remote sensing tools
D
igital transformation will continue to take place in nearly useful for everyone.
all industries and processes that govern them. Industry Our mission is to completely remove these barriers as soon as
leaders need detailed and up-to-date industry-specific possible. EOS is simplifying access to geospatial data and develop-
information in order to optimize their management ing new data processing tools in an effort to accelerate growth of
processes for the digital era. In fact, many industries require more this nascent industry. We make complex problems simple, so that
processing and managed workflows, in part, using geospatial informa- anyone can access remote sensing services that were once available
tion systems. to only the most wealthy governments and corporations.
At the same time, geospatial information systems are unfamiliar EOS Data Analytics has been in the market since 2015 and has
to most industrial enterprises. Therefore, it is important to provide undergone significant transformations during this time, develop-
them with fast and easy access to open and proprietary datasets and ing both SaaS products and corporate solutions. However, all our
to equip them with user-friendly geospatial data processing tools. products increases the value of the data by showing more insights
about the data.
All that data
Increased data availability inspires develop- The industry shift
ment of new applications thereby increasing It is important to In the IT market, geospatial is now moving
the demand for even more geospatial data. from multifunctional to intelligent tools,
provide the industry and our company is keeping up with the
with easy access to trends. Innovation, which is the engine
of our business, is being implemented in
open and proprietary all areas: from the technical environment
datasets and to equip (cloud solutions) to business models and
workflows. This includes the active use of
them with user- IoT, or HD Maps. At the core of our prod-
friendly geospatial ucts is the use of Artificial Intelligence to
enhance decision making based on a variety
data processing tools of datasets.
The main task in this environment is to
be able to turn the most valuable meth-
ods and technologies into innovations. We are already laying the
groundwork for streaming data processing in the 5G era.
At a time when business is still focused on only data and infor-
mation, we are focusing on knowledge. Our systems are designed to
meet today’s key challenges for the industry by delivering beyond
basic reporting and by enhancing the customer’s decision-making.
This enables us to grow our business today and expand our growth
into the future.
EOS is a vertically integrated company and the creation of
geoservices and satellite data analytics is only the tip of the
iceberg. One of the company's areas of focus is the creation of
its own satellite constellation with SAR technology and optical
spacecraft that will work together to meet the market require-
ments. It will also provide great maneuverability in the selection
of initial data. The EOS satellite constellation will consist of 12
satellites, which will allow the high-frequency of repeated visits
to a given area of the Earth's surface.

POWER UP
YOUR DECISIONS
WITH
EO IMAGERY!
Huge volumes of data, processed with EOS proprietary algorithms,
on-the-fly analytics, scalable solutions on a contractual basis
EOS.COM
EOS TECHNOLOGY
Crop Monitoring – High-resolution Images – EOS Platform API LandViewer – an online

advanced ag solution a stand-alone “view only” brings a wide range of GIS-assistant to search
for efficient field data source for fast and high-quality analytics and process satellite data
monitoring. easy access to the latest to users and allows on the fly.
high-res images. integrating it into
third-party tools.
For more details

Visit eos.com
Contact info@eos.com
TopTalk
Geospatial Data for an Application of
Interconnected World
technologies such as
AI & ML to critical
infrastructure must
Mark Heine, CEO & Chairman of Board, Fugro be accompanied by
scrupulous attention
F
or some time now, the geospatial exist and are contributing to more efficient
industry has witnessed a continual asset management, as well more sustainable to cyber security and
flow of technological advance- world. Reducing accidents on roads and rail,
ments, and it is sometimes difficult lowering the risk of electricity networks spark-
data privacy
to keep track of all the developments. ing bush fires, and minimizing unplanned
In a crowded landscape, how can businesses maintenance in industrial processing plants
decide which technologies will make a differ- are just some examples of what the new
ence to their operations? Adoption of new tech- sophisticated geosolutions are bringing today. nologies such as Machine Learning and
nology, such as the Internet-of-Things, Machine Artificial Intelligence to critical infrastruc-
Learning, Robotics and Artificial Intelligence, is Electricity utilities go digital ture must be accompanied by scrupulous
not a goal in itself. As an industry, it is our duty Currently, the most disrupted industry is the attention to cyber security and data privacy.
to help our clients navigate these developments electricity utility industry. Electricity utilities Our future goes well beyond the provision
to solve their challenges and support their stra- are being challenged to accelerate the transition of data. We must unlock insights from
tegic objectives, while passing on the benefits to to an energy supply chain that is carbon-free, Geo-data by providing integrated digital
society as a whole. efficient, digital and distributed. Clients, solu- solutions that serve our clients’ purpose
tion-providers and utilities are moving towards and society as a whole.
Geo-data is key to asset mgmt a service-oriented platform that allows them
Owning large and complex assets on land and to participate in an open energy marketplace
at sea, our clients play a critical role in society that supports our rapidly changing world
by ensuring safe, reliable and affordable access with a fast-growing population, high rate of
to energy, and the transportation of people and urbanization, greater economic prosperity and
goods. Yet these assets are under increasing a strengthening call for climate resilience.
strain due to the combined effects of a growing Built more than 60 years ago, today’s
world population, increasing urbanisation, electricity infrastructure is under increasing
and climate change. Additional challenges strain. Add to that an ageing workforce,
facing asset owners include ageing assets and a increasing demands from tech-savvy clients,
gradual loss of local knowledge due to a retiring and price pressures from new competition:
workforce that is not being replaced. in this landscape, existing, disconnected and
When it comes to critical infrastructure, disparate asset datasets create a knowledge
traditional asset-condition assessment and gap that prevents utilities from effectively
management are often inadequate at dealing serving their clients. Today’s utilities can
with these increasing challenges. Under- close this gap by implementing the latest
standing where the assets are, assessing remote-sensing technologies combined with
their condition and predicting how they cloud-computing, automation, artificial
will evolve in a dynamic environment are intelligence, immersive visualizations and
essential to better risk management. Through advanced data analytics. They can utilize
accurate Geo-data and artificial intelligence, these geosolutions to build 4D representa-
we hold the key to providing asset owners with tions of T&D networks that form the nucleus
new digital ways of working that allow clients of a digital twin for use across their business
to design and develop more resilient assets and to connect disconnected datasets and under-
extend the life of existing ones. pin their digitization strategy.
Such Geo-data driven solutions already The application of powerful tech-

TopTalk
LeaderSpeak
Being On-board with Consumers

zation, location has been the missing piece in this planet, where they travel, shop, dine, live
homas Walle
T understanding the consumers. It is only in the and work. We have built multiple
CEO & Co-founder, Unacast
last five years that the data has become avail- insights in the form of datasets
able at scale and companies like ours are trying for clients in retail, real estate
C
loud, Artificial Intelligence and to interpret this and build knowledge out of it. and city planning. Our goal
Machine Learning are among the is to democratize access to
top trends that will go on to shape Democratized access location data and make it
the future of the geospatial industry. Unacast is a full stack location data and easily accessible, particularly
Location is a massive dataset to work with, but analytics company, which means that we for data teams, analysts and
it really helps and has catalyzed many innova- understand how people have been around on product teams. Since location
tions. We can understand billions of geospatial data is inherently inaccurate,
signals in a very short timeframe with the help you need a specialized
of AI and Machine Learning. company to take those
We can understand
billions of raw location
Use of location billions of geospatial data signals and build
We always get a question around providing a dataset that can
signals quickly with
real-time location. Right now, we see that the be used. We have
most use cases for location have a historical the help of AI and customers from
look back. Companies want to see what retail, real
Machine Learning
happened last month or three months ago. estate and
Verticals like real estate and retail only look at a marketing.
year on year analysis. In the world of digitali-
AI, ML Explosion will

be the Game Changer
Javier de la Torre, Founder & CSO, CARTO
T
echnologies like Artificial Intel- That is what I see happening in the next few
ligence and Machine Learning years. It’s not about replacing, it’s about as-
will enable wider audience to sisting new types of users to get access to the
get access to space analytics and type of analysis that wasn’t accessible before.
insights. Assisted processes through software In the coming years, Automated Machine
created by Machine Learning will enable us- Learning will expand the user base of spatial
ers to run sophisticated models on their data. analytics by making it more accessible. Primary users
Data scientists or analytics teams are the
Geospatially aware primary users for CARTO. These teams are
Automated Machine In 2020, we will see the full explosion of responsible for forming customer anal-
Learning is what we AI for driving business processes. And ysis within the organization. So, they will
that’s a real game changer for us and for our leverage CARTO to improve the perfor-
are going to be seeing customers in terms of the type of solutions mance and simplify their spatial analysis
in the coming years that we can and will be providing. It will also that they do for others. We also work
lead to better data and better analysis, and directly with business users with end-to-end
will democratize access. solutions.

TopTalk
Supporting Connectivity Worldwide

Barry Matsumori, CEO, BridgeComm
Doing a good job
T
here are various schools of thoughts aboutcations. Our
how technology is used overall in businesscustomers
of determining
and society, and one of the key tools to have seen the technology trends is
enable the advancement of technology is need for their
the digitalization process. Further, there is a thought that
applications
part of a tech firm’s
digitalization allows the representation of items in theto support responsibility
analog world to be modeled and then used for various data rates into
applications. That modeling is essential to provide the the tens of
capabilities that technology advances promise. gigabit per second rate or just as importantly, a short dwell time
available to do data up and downloads.
Technology trends Overall, OWC enables a complementary solution to RF
BridgeComm is focused on optical wireless communi- that supports the broader growth of connectivity worldwide.
cations (OWC) primarily through lasers for terrestrial, Meanwhile, computational power continues to increase at a
air and space environments. All our customers are lower cost per bit/second. We are witnessing a fast-changing
looking for progressively higher data rates in wireless technology environment, but for a technology company,
communications. Certainly, RF-based solutions exist, thinking ahead of the convention is a normal part of business.
but there are limits to throughputs possible. Further, Doing a reasonable job of determining technology trends is
OWC provides the added benefit of secure communi- part of a tech company’s responsibility.
The Revolutionizing Third Dimension

T
he world we live in is three di-
Ganesh Pattabiraman, CEO, NextNav
mensional. However, the location
and geospatial world has so far
The benefits of the
been two dimensional. Soon, this third dimension will
will change, as the Federal Communications
Commission (FCC), which is responsible for
include the ability to
establishing rules of operation for wireless find callers who dial
carriers in the US, has established a metric of
‘3m’ (or 9ft) for finding people in the vertical
911 even vertically
dimension (Z axis) when they dial 911. This
would come into effect in April 2021.
The new requirements will have a who dial 911 not just horizontally, but also
transformational effect on the location and vertically. Tests conducted by firefighters in
geospatial industry. This will be similar to San Francisco allowed them to locate the
the original horizontal (X/Y) requirement emergency caller nearly ten times faster when
that FCC imposed on wireless carriers in they had altitude information.
2000, which led to the introduction of GPS
chipsets into cell phones and the subse- Fresh challenges
quent creation of applications ranging In this new three dimensional paradigm,
from Google Maps and Uber to powerful there are challenges and opportunities: We
new analytical capabilities based on geo- don’t have all the answers right now but as
spatial data. these building blocks come into place, I am
Some of the benefits of this new dimen- confident we as an industry would be able to
sion will include being able to find callers address all challenges.

TopTalk
LeaderSpeak
Wireless Location Gets

Indoors and in 3D
Manlio Allegra, President & CEO, Polaris Wireless
W
hen talking about the state buildings and other structures to create accu-
of the location technology rate 3D representations of the entire envi-
industry, I always say “the ronment. Like the generation of maps before
world is not flat.” This it, this advancement will require significant
phrase is a play on the title of the book by investment, but the payoff will be enormous
Thomas Friedman, advocating the theory for any company that seamlessly traverses the
that the spread of personal computer usage divide between indoor and outdoor mapping.
and fiber optic cable deployment has enabled The industry seems to recognize this, as tech-
workflows across nations, essentially flattening nologies are evolving at a rapid pace.
the world. However, it also literally implies Polaris Wireless has been the global
that the physical world is, of course, not flat, leader in software-based wireless location
and that we should not be satisfied with solutions since 2001, with a deep technical
applications that only serve a two-dimen-
sional world. The location industry has so far our algorithms to leverage all available data to
addressed just a fraction of 3D use cases using All players in the generate the best location estimate.
location technology and geospatial analytics.
Take mapping, for example. The digitiza-
ecosystem must Mission-critical applications
tion of maps has made a huge difference in the acknowledge the reality The initial impetus for high-accuracy indoor
way we live, work and play. Twenty years ago, location is the needs of the public safety
maps were largely inaccurate, frequently out-
of a 3D world and work community. When lives are at stake, first
dated, and with no way to interactively reflect towards serving this responders require more and more accuracy,
changes to the actual landscape. Digitization as they do not want to waste time trying to
changed all that, but only after billions of
new market locate the person who is in desperate need
dollars of investment and years of technology of help. They need better accuracy indoors
innovation. We now have highly-interactive, and, in some cases, outdoors. This is a hugely
up to date maps such as Mapbox, Google patent portfolio. We have made accurate 3D positive trend for Polaris Wireless, since we
Maps and HERE Maps. Yet even these do wireless location a reality, revolutionizing also serve national security agencies, which
not fully reflect the 3D world we live in, and the way location is used in real time, in every always ask for more and more accurate
hardly ever illustrate the indoor environment environment, and in every situation. Our location for a variety of reasons. These are
in which we spend most of our time. 3D mobile location is built on top of two technologies that require a lot of investment
decades of wireless location innovation and and patience, but provide a huge potential to
Why indoor matters research. We are continuously evolving our serve new markets and improve business and
The next step in mapping is the digitization of wireless location technology and enhancing consumer applications.
3D Mobile Location Solutions for a Three Dimensional World

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Polaris Wireless is making accurate 3D wireless location a reality, launching a revolution

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research backed by an extensive patent portfolio. Accurate software-based 3D mobile
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Move beyond a flat world, contact your 3D Location Innovator today info@polariswireless.com
www.polariswireless.com
TopTalk
Geospatial can Positively

Impact Every Industry
Christopher Richins, CEO & Founder, RBC Signals
D
igitalization and automation Providing best value to customers
generate larger datasets that can Geospatial technology has the potential
feed AI and IoT applications. to positively impact nearly every industry
This leads to new applications around the globe. We believe that we have We have only
in change detection, anomaly detection and only scratched the surface of the productivity
predictive analytics that increase the overall and efficiency gains that can be realized scratched the surface
value the industry can provide. This new through the application of geospatial data. of the gains that can
paradigm shift builds upon existing qualita- The potential for new services to be provided
tive analysis and adds quantitative analysis in sectors that may not be traditional users be realized through
to the mix. of geospatial data can have a material impact geospatial data
In a dynamic environment like the one in reducing the magnitude and duration of a
we are witnessing, companies can main- potential recession.
tain innovativeness while addressing data
privacy concerns. I would point to Apple as Connecting with customer of our business. We are always looking for
a great example. Apple continues to bring The investments RBC Signals makes in life-long learners and employees who both
additional innovative products and capa- innovation are completely aligned with our embrace change and want to be change
bilities to the market, while addressing end customers’ needs. Likewise, our customer agents. Flexibility and adaptability are essen-
users’ privacy concerns. needs are aligned with the core objectives tial characteristics for success.
AI Potential is Still Underutilized

Max Gulde, CEO, ConstellR
Power of information
W
e are currently witnessing an
avalanche of data, and only from satellite data to
AI, Machine Learning (ML) the right users will
and Big Data are capable
of handling this massive information influx. make our lives a lot
However, the paradigm shift in this industry simpler
is yet to happen. The potential of AI and ML
is still underutilized and there would be a
large acceleration in the future with the rise in
technological awareness. global observations with amazing detail. This
Just like smartphones, where users do not means that we can assess certain information
have to be aware of the underlying technol- of, for example, 1.4 B hectares of agricul-
ogy to use it, there would be a big boost in ture area worldwide in a single day without
data handling capability, once these technol- having to walk through every single field.
ogies become mainstream. When everybody If we achieve to pass this observational /
is able to use AI, ML, and Big Data, that’s information power on to those who can use
when the big shift is going to happen. it, this will make their life a lot simpler and
With geospatial technology and satellite cheaper, and even minimize the effects of an
data, we have the opportunity to perform economic slowdown.

TopTalk
LeaderSpeak
Working with Full

Innovation Approach
lexandre Pestov
A New focus
Founder & CEO, vGIS When we entered the market in 2017, our core
focus was on the municipal utility space. Lately,
O
ur area of work is all about due to the new components released for our
innovation. The product we are system, we have gained traction in the AEC
building is innovation. For us, industry. In the AEC niche, the cost of mistakes
innovation underpins everything. is high, both in terms of money and delays, so
We design new tools with the latest technolo- you have to optimize the time the engineers
gy. What we build impacts other businesses. and other professionals spend on site and
We are the “last mile” of the “Digital Twin” monitor how they perform their duties. Today,
chain. Our technology lets our customers most of our clients come from the AEC space.
view spatial data for their “Digital Twins” in tify 3D objects represented through GIS-like
an easy-to-understand format both in the schematics and convert them into BIM-like
field and in office, helping them make better In the AEC niche, the models in real time.
decisions. The tools we create didn’t exist Geographically, about 40% or our cli-
five years ago, and today they have a positive
cost of mistakes is high entele comes from the US and Canada, and
and measurable impact on productivity and in terms of money and the remaining 60% from Western Europe
accident avoidance. and Australia. Surprisingly, the most active
vGIS is the specialist in visualizing spatial
delays, so you have to countries, relative to their size, are Australia
data. We even refer to ourselves as aug- optimize the time spent and the Netherlands. These countries have
mented reality ‘specialist’. What sets us apart enormous demand for geospatial technology,
from other companies working with either
on site and monitor and they are adopting it quickly.
visualization tools or spatial data is the focus. the construction
Many companies out there let you take digital Expansion and reinvention
data and wrap it in a web interface or an app.
workflows In the AEC space, vGIS is currently used
We specialize in creating practical augmented during the post-design phases of the asset life
reality and mixed reality applications pow- cycle: from construction to operations. We
ered by spatial data. Our goal is to take BIM, We can process both 3D objects and object finalized an intensive development roadmap,
GIS and other spatially-referenced informa- components that represent infrastructure, parts of which we are going to unveil this
tion and bring it into the extended reality (an even if they are combined into a single model. year. We want vGIS to be a single tool that
umbrella term for AR, MR and VR), so that Our system can consume BIM models and accommodates the visualization needs of the
people in the office can make better decisions show these models to scale and in the “bird’s AEC space across the full spectrum of the
and those in the field can avoid accidents and eye” view mode using Mixed and Augmented asset life cycle: from planning to design to
get the job done with less time. Reality. At the same time, the system can iden- construction and operations.
TopTalk
fundamentally advance 3D geospatial. We

think that there is so much potential for 3D
geospatial that the industry players need to
work together, and we are facilitating this
by building Cesium to be the open platform
that can serve as the DNA for the rest of the
industry, as well as investing in the creation or
adoption of open standards to allow interop-
erability. As a company, we are investing very
heavily in R&D.
Our core objective is to realize the
potential of 3D geospatial data. Since this
data is by nature fundamentally complex and
three-dimensional, our mission demands that
we innovate at every step.
Acting responsibly to build trust

As technologists, we have a responsibility to
take data privacy into
account with every
Technology advancement we make.
Trust is earned by
advancements continuously doing the
Exploring True
driving the uptake right thing. Cesium was
first developed in 2011
of 3D geospatial and earned trust as an
are proliferation
Potential of
open source project
with a lot of transpar-
of sensors and the ency. As our company
increase in computing
3D Geospatial
grows, we will
continue serving our
power customers, creating and
supporting open stand-
ards and educating the
Patrick Cozzi, CEO, Cesium ed at faster rates and in higher resolution. next generation of geospatial experts.
When we think about the proliferation
T
he digital transformation that of sensors, IOT, edge computing, cloud Moving forward
is sweeping across industries is computing and GPUs to build 3D models, the We need to stay focused on our mission to
driving incredible interest in our key piece that brings all these together is the advance 3D geospatial and put data to work
work. Construction, real estate, conduit through which data moves. 5G will in the world. In the face of a global recession,
aerospace, autonomous vehicles and other increase our bandwidth exponentially. It is the the use of geospatial technology and the
industries that rely on information from the advancement that will allow us to realize the tools to interpret that information can help
physical world need software to make sense potential of all this data. On the dissemination users save money and make more efficient
of their 3D geospatial data to make better de- side, 5G will lead to richer experiences on use of time.
cisions. Some of the technological advance- devices like cellphones. Using formats like 3D Even now, a lot of GIS analysts need to
ments driving this trend are proliferation Tiles to stream content, you can now bring employ a manual or semi-manual process
of sensors, be it cellphone cameras, drones, higher resolution, more accurate and more to tag information and images. The ability
or LIDAR, and the increase in computing visually pleasing content to more users. to have trained AI models that can do this
power that allows us to create 3D models of with high accuracy and speed will improve
the world. These days, 3D geospatial is more Innovating at every step efficiency, lower the cost of semantic data
available than ever, and data is being collect- At its core, Cesium’s mission is to and make data dissemination faster.

TopTalk
Geospatial By Default As the technology
is the New Paradigm advances to IoIT,

sensors and edge
Sreeramam GV, CEO, NeoGeoinfo Technologies devices will become
D
igitalization itself was an just things), sensors and edge devices will ubiquitous, making
effect of evolution of certain become ubiquitous, making data collection
technologies, else all products, (type, frequency, speed and accuracy) easy.
data collection easy
services and processes would Similarly, the next in line is 5G, which offers
have stayed manual. Technology in its cur- many more exciting opportunities. Gone are
rent wave is challenging, and is enhancing the days of geospatial playing meta data, it is bringing higher efficiencies in handling
experience of service providers as well as by default now. Geospatial by default is the customer service activities.
customers. As a service provider, there are “new paradigm”. For instance, for our state power and
various technological tools available to do other utility companies, we are geotagging
work quickly, efficiently and accurately. For Playing across sectors their assets — from substations to house-
example, as part of one of our offerings, Large projects, which have impact on hold connection via distributive transform-
we convert LiDAR/ drone output, satellite multiple verticals, are slow in taking off, ers — so that they can find which line has
imagery, or other sources of maps into which is a definite area of concern. However, complaints, how quickly to restore the power
digital data, which means an interactive along with innovation, another lever for and many more interesting possibilities.
map that allows to add additional attributes, staying relevant in this era is playing across This can help the O&M (operations and
or measure various object sizes, including multiple sectors, sizes and domains, which maintenance) teams to focus their efforts in
land parcels. This is a critical design input are all hedged in some way. That is how, a identifying the exact location of the problem
for various cross-country infrastructure downturn in one or more sectors will be and then addressing it quickly.
projects, starting from highways, railways, cushioned by another. With large projects Similarly, we are geo-enabling the proper-
transmission lines, gas pipelines and metro going slow and some players in the market ties for municipalities and other urban local
train networks. making desperate attempts to win the deals, bodies. With our solutions, their revenue
Higher resolution datasets (point clouds) not only individual players, but (reputation collection has at least doubled.
coupled with Artificial Intelligence/ Deep of) the entire industry is impacted. We don’t
Learning technologies know how long this trend will continue, Empowering customers
are used to build because these players not being able to Customers are at the core of whatever we do.
the Digital deliver the projects might also stunt the One of the use cases is around designing the
Twin, address- whole thinking process of customers. Like I safe city/integrated traffic management solu-
ing the asset said before, the choices are many and costs of tions. We are empowering the (designing,
management switching is not high. commissioning, operations and mainte-
and opera- If large projects are slowing, we have nance) teams by providing the complete
tional main- another bucket with multiple small ges- solution (including software) that allows
tenance tation projects. Currently, this is helping them to seamlessly define, commission and
issues. As our cash flow. Also, our innovation and use the (as built) maps for maintenance.
the technol- technology wing is continuously focused on
ogy advances a completely different range of products that Innovating to survive
to IoT (while can help us in keeping our investors excited. A set of technologies coming together is
I would prefer Yes, the going is tough, but as the say, that’s making the solution space exciting. We are
IoIT, Intelligent when ‘the tough get going’. Geospatial tech- now talking about specific sensors, IoIT
Things, and nologies and solutions are hugely benefiting and 5G, with every layer adding and driving
not operational maintenance of companies. innovation. In this age of technology, any
By becoming an asset management system enterprise that doesn’t innovate will be out
(visibly) and providing predictive decision of business. For organizations having a high
support, these systems reduce opera- trajectory of growth, like ours, the invest-
tional (and maintenance) expenses, ment in R&D is up to 20%.

Navigate Geospatial World Confidently
MAP Real World Experience
Spatial Data Acquisition, Creation & Extraction
GNSS/ CORS, Positioning as a Service
Satellite Imagery, Aerial Photography
Survey with 3600 Video
LiDAR & GPR, BIM
MODEL
Deep Domain Knowledge
Spatial Data Processing, Integration & Analysis
3D Modeling/ Reality mesh (DEM/ DTM) MANAGE
Image & Point Cloud Interpretation
(LiDAR/ GPR/ BIM Processing) for
Superior Outcomes
Power Transmission, Utilities (OFC, Gas), Urbanization Visualization, Decision Support & Maintenance
Smart Cities, Highways. Data Dissemination Tools and Platforms
Enterprise Geospatial Systems
Asset Management and O&M
Integration with Legacy Platforms and Solutions
GIS is a key differentiator in solving business problems. But a run of the mill GIS solution without
domain understanding isn’t much of an advantage.
NeoGeoInfo brings 15+ Years of rich experience in providing Geospatial solutions with 100+
engineers, expertise on cutting edge technologies and quality focus to provide actionable
insights and specific business outcomes to help customers.
When you attempt a GIS project next, talk to NeoGeoInfo to feel the difference.
NeoGeoInfo Technologies Pvt. Ltd.

(Formerly known as Geoinfosys Technologies)
Map Model Manage
NeoGeoInfo Technologies Pvt. Ltd.

Delhi: 82A, 1st Floor, Udyog Vihar Phase – IV, Gurugram, Haryana – 122015. Tel No: 0124-4211101/ 02. Mobile: +91 8287 993 694
Hyderabad: 12-2, 2nd Floor, Mirra Kamshetty Complex, Bapu Nagar,Amberpet, Hyderabad - 500013. Mobile: +91 9885 069 780
email:info@NeoGeoInfo.com | www.NeoGeoInfo.com
TopTalk
Exploring Power Thankfully, the
of Geospatial Data
Earth Observation
data market is
digitizing at an
James Slifierz, CEO & Co-Founder, SkyWatch accelerated pace
D
ata is everywhere. It can be found at all market and lowering the industry
stages of the value chain and in every dependence on government and defense contracts
industry. And geospatial data is no different SkyWatch provides automated access to satellite data
from other datasets. Without automation to to application developers via EarthCache™ platform. Over
index, catalog, and process, the glut of data generated by the last few years, we’ve seen a massive appetite for geospa-
the growing number of sensors in orbit, IoT devices and tial data from new customers in the commercial sector. But
organizations cannot meaningfully unlock insights from despite smaller budgets, newer clients can have extremely
geospatial datasets. high expectations around data quality, demanding 100%
Thankfully, the Earth Observation data market is accuracy, 100% of the time and that data be delivered on
digitizing at an accelerated pace. Between cloud computing time, every time. If Amazon can offer same-day delivery,
advances and the introduction of AI/ML to data cataloging why can’t the geospatial industry do the same?
and processing, the acquisition and distribution of satellite We offer satellite operators the ability to deliver sat-
imagery are becoming entirely automated. Near-instant ellite data faster to a larger base of smaller clients, which
access to satellite data will multiply the commercial use unlocks new revenue streams for our partners and elimi-
cases for EO data, leading to a dramatic expansion of the nates the need to invest in costly tech infrastructure.
5G, Geospatial to AI can open doors
Open New Vistas

for people to discover
meaningful insights,
exploration and
which is not possible
Zee Zheng, CEO, SpaceChain
discovery continues with legacy tools
G
eospatial technology allows to accelerate — will
organizations to discover space as be improved with
an innovation platform. It ramps time and analyzed to
up efficiencies that impact all in- enhance R&D in unprecedented ways.
dustries, from manufacturing to supply chain
and finance. It also helps enterprises discover 5G effect
new ways to address the dwindling supply. 5G is a major disruptor that is set to revolutionize mobile commu-
AI and IoT are deemed to be disruptive nications. For modern businesses, 5G will bring enormous data
forces. These technologies open doors for capacity, rapid network speeds, low latency, and most importantly,
people to discover meaningful insights, data low-cost connectivity.
and patterns that cannot be achieved with leg- Coupled with technology disruptors that are present in the
acy tools and systems. With their help, we can sphere, such as AI, 5G will change the way we compute, connect
perceive a whole new view of the future. devices and interact with machines. It creates a greater emphasis of
The algorithms from the real-time data collection and analytics. We can expect data center and
information that is con- Cloud capabilities to improve, as the possibilities of immediate data
stantly fed — as space analysis are realized.

TopTalk
LeaderSpeak
Pushing the Envelope

of Digital Innovation
Sunil Mittal, EVP & Chief Sales and Marketing Officer, CSS Corp
by the apex body, CSS Corp Innovation Labs.

In the geospatial domain, we have made
In today’s tech-driven investments in building digital technology
market, location- integrated GIS solutions to meet the demands
of a disruptive market. We have developed AI/
based intelligence ML-based geospatial solutions to optimize
has emerged as location-based e-commerce and deliver
hyper-personalized services.
a crucial factor
for enterprises to Staying resilient in face of downturn
In the past few years, we had taken small, yet
improve productivity strategic steps in view of the evolving industry
and efficiency
T
echnology is indeed at the core of landscape. Our efforts in building award-win-
digitalization. Technologies like ning solutions and digital reskilling programs
AI/ML, IoT, Cloud, Big Data An- are paying off and enabling us to stay resilient in
alytics, mobility and automation 360-degree approach to innovation the face of economic headwinds. Business across
have become the buzzwords today, and are CSS Corp has built on its strength in Cloud verticals and services is optimistic. Looking at
enabling enterprises to redefine everything transformation, Big Data, cognitive technolo- 2020 and beyond, our innovative and disrup-
— from business growth to customer expe- gies and custom application development to tive approach gives us opportunities to deliver
rience. In the digital age, the importance of create a niche differentiation for its geospatial more value to clients and help them accelerate
geospatial information across processes has offerings. Our customized solutions enable their GTM plans. We are looking at significant
grown manifold. faster acquisition and accurate Location Intel- scale-up in our geospatial services business.
The integration and interaction of geospa- ligence for enterprises and consumers. In today’s tech-driven market, loca-
tial and digital technologies create a complete We offer geospatial technology services tion-based intelligence has emerged as a
picture of the real world, thereby creating across telecom, navigation and utility domains crucial factor for enterprises to improve pro-
new solutions, productivity gains and cost to acquire and merge high-quality location or ductivity and efficiency. Effective geospatial
benefits. Be it 5G, autonomous driving, smart spatial data efficiently from multiple sources. A applications and accurate maps enable con-
cities, HD mapping, or field operations, new- 360-degree approach to innovation places us on sumers to search for and reach out to various
age geospatial technologies are pushing the a par with the speed of disruption, and ahead of services in near real-time, thus creating new
envelope of digital innovation. our competition. The whole system is governed opportunities for businesses.
TopTalk
Geospatial to Weather
Economic Storms
John Renard, President, Portfolio Business Unit & EMEA, Cyient
O
nce 5G networks are fully oper- mation journeys for many years. Some of our
ational, we will first see the evo- critical work ranges from designing aircraft
lution of existing needs primarily components via CAD and testing via 3D
One of reasons why
driven on the demand side, with printing, to enabling 5G network rollouts. geospatial technologies
users seeking better data (more detailed maps Cyient’s focus is primarily downstream,
or indoor maps) and more consistent services from satellite data analytics to navigation, but
are used is that they
(indoor navigation or smart parking). Next, we we are also exploring how our existing cus- reduce cost and
will see new technology and platforms emerge, tomer base can use space-related technology.
taking advantage of a seamless high-speed net-
increase efficiency
work — from autonomous vehicles to smart Taking advantage of global trends
infrastructure and smarter cities. I would say you need to keep focused on
doing what you do well and manage the cost geospatial technologies are used is that they
Driving efficiency through technology side of your business very tightly. As we see reduce costs and increase efficiency. At the
The industries we serve, be it energy and the increasing use of geospatial technology regional or state level, applying geospatial to
utilities, communications, transportation, within the business, we will see growing solve problems of allocating and using scarce
medical and healthcare, or aerospace and examples of how it helps companies weather resources is something that geographers have
defense, have been on their digital transfor- economic storms. One of reasons why been doing for decades.
Finding All-round Solutions

Dr Abhay Kimmatkar, Joint Managing Director, Ceinsys strengthening the technology infrastructure to address newer markets
and customers. Integrating cognitive technologies, reskilling the current
T
echnological changes are always beneficial and help in workforce and optimal use of data analytics are some of the technolo-
an efficient way of working, together with an increase in gy-related challenges that we face and are endeavoring to overcome. We
returns on investments. The recent technology interven- are very sure about growing our business in the next one year.
tions in LiDAR, UAV, Artificial Intelligence and Machine
Learning in the geospatial and engineering sectors have only enhanced Restructuring for resilience
the gamut, thereby effectively drawing a larger market. We have a good order book for this financial year and have enough work
The complexity of executing large engineering projects has been to keep our teams occupied for the next two-three years for effective
simplified through the use of new-age technologies by way of digital execution. Although the industry is on downturn and there is restrictive
documentation and advance engineering funding on projects, we have been less
solutions, namely 5D BIM, Connected affected due to our existing large
Data Environment, Digital Twins, etc. Large engineering projects and new order bookings.
We are also doing some internal
Boosting tech infrastructure projects are easier restructuring and transforming
Our projects are envisaged for an to implement now our leadership teams to strengthen
all-round solution comprising all aspects resilience, given the uncertain
of project management life cycle. We will through the use of business scenario. In today’s day
continue to upscale our investments in new-age technologies and age, geopolitical uncertainty
R&D with a strategy to fund adoption of poses a great threat to
newer technologies and talent, along with businesses.

Drones for decisions. We have automated and digitized
many business processes. Our data and
Operational
services find uses in plant inspection, town
planning, civil engineering, construction,
security and surveillance, insurance and
Efficiencies stockpile calculations, among others.
Key differentiator
Brijesh Pandey, Founder, GarudaUAV What differentiates us from our competitors
is our relentless focus on technology inte-
A
rtificial Intelligence and gration. We have blended Artificial Intelli-
Machine Learning have shifted gence, Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT)
the paradigm towards highly and cloud computing into one cohesive and
evolved software platforms. robust platform. This enables us to offer
New hardware like drones is also creating a services encompassing aerial data acquisi-
positive impact. Drones are the new data action, Machine Learning, data analytics and
quisition tools for operations & maintenance actionable insights with scale and speed.
(O&M) professionals. Drones help automate The second innovation is around the
and digitize hitherto manual processes like drone policy. The government has just
mapping, surveying, inspection, mainte- launched regulations on BVLOS (beyond
nance and scouting. Drones deliver aerial visual line of sight operations). This has mas- What differentiates us
datasets with improved accuracy, enhanced sive implications. Flying beyond visual range
safety and reduced costs. They help in pro- will enable fully autonomous drone missions.
from our competitors
cess improvement and deliver higher RoI on Combine that with innovative use cases, and is our relentless
OpEx and CapEx. we get is a future full of possibilities. I view
Our core offering is the Enterprise these two innovations very positively.
focus on technology
Drone Platform. We offer services around Our overarching vision is to help build integration
mapping, inspections, surveys and related products, platforms and possibilities for
asset management solutions. The key the drone services industry. We have one
verticals we cater to include solar, wind and of the biggest dedicated R&D functions
thermal power, transmission and distribu- where the mandate is to keep evolving Opportunity in slowdown
tion, railways, agriculture, construction and the platform for the future. We have also Our diversification into newer verticals helped
mining. By deploying Artificial Intelligence tied up with large enterprises for applied us weather the slowdown. The two effects of the
and Machine Learning, we empower our research and top-tier academic institutions slowdown on our business are: reduced ticket
customers with highly contextual, timely for fundamental research. We welcome size and project timeline, and longer sales cycle.
and accurate data to make better operational more such collaborations. Our clients’ problem statements deal with cost
optimization, process improvement and faster
decision-making. That really is the essence of
our value proposition. So, in that sense, we defi-
nitely see an opportunity even in a slowdown.
Our asset inspection services help
customers with accurate detection of faults
and anomalies, leading to timely repair and
maintenance. This helps increase the life of
industrial assets. We reduce mapping and
survey time by over 60%, thereby saving
considerable time and money in greenfield
infrastructure projects, while delivering highly
accurate geospatial data. Industries should
increase their exposure to geospatial data to
GarudaUAV’s Enterprise Drone Platform mitigate the impact of a slowdown.

TopTalk
Today’s Tech with

Tomorrow’s Vision
Amr Raafat, Vice President of VDC & Technology, Windover Construction
A
ny technology, be it drone, map- in the market. We can evaluate these
ping, laser scanning or virtual technologies, sometimes even develop
reality, is powerful. But when Companies in the them further to incorporate them into
combined, these become much AEC sector are eager our construction operations. At Wind-
more powerful. We use today’s technology over, technology applications such as 4D
with tomorrow’s vision, which enables us to learn more about construction sequence planning are more
to explore new methods to become more technology and embed than a tool; it’s a process that is embedded
efficient and help our industry advance. The in our daily operations to support both
construction sector is evolving — companies it into their work field and office operations.
are eager to learn more about technology and When it comes to BIM/VDC hiring, we
embed it into their work. are always looking for passionate, bright can-
BIM is now becoming an industry stand- didates who love what they do, want to work
ard and is required by many clients to ensure Leveraging latest technology with leading-edge technologies and are eager
risk mitigation and high quality. We have been As we continue to construct different types to learn new thing every day. Geospatial and
committed to applying leading-edge technolo- of buildings, including more modular BIM can be a powerful combination, which
gies such as VR/AR, laser scanning and drone structures, we see a great opportunity to can help in offering real-time solutions to
mapping in every phase of the project. leverage the latest technologies available challenges in construction projects.
Complete Digital documented to enable

the lessons learnt.
The construction
Environment
Modular construc-
tion for us is just one industry is slow,
of the types of con-
and even the
struction approaches.
Igor Starkov, CEO & Co-founder, EcoDomus
Our main focus is popular trends are
A
rchitecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) firms data, and as such we
implemented slowly
use GIS and BIM solutions mostly for planning purpos- can support both
es. GIS helps identify site related issues; BIM supports traditional and new
building related activities. We see more AEC firms approaches, as long as
getting interested in post construction life cycle phases too, helping the data is clean, useful and easy to collect.
facility owners renovate existing facilities. Having a good GIS/BIM
dataset helps reduce the cost. Getting used to innovation
As a technology company, innovation is
Replicating physical world our focus area. The construction industry
Our solution, EcoDomus, enables the creation of Digital Twins of itself is slow, and even the trends that
facilities and infrastructure by utilizing BIM and GIS data. BIM/GIS are popular elsewhere, are going to be
information is integrated with other data sources such as IoT/SCADA/ implemented slowly in this industry. We
ERP/CMMS/CAFM to provide the complete digital environment, a are used to this. The same happened with
virtual replica of the physical world. Most of our clients, which are large my previous company that was the pioneer
organizations, start with a pilot project – one building or site from their of Field BIM — it’s still being considered
portfolio of dozens or hundreds of buildings. The best duration for a ‘new’, even though we introduced it 16
pilot project is six-nine months. We think that the results should be well years ago.

DATA FROM SPACE FOR A
Enhancing Access WORLD OF INFORMATION.
to Earth Analytics
Latitudo 40 has created the
easiest and fastest platform
to turn satellite imagery into
Gaetano Volpe, CEO, Latitudo40 geospatial information to
support everyday decisions.
D
igitization of economies is a trend that we are watching closely. In an increasing
number of sectors, business processes are driven and managed using data generat-
ed by machines and sensors. The huge amount of digital data generated in different
smart city, smart agriculture and smart infrastructure projects is contributing to
the creation of a new culture that explores an innovative model of valorization of digital herit-
age as a top priority for institutions, organizations and companies. The knowledge economy has
entered into its development phase, and this is creating massive opportunities for startups to
offer a new way of collecting, organizing, managing and manipulating this heritage.
This transforming market has given us the opportunity to using the huge amount of data in
the images that are taken daily by EO satellites and transforming them into useful information
to support decisions, through the use of a series of algorithms of AI and computer vision and
the application of Machine Learning. Without this awareness of the intrinsic value in the digital
transformation of geospatial applications, our business experience would never have started.
Expanding geospatial applications market

The idea of Latitudo40 comes from the awareness that extracting information from satellite
images is a complex process that requires a dedicated team of professionals/ organization, which
only large companies can afford. We want to bring earth analytics within the reach of everyone,
especially small and medium-sized enterprises. This vision has turned into our startup, which is
launching an end-to-end Cloud platform that can build and manage an application that performs
geospatial analytics in four steps and integrate the results into any application, be it SAP or GIS.
In 2019, we concluded a major business agreement with a leading operator in the transmission of
electricity who is using our platform to better know the status of the distribution network.
We want to fill this market gap by creating a horizontal platform with connectors to the cata-
logs of the main operators and a series of ‘blocks’ of ready to use analysis, based
on algorithms of Machine Learning and AI. We call them ‘earth bricks’. The
workflow system at the base of everything allows to orchestrate different
operations and create automatically the final result, which consists of use-
ful information for those who have to make business decisions — from
water/energy distribution manager to insurance companies. The concept
is absolutely innovative in the field of reference and allows to create a new
application in a very short time. Our platform will periodically perform
the analysis and will return indices based on heat maps and presence of
cars, all without specific knowledge of image processing and AI.
Using AI for sustainable development

AI represents one of the main innovations in the field of geospatial
applications, in particular for those that use EO data, to offer a
support to a deeper knowledge of the environments in which we
operate and process large amounts of data. With the widespread
use of Deep Learning neural networks, new applications and
models of use of spatial images are highlighted, opening the
use also to innovative business domains and applications.
www.latitudo40.com
TopTalk
Automation Must for

Data-driven Decisions
Richard Baker, CEO, GeoSpock
O
ne of the biggest changes that with extreme scales of time and location data,
we have seen in recent times is and so, it is quite impossible to churn out
that people are now embracing insights without Artificial Intelligence and With the advent
technology, rather than fearing Internet of Things.
it. This change of mindset has been more
of 5G, IoT devices
apparent in the last decade, as smart cities Potential of connectivity around cities will be
around the world begin to develop and gain The technology that we have built will
in terms of popularity. Governments are now continue to thrive and increase in relevance
able to show their
more open to implementing geospatial tech- as cities and governments become more true potential
nology; brands are beginning to understand digitized. With the advent of 5G, IoT devices
its benefits; and citizens are starting to gain around cities will be able to show their true
awareness about its use cases. potential. Its unique combination of greater
In this day and age, automation is nec- connectivity and increased processing power split-second delay could mean the difference
essary for every business, particularly in the will support smart transport infrastructure between a congested or smooth flow of
geospatial world. Scalability means having such as connected vehicles, smart post traffic, making cities and governments far
highly automated processes in place. We deal lamps and efficient train routes, where a more efficient.
Time for Innovation is Now

Willy Govender, CEO, Data World Today, data collection and capture is
increasingly being automated and with Today, data collection
R
eal-time data collection and greater accuracy and lower cost. This pro-
analytics will vastly improve all vides the geospatial industry with opportu- and capture is
aspects of our lives, especially nities to innovate in both products and to increasingly being
in smart cities, and improve the develop data and solutions to use the data
lives of the growing more effectively. Those who easily embrace automated and with
urban population. technologies like Artificial Intelligence, greater accuracy and
The move from Machine Learning and Internet of Things,
megabit to or are early adopters, will end up as the win- lower cost
gigabit broad- ners. The time for innovation is now.
band will also
see petabytes of Digitization to improve efficiency
data. So, the ca- As a technology services business, we are customers. Data is the ‘new gold’ and mining
pacity of having to encouraging customers to embrace digi- it improves our customers’ chances of profit-
store this data and tization to improve operational efficiency ability and sustainability.
make sense of and decision-making. Our customers now We understand that innovation is the key,
it will be the have to consider this to be the default and so we see the global economic downturn
main issue scenario. They must realize that if they shy as an opportunity to innovate. That’s why we
in the near away from adoption, they will not be able to invest 3-5% of our total revenue on research
future. meet the demands and expectations of their and development.

TopTalk
LeaderSpeak
Geospatial services to a growing international client base. Working with national

mapping agencies and domain areas like Geological Survey, we help
to Manage
develop capacity and achieve enhanced local outcomes.
Impact of innovation
Global Change
Over the last decade, many innovations have made a significant
impact on both our services and the nature of the solutions we
offer. These include mobile, Cloud, improved position accuracy,
Smart City/ Digital Twins, indoor navigation/ 5G. Spatial Vision
has embraced these trends, invested in the necessary expertise and
Glenn Cockerton, Managing Director, Spatial Vision capacity and now offers a range of services and products that address
many of these areas.
G
eospatial data and technologies deliver a wide range of Spatial Vision has always invested in building strong relationships
benefits. These technologies help in making better, more with a range of research institutions, from our neighboring universities
optimized decisions, achieving better outcomes, enhanc- (RMIT University, the University of Melbourne, University of NSW) to
ing productivity and improving FrontierSI (formerly the Cooperative Research
economic outcomes. The potential contribu- Centre for Spatial Information). Combined
tion of our industry is significant, as it impacts The potential with an active internal R&D program investing
virtually every sector of the economy. Aus- in emerging technologies, the company con-
tralia has benefitted from a range of economic contribution of tinues to be able to offer valuable and timely
drivers and has experienced uninterrupted geospatial industry advice to our customers. A key priority for the
economic growth for an extended period of immediate future is our investment in the area
time. These drivers include a mining boom on is significant, as it of Smart Cities/Digital Twins.
the back of China’s rapid economic develop- impacts virtually
ment, a significant wave of residential property
development due to immigration and strong every sector of the
population growth. economy
Making a difference
Spatial Vision’s market, which is focused on
government activities, is also expected to remain positive, providing a
basis for continued organic growth in our domestic revenues. For our
company, we are leveraging the exportation of Australia’s professional
services to generate significant additional growth potential for the
future. Our customers mainly include government agencies in India,
Middle East, South East Asia and the Pacific. We are aiming to make a
difference not only in economic terms. Our solutions are also helping
address some of the key environmental and societal challenges such
as Climate Change, environmental sustainability (including the UN’s
SDGs), urban and rural planning and social equity. Geospatial data
and technologies help the world manage the significant processes of
change underway. Spatial Vision wants to be part of our industry in
addressing these challenges.
Spatial Vision has been offering tailored enterprise geospatial
solutions to customers for 20 years. These solutions provide geospa-
tial capabilities to all levels of government encompassing emergency
management, land management, natural resource management,
fisheries administration, forestry, agriculture, utilities, water man-
agement and many other domains. The company also leverages Aus-
tralia’s mature geospatial data infrastructure, policy framework and
institutional arrangements by offering a range of strategic consulting

TopTalk
Bridging the
L
ocation data has become by default
for businesses as well as private
Machine Learning and
Gap in Data
consumers. Although, consumers
are experiencing exponential digi- AI are two exciting
tal developments through major technology
application areas that
Analytics
giants, the digital transformation for govern-
ments and industries is slowing down. enable programs to
A major survey by McKinsey shows
that less than 1% of all data collected is
automatically learn
Wouter Brokx, CEO, Imagem analyzed. Data grows quickly, and all data and improve from
has a location factor. However, only a
fraction of this data is analyzed for smart
experience
decision making. We translate data from
the dynamically changing environment to
make data-driven decisions. This is done
by converting real-time data into usable Towards Sustainability
information; while self-learning algorithms In the Netherlands, the government has an
embedded in our solutions help continually initiative called ‘common ground’ that strives
improve predictions. to create a future-proof municipal IT infra-
Machine Learning and AI are two exciting structure. IMAGEM contributes to this initia-
application areas that enable programs to auto- tive for all government customers through the
matically learn and improve from experience. VALLEY – a concept of reusing applications
Our customers have greatly benefited from and pay per use models. Our model supports
Machine Learning to create sustainable and development of society in collaboration with
light solutions. government, industry and citizens.
Data Fuelling Tech Advances

T
he future will be all about using
Mike Davie, CEO, Quadrant
data to advance products and
solutions in the real world. We will Good quality,
continue to see advances in Artifi-
accurate data is vital
cial Intelligence (AI) mirrored by further de-
velopments in the quality and availability of for the algorithms
data, especially as new consumer and mobile
that feed AI
technology comes into the market. If Moore’s
Law is to continue in the field of science and
technology, data will be the catalyst.
Good quality, accurate data is vital for the
algorithms that feed AI. If AI is powered by firms using personal data to turn down
bad or inaccurate data, then the decisions that insurance claims, healthcare or jobs. We
come out will be poor. need to avoid a situation where gov-
ernments believe they are introducing
Privacy debate regulations to protect people, but in reality,
Privacy is an issue that is intrinsic to data, and the rules just play into the hands of big
when it comes to privacy-related regulations businesses that spend the most on lobbying.
we need to avoid ‘knee jerk’ reactions. This will result in data being housed by
Regulations should focus on protecting few monopolistic corporations, eventually
ordinary citizens. For Instance, stopping reducing innovation and raising costs.

TopTalk
LeaderSpeak
Launching New Products,

Services for Better Growth
Georgy Potapov, CEO, GeoAlert of Earth Observation data is much smaller
than usual photos or video streams anal- The most
D
ata quality and availability, ysis. However, it also attracts attention of
along with shifting customer such giants like Microsoft or Facebook and challenging part is to
loyalty, are some of the major creates a more competitive environment for find ways to attract
challenges to growth in the all value-added service providers and forces
current environment. That is why, our focus small startups to make faster growth and test new customers
in the near future will be on new product/ different hypothesis. and get their trust
service launches and new strategic alliances/
M&As. We provide imagery processing ser- Focus on R&D urban mapping in new automatic
vices for object detection and classification We are at the early stage of our product, so applications
in satellite and aerial imagery. We do not sell we do plan to invest in research and devel-
data, and instead provide analytics, which opment, and also engage other partners to
means that the operational invest through collaborative projects. The
cost is less and the project that we are currently looking at is of cognitive technologies, piloting emerging
delivery to cus- a collaborative one with the Russian Post, technologies, attracting new talent and optimal
tomers is quicker. which has more than 40,000 post offices all use of data analytics as the biggest technology
We are over the country and 26 million address loca- challenges that we need to overcome.
fond of open tions. They require a bunch of location-based
data technol- services and accurate mapping data. Economic challenges
ogies, com- We are at the cutting edge of scalable ‘AI Geospatial data and technologies help indus-
munity-based mapping’, the technology to extract features tries and governments increase productivity
platforms such as from imagery using computer vision algo- and reduce wastage. Efficient use of these
OpenStreetMap. rithms on CNN architecture. The most chal- technologies can help in minimizing the
The market of lenging and interesting part of the operations impact of a global recession. From economic
Machine learning is to find ways to attract new customers and get theories and practice cases, we know that one
technologies for their trust in new automatic digitalization. We of the methods for better investments is asset
imagery provide instant analysis of any location in the distribution. We can confidently say that with
process- world on satellite and aerial imagery, and track better knowledge of global markets and envi-
ing changes. Data analysts, developers and deci- ronment, one can distribute better and invest
sion-makers can use our platform to process in developing markets that will have grown by
imagery and download results in the form of tomorrow. So, it is important to know about
reports or GIS ready data. We see integration the world economy through maps.
TopTalk
Better Indoor Data, Better Outcomes

Adam Benson, CTO, Inpixon
It is essential that
T
he ability to capture, interpret
and contextualize indoor data is organizations
pivotal in democratizing indoor
location intelligence. In order leverage indoor
to make indoor location intelligence widely intelligence to gain
accessible, it is essential that organizations
leverage indoor intelligence to gain insights insights into how
into how indoor spaces can be used to make to make smarter
smarter decisions and to help keep people
and their data safe decisions
Our platform allows organizations to
create a comprehensive picture of the devices
in their space, and interpret that data through help shipping organizations manage
traditional dashboards, or in the highly-intui- the supply chain of goods around
tive context of a geospatially accurate indoor the world. Similarly, geospatial tech-
map of their buildings. nology for the indoors will uncover
If we can plan better and predict future a multitude of indicators that are
outcomes through intelligent modelling of currently obscure to us. Better data
empirical data, then the effect will be huge. provides better intelligence, which
Take for example how GPS and weather data leads to better outcomes.
Maps Empowering There has been an
People, Businesses increase in business

since location data
Jan Erik Solem, CEO, Mapillary is becoming more
crucial than ever
D
igital maps have woven their way
into our lives in a way that makes it
hard to imagine life without them.
An increasing number of sectors
and services rely on up-to-date and fresh maps. From infrastructure to mobility, access to fresh
It’s not just smartphone users who rely on maps, map data underpins the ability to build smarter
but also autonomous cars, delivery fleets, ride- solutions, whether that’s sharing rather than owning a
hailing services, and many other location-based car, or improving route optimization or infrastructure
services. There has been an increase in business management. We’ve built the world’s best computer
since location data is becoming more crucial vision technology for understanding street scenes and
than ever. Ride-hailing companies like Uber and that enables better map data for everyone. More than
Lyft have millions of drivers around the world, a billion images have been uploaded to Mapillary to
online shopping is at an all-time high, and in many date, and more the images are uploaded, the better
locations around the world, you can even order our algorithms get. This, in turn, means better maps
your groceries and get them delivered within hours. for everyone.

TopTalk
LeaderSpeak
Data Analytics Offer

New Opportunities
Patrick Sheehan, CEO, GZA
Automated data
expanded capabilities have resulted in the
emergence of wholly new service offerings. collection has
Within our instrumentation monitoring assumed a central
practice, we can monitor data changes in
role in execution and
T
he convergence of automation, AI, real time and integrate them with complex
and IoT has ushered in new areas engineering analysis models to assess whether delivery of projects
of capability and efficiency, unveil- actions are needed.
ing opportunities for problem solv-
ing and services. This has provided a wealth Real-time relaying accustomed to static file storage and retrieval,
of new data sources, not previously available, Real-time data streams consumed into big this will require a change in philosophy, data
often in real-time, that provide valuable data stores for real-time analytics and decision governance, and systems integration. A more
information to support decisions and increase processes require a pervasive communications comprehensive mobility strategy will fully en-
the ability to respond to changing conditions. protocol and infrastructure with broad cover- able the workforce and allow for more efficient
Automated data collection and geospatial age to support it. 5G will provide a conduit, and compressed real-time data collection and
technology has assumed a central role in the and this will change the way organizations workflows. This also provides opportunities
execution of projects, technical proficiency store, management, access and utilize data. for better QA/QC processes, information
and the delivery of traditional services. These For engineering and design firms, more sharing and oversight.
Managing All Those Drones

spective of the progress graph of the drone
Marc Kegelaers, CEO, Unifly
industry, for some strange reason, drones
W
e are constantly amazed by The drone community are severely restricted by the government; in
the ever-expanding range each case you are going to need a technol-
of applications where is probably one ogy that is able to pick up drone traffic,
drones can be used. The of the most determine who is flying and if they are good
drone community is probably one of the guys, communicate with them.
most innovative sectors one can imagine, innovative sectors
and the combination of drones and GIS can one can imagine
lead to higher productivity in a range of sec-
tors, including agriculture, construction and
logistics. But drones also require a digital
solution to integrate them into the airspace Unifly is the global leader in Unmanned
safely: they are too numerous and too small Traffic Management (UTM). Our platform
to handle with traditional aviation solutions. integrates drones into the airspace safely,
Currently, air traffic controllers around connecting authorities with drone pilots to
the world guide planes safely through the approve and manage drone flights.
airspace. However, as the industry contin- The market for drone services is boom-
ues to boom, drones will multiply and we ing and industry analysts predict a value of
will require automation. billions of dollars in the coming years. Irre-

TopTalk
Managing Data Smartly

Sara Holoubek, CEO, Luminary Labs
The real paradigm
T
he more sensors we have, the shift will happen when
more data we have; the more
data we have, the more decisions we have high-quality
need to be made about what data and better ways
to automate and how to do that This calls
for swift decision-making regarding what to manage, protect
to automate and how. Currently, we see and make sense of it
enthusiasm around the role of AI to track
and predict things like weather, migration
and earthquakes. The real paradigm shift
will happen when we have high-quality where privacy was assumed to be dead.
data and better ways to manage, protect and Now we are increasingly concerned about
make sense of it. how our data is used. The promise of
5G connectivity will make it possible to personalization and innovation often
collect and process data quickly. However, requires people to put their trust in the
organizations will need to incorporate the powers that be. But we have seen examples
cost of collecting, processing and making of large-scale problems in tech and other
sense of massive amount of data. industries, and policies aren’t keeping up
Many of us have grown up in a world with technology.
Best of Geo & AI for Better Decisions

growing sensor data that monitors our planet and the availability of
Fritz Schlereth, Head of Marketing, Descartes Labs
massive computing resources is changing this. Companies that act
T
he geospatial industry has traditionally been embraced quickly to leverage these growing geospatial data assets will realize
very slowly by the commercial world, as compared to the decision advantage over their competition.
government sector. However, the industry is witnessing
the rapid embrace of Artificial Intelligence and its busi- Tech for economic prosperity
ness impact. The big opportunity In part, fears about an economic
for the geospatial industry is predic- slowdown are based on trade
tive modeling. Geospatial data plays Companies that tensions, such as those between
a central role here for commodities embrace AI and the US and China. Trade
and natural resource-based compa- tensions present pressure
nies as it enables them to become geospatial will quickly factors on commodity markets
model-driven, automating decision realize advantages and global trade in general.
making and continually optimizing Technology generally introduces
their business processes. Compa- over the market efficiencies, increases productivity
nies that embrace AI and geospatial and leads to greater economic
data will quickly realize advantages prosperity. There are many
over the market, while companies opportunities that geospa-
that fail to act will fall behind. tial data provides to the commodities
While digitally native companies like Google and Amazon have and natural resource industries,
pioneered applications of Machine Intelligence, physically native which represent the bedrock of
companies have lagged behind. However, a combination of rapidly our economy in many ways.

TopTalk
LeaderSpeak
Sustainable Space ways to ensure space sustainability like On-Orbit services and space
debris removal.
Environment for Collaboration for better services

If today’s orbital environment becomes unusable, our lives will
Better Business
irrevocably change. We rely on satellites for daily activities, national
security, disaster monitoring and understanding changes in the
Earth’s environment. Democratization of space is leading to more
satellites and better services and information, but it also means more
Ron Lopez, President & Managing Director
Astroscale US congestion, conjunctions, collisions and debris. Since the
start of the space age until 2017, nearly 8,000 satellites
M
ost of the recent technology changes were launched, and
affecting the space industry have from 2018-2030,
been positive. The cost of launch If today’s orbital nearly 20,000 satel-
has come down drastically, allowing environment becomes lites are expected to
owners/operators to put more payloads into space. be launched.
The power of computing has gone up exponentially, unusable, our To continue this
which means we can do a lot more with a “pound of lives will irrevocably growth in space-based
computer” than we could a few years ago. services, including
change geospatial intel-
Understanding space environment ligence, both
At Astroscale, we see digitalization as an important govern-
factor in understanding the space environment, ments and
both today and in the future. Our team is keenly focused on lever- businesses must collaborate to solve this
aging technological and digital innovation to create cost-effective problem and build the next frontier.
Tech Advancement is Part

of Information Revolution
Rafael Guzman, Founder & CTO, Satlantis
To have a camera
W
e are now getting used to having access
to information everywhere and at all
that is ready for
times. With the use of remote sensing space observations
and teledetection, the information from
space will help us access dynamic maps through which
from lower orbit
we will be able to pinpoint location and time in a manner in just one week is New possibilities
that will enable business growth supervision and home We generate tens of gigabytes of
monitoring. This technology will lead to what we call
simply unparalleled data per second. It is impossible
“democratization of space”. to handle this data without very
powerful image processors. With
Unparalleled innovation the advent of strong processors,
Satlantis has focused on development of very innovative information, which is provided by a number we can take advantage of minia-
high-end cameras for Earth Observation in which we of micro satellites in the lower orbit. To have turization of cameras and sensor
introduce innovations. The first example that I can cite is a camera that is ready for space observations technology, and combine the two
miniaturization. This has not only led to savings, but has from lower orbit in just one week is simply in a way that enables us to carry out
enabled more launches, addressing the issue of real-time unparalleled. major image processing onboard.

TopTalk
Smallsats Propelling Analytics

John Serafini, CEO, HawkEye 360
T
he small satellite ecosystem has
matured to a point that we can The evolving smallsat
build sophisticated microsatellites
that accomplish real tasks. We can
ecosystem brings an
manufacture microsatellites faster than tradi- entirely new dataset
tional satellites, launch them at a lower cost,
and deploy a larger constellation for better
and analytics to
revisit rates. This makes the approach very market, making it
attractive, when bringing an entirely new data
set and new data analytics to market.
very attractive
Many types of objects emit radio fre-
quencies for vital functions such as commu-
nication, navigation, and operation. Since information is useful in numerous applica-
spectrum awareness is essential to under- tions, such as tracking dark ships, which can
stand all this, the information helps custom- sometimes indicate vessels that are engaged
ers make better decisions. HawkEye 360 in activities like smuggling or illegal fishing.
offers a unique geospatial data set to various Our satellites are generating millions of
customers throughout government and com- data point, and we are also introducing a
mercial sectors. We operate a first-of-its-kind commercial capability of geospatial signals
commercial satellite constellation to identify data that is easier to access, share, and –
and geolocate a broad set of RF signals. This most importantly – interpret.
Leveraging Tech for will enable more and enhanced use of

web services, resulting in the collection
Effective Solutions
of more data and resulting analytics. If
companies are behaving responsibly and
are perceived to be adding value, there
Jonathan Thompson, Director, Sales & Operations, East View Geospatial should only be more user buy-in leading to
accelerated growth.
G
eospatial data offers something allowing the operators to focus on more Reskilling and investing in workforce
unique in its ability to help us meaningful elements of the value-chain. education should also be fundamental to
visualize complex phenomena However, as we become more our culture. The workforce
in familiar ways. If global dependent on automated workflows, this needs to feel it has a stake
citizens can be empowered to better will create a demand for professionals to in the organization’s
understand the world around them support and innovate those processes. 5G larger mission and
through geospatial data and technology, that technology is not
we will have more voices contributing to something to fear, but
solving critical problems Automated data rather something to work
Our entire business is built around together with.
leveraging new technology to bring collection allows
together historic (non-digital) and current operators to focus on
geospatial data into meaningful products
and solutions – linking past and present to meaningful elements
answer the pressing questions of the day, of the value-chain
enabling a better future. Data collection
will be accelerated and automated,

TopTalk
LeaderSpeak
Smallsats Opening New Vistas

mation is making space accessible to all and is
Anthony Baker, CEO, Satellite Vu
giving less developed countries the opportunity
Rise of smallsats has
T
echnology to tackle some great problems.
is integral been at the center of a Satellite Vu’s technology is based upon
to digi- the information provided by small satellites.
paradigm shift in the
talization We are concerned about environmental
and permeates every EO market, lowering challenges that are affecting our planet and
part of our lives. we will use our space-based solution to
the entry barriers
For enterprises and give access to critical data that will enable
governments, it is enterprise and governments to act upon two
crucial to better of the biggest challenges facing humanity
serve their cus- Smallsat breakthrough today — plastics and energy waste. Insights
tomers and provide The emergence and advancement of the small from geospatial data and technologies help
an unprecedented satellite industry has been significant. Through businesses to become more efficient and
level of information. the advent of NewSpace innovations, the rise effective and to examine their operational
of small satellite technology has been at the processes and to see how they can create less
center of a paradigm shift in the EO market, waste, use less energy and ultimately become
lowering the cost and time taken to manufac- more sustainable. The insights generated by
ture a spacecraft and monitor Earth. Today, a the Satellite Vu infrared technology bring
small EO satellite can equal the capability of its geospatial capabilities to a new level and are
much larger predecessors, yet can be orbited at invaluable in facilitating an entirely smarter
a fraction of the cost and mass. This transfor- way of running businesses.
Turning Drones into Drones are now like
Intelligent System
intelligent systems,
aided with features like
Prateek Srivastava, Co-Founder & CEO - Terra Drone India
collision avoidance,
terrain following
T
here has been a surge in demand system, which is capable of performing inde-
for smarter technology every- pendently or with minimal supervision.
where in the world. That’s because The geospatial industry is witnessing a availability of up-to-date, reliable
people want better living and major transformation as well. Apart from and accurate base maps has
better performance. With technology taking automated data processing, data analysis and been one of the most critical
over the digital wave, its adoption by the al- quality enhancement, which were previously headwinds faced by the
ready existing workflows does not come as a completely manual tasks, are today being industry. A recent innovative
surprise. The drone industry is no exception automated to a great extent. effort in this field has been
to this. Technological trends such as Internet made by Survey of India. The
of Things, Artificial Intelligence and M
achine Wave of change plan to use professional grade
Learning are being used actively to achieve At TerraDrone India, we have espoused drones for large scale mapping
better results. Today, drones are equipped the Government of India’s ‘Digital India’ and providing base maps for
with features like collision avoidance, terrain campaign, which is aimed at making the integrated development
following and target following, increasing country digitally empowered. We believe in is expected to open up
their efficiency to a great extent. These the ability of high-resolution mapping and the skies for the drone
technologies are making drones an intelligent its impact on the society. However, lack of industry in India.

TopTalk
Digitalization is Everywhere
Shrikant Agarwal, CEO, KK Geosystems
were used for surveying which have been of existing power plants, and conversion
replaced with 3D Scanners, drones which of existing BS4 refineries to BS6 requires
O
ver the years, technology has increase productivity and efficiency multifold. digitalization of refineries.
played an important part in sur- We are into sales of Advanced 3D Meas-
veying, making it more accurate uring Instruments like 3D Laser Scanner, Impact of AI and IoT
and fast. It has also improved Pavement Profiler, Friction Testing, etc., IOT and AI are positively
productivity and efficiency, and helped in which helps in the digitalization process. impacting businesses. IOT helps in
reducing manpower because of higher meas- These equipment help in creating Digital keeping all our solutions connected
uring and processing speeds. For Instance, Twin for a facility or infrastructure which in to the web, which helps
previously technologies like Total Station turn helps in planning future expansion. managers take decisions
faster as information
Government initiatives from all their sites is
AI helps improve Government of India is undertaking projects available with them
like smart city development which requires round the clock.
software solutions as digitalization of complete city including all AI helps improve
it increases overall utilities. They are also undertaking heritage software solutions
conservation which requires digital docu- as it increases
productivity mentation of old monuments for conserva- overall productivity of the
tion and development. Installation of FGD software and efficiency of
at major power plants requires digitalization their processing team.
Moving Towards A Business Model

Automated Mapping with EO Solutions
Greg Gloor, Director of Survey & 3D Measurement, Manfred Krischke, Founder & CEO, Cloudeo
Dresdner Robin
W T
e are witnessing the impact of evolving technol- echnology adaptation and innovation have helped us to
ogy on multiple levels: data collection, analysis, improve the quality of work-life of people and build a new
storage, output representation. The cutting-edge model of geo-solutions business by revenue sharing and
collection techniques can gather much more data renting schemes. Also, decentralized architectures combined
than ever before at the fastest rates possible. Not just the same data with smart contracting are key to efficiently open up the market of micro
we once obtained, but data sets that now include new metrics such geo-transactions.
as color, intensity, even temperature. LIDAR data, for example, now
includes multiple returns such as a tree New ecosystem
canopy then the ground surface. Technology is one of the main drivers for
With richer data sets, faster comput- Cloudeo to fulfill its vision of establish-
ing hardware and more sophisticated ing a market platform. We have seen AI,
software, we can conduct deeper analysis Machine Learning, and IoT creating a
of data. This can provide insights beyond whole new ecosystem in industries like IT
spatial analytics. This technology evolu- and automobile. For all these industries,
tion mandates that we must evolve as well adding one more layer of geospatial
in order to not just survive but thrive. context information will create a whole
We are now seeing software that new future. Our platform helps reap the
allows you to show an example item from benefits of AI and IoT and build products,
a point cloud so it can “train” on it. services and applications.

TopTalk
LeaderSpeak
Smart Mobility Reshaping Infrastructure

Kiyotake Fukuyoshi, Senior General Manager, Mitsubishi Electric
S
ocial infrastructure is going to be widely digi- have almost the same accuracy to fully utilize their
tized in this decade. We will soon live in a socie- precision. Accuracy matters for those two elements
ty where fully autonomous vehicles will emerge. used for autonomous driving, because as previously
They will make use of high precision 3D maps, mentioned: your life matters.
which are precise digitized copies of social infrastructure, Digitization of social infrastructure will not be
including roads, buildings, road signs, traffic signals and limited to 3D maps for navigation. Most of social
so on. Riding an autonomous car means entrusting your infrastructure will be managed with a digitized copy
life to the vehicle, and there is no scope for any technical of it. You will be able to visually identify which roads
compromise. Improving its precision and reliability is the require maintenance. IoT will also pave the way for
unending challenge. From the perspective of the user, creating a value added application with this digitized
one would definitely choose a positioning device with society. Mitsubishi Electric is willing to support this
ten-centimeter accuracy over one-meter accuracy. kind of future society with products such as Mobile
For autonomous driving, we also need a posi- Mapping System (MMS) and high-precision posi-
tioning device. Maps and positioning devices have to tioning GNSS receiver.
Data Revolutionizing Emerging Technologies

Drone Industry Driving Startups
Florian Seibel, CEO, Quantum Systems Vipul Agarwal, Head, Tringo Solutions
T W
he drone market is benefiting tremendously from ith the rising popularity of technologies like AI and
technological innovations. 5G is an essential building IoT, it’s interesting to look at the changing face of
block for autonomous mobility and the associated net- Indian SMEs and startups. Here are some key tech-
worked systems. Thanks to 5G, drones will also be able nology trends that are set to drive the sector.
to open up new fields of application and thus reach the masses. SME’s now have an array of hosted ser-
Huge amount of data that vices. This trend is in line with the overall shift
drones generate is useless without among millennial entrepreneurs to focus on
a corresponding interpretation, their core strengths and seek professional ser-
so the key to use data in a sustaina- vice providers to manage ancillary processes.
ble and rewarding way will be the SaaS has been a preferred model for this. Data
skill to interpret it and generate is the currency of the digital era and cloud
reliable results that offer a value storage is the reliable safe vault. With the digi-
significantly higher than tradi- tization of business, more and more SME’s are
tional methods. adopting cloud storage to leverage its features.
Customer data is a compa- What most SME’s believe is that improv-
ny’s most valuable asset, as it can ing customer experience is their top priority
determine whether a company and strategy for augmenting revenue growth.
is successful or not successful. A And chatbots are helping them do just that.
USP of our products is the data A marketing report says that 96 percent
sovereignty for the customer, of SME’s are using social media in their marketing master plan. Social
100% offline mode on request, as well as highest European data Media has also become a place to explore and know the competitors. It’s
security standards. Our own hardware developments enable us to also a platform to gauge instant consumer feedbacks. Like everything
dispense with third party employees and to provide the customer else, technology has become an essential barometer for business success
with information at any time. and not adapting to the new age processes is a sure shot way to perish.

TopTalk
Geospatial Intelligence for Everyone

ema Matevosyan, CEO,
R mitigating climate and weather related risks,
Near Space Labs giving local governments and businesses con- Affordable data, cheap
textual information to make efficient decisions.
Satellites based Earth Observation can play a access to space and
big role in this. AI applied to massive
Affordable data, cheap access to space,
data analytics and AI applied to massive datasets are creating
datasets are creating opportunities in new new opportunities
industries and expanding markets.
Robotic aerial mapping It also dramatically reduces the price for

Near Space Labs is an industry-first high quality geospatial intelligence. Price of
high-resolution, high-frequency imagery imagery was an impediment earlier, which
company that builds and flies stratospheric isn’t the case anymore.
robots who map Earth in unprecedented There are a few challenges in capturing
detail and daily frequency. It is partnering imagery from the stratosphere: mission plan-
T
he convergence of geospatial in- with leading GIS and data analytics compa- ning, stabilizing and operating on different
telligence and space would help nies, including Esri. We capture imagery altitudes and layers of atmosphere under
build smart cities of the future. from the stratosphere and offer highly different meteorological conditions. We have
Cities are living systems that are detailed information. Customers can see a sophisticated robotic vehicle for that. We
constantly changing. Having highly updated cars, pipes, cracks on roads, etc. The strat- also have operations and mission planning
and relevant information about them allows osphere provides a great vantage point to software that utilizes massive datasets for
for more resilient urban design and planning, observe Earth in high detail and frequency. prediction and planning.
Streamlining Digitalization
T
Abhay Mittal, CEO, Skymap Global aking geospatial data and imple-
menting automation cannot be A combination
as simple as installing software.
Several large corporations
of people and
have taken up the digitalization processes technology can lead
internally and struggled to deliver. Our
company has been focused on delivering
to overall growth of
value by Deep Learning of the data and an the economy
experience of the domain to solve customer
pain points. Our solutions are built to deep
dive into the upcoming technology like cesses to benefit the growth of the economies
AI/ML and preparing for solving potential is one key factor. Larger companies can also
problems being faced for digitalization of partner with smaller companies with their
processes within organizations. Building the wealth to create an environment of overall
platform and giving flexibility to the cus- growth, which is a combination of people
tomers helps deliver better problem solving and technology. Some countries implement
practices combining field data and other it better than others and safeguard their long-
ancillary sources of data. term vision. Geospatial technologies can help
The strategy to create an environment of measure such growth in multiple sectors such
innovation and implementing it with pro- as education, food, forests, etc.

TopTalk
LeaderSpeak
5G to Unveil New Era of Spatial Data Making the Most

Chris Kalima, VP, Product Management, Intertrust Technologies of Datasets
A
I and IoT will greatly expand the a game changer once it is widely available.
Sajid Mukhtar, MD, Roter Group
scope and utility of geospatial One area, in particular, where we would see
T
data products. The increasing significant impact is increasing computation he Geospatial industry has
number of IoT devices will of geospatial and other data in edge devices, witnessed a major boost with the
broaden and enhance both the quantity with a corresponding increase in streaming of rise of computing power. Mod-
and granularity of geospatial data as well as data to and from these devices. In applica- ern technologies like LiDAR
provide new use cases and markets. tions where latency, data rates, and coverage and photogrammetry have been adapted on
Automation is greatly increasing the are currently limiting factors, such as autono- multiple economic platforms and are being
velocity of data mous vehicles, 5G will have a huge impact. used in a variety of
in machine-to- ways — from ordinary
machine com- Enduring trust cars to remotely piloted
munications. In While the increasing amount of data privacy vehicles like aerial
these scenarios, regulations will lead to some initial market drones and autonomous
having an confusion, it will ultimately provide clearer underwater vehicles.
efficient method guidance to the industry and eliminate super- We have huge
to establish pol- fluous data gathering. To paraphrase the datasets collected from
icies that govern famous Ronald Regan quote, trust but verify. the field, even in real
which machine Modern trusted data platforms such time. Today, technologies
processes can as Intertrust’s Modulus give organizations like Big Data and Deep Learning are being
access what the capability to secure their data, ensuring employed to analyze the datasets and provide
data becomes a that it can only be accessed by people and reliable and timely solutions in urban plan-
critical enabler. processes with appropriate permission and ning, agriculture, infrastructure management,
5G will be under agreed upon policies. mining, disaster mitigation, etc.
AI to Power Data Extraction Tech for Awareness

Kiran Manchikanti, Founder, Mapsol
Alexander Wiechert, CEO, Vexcel Imaging
W
e run into newer prob-
I
n the coming years, companies that can best uti- lems every day, especially
lize data will be well positioned in the market. In in the field of geospatial.
mining and construction sectors, the use of tech- With the mainstreaming
nology is relatively new, so merely data capturing of Artificial Intelligence and Internet of
won’t be enough, and there is a need to connect the dots Things, the true power
from data to information and from insights to decision. and potential of GIS
The companies who master this process are in a will come to the fore
position to make proactive decisions and decisions at and lead to enhanced
a more frequent basis — a considerable advantage in awareness among peo-
our industry. ple about geospatial.
AI is not just about automating workflows and pro- In fact, all emerging
cesses; it is also about doing the end work without any technologies will soon-
human involvement. Autonomously moving material er or later contribute
is one of the end tasks that SafeAI focuses on. This is a to enhanced geospatial
fundamental shift, from merely assisting human with a awareness. Recession is a consequence of
specific job, AI will perform the job in place of human. mismanagement and disarray. In such a
Companies also need to be transparent regarding phase, geospatial technology and data can
how they use users data, and they need to be informed bring a lot of clarity to organizations and
accordingly. help them make informed decisions.

TopTalk
Digitalization Creating
Innovative Businesses
Dheeraj Mehra, CEO, Micronet application of the user/customer and not just
pixels of information.
D
igitalization, while being disrup-
tive in nature, has enabled many AI and ML powering geospatial The current
businesses. The traditional busi- Geospatial technologies provide a visual
ness models are melting and new platform to see the impact scenarios of various
digitalization of
models are being evolved. We need to under- decisions to-be-made by governments and services has made it
stand customer needs and put a solution in industries. It enables them to make informed
place for an enhanced user experience, only decisions to the problems in order to serve
difficult to push for a
then we can retain them. public or customers. However, government standalone product
The current digitalization of services sector is plagued with inordinate delays in
has made it extremely difficult to push for access to the technology and inherent resist-
a standalone product. Customers shy away ance by staff which creates a huge challenge in technocrats and innovators are focusing on
from the ownership of data and want models dissemination of this technology. If the govern- these technologies to help solve practical
of pay-per-use for many services. However, ment sector can absorb such technologies, it problems of the industry .This will enable the
such services in imagery sector are difficult to shall benefit the same people who oppose such industry and end users access to the technol-
provide at the consumer level, owing to high technology implementations in the first place. ogy at cheaper costs and without investing in
cost of data acquisition. We need to provide Artificial Intelligence and Machine huge manpower costs and timelines to build
complete solutions which fulfill a particular Learning are certainly game changers. Many the geospatial datasets for analysis.
Geospatial Solutions Adding Value

Dheeraj Sharma, Director, GIS Consortium
G
eospatial information is one solutions that are cutting edge and help us
of the key and fundamental provide our clients with the state-of-the-art
information sets that are required technological innovation.
by almost every sector. Being a The advent of drones, 3D Mapping and
technology service and solution provider or- Modelling have added to our existing compe-
ganization, the digital transformation that is tence and capabilities. Further, the use of 2D
being witnessed across the board has impact- maps as baseline data by various sectors have
ed our area of business in a positive sense. It resulted in development of new solutions and
has led to development of new products and products catering to specific sectors such as
property taxation, utilities network manage-
ment, water supply management where not
Geospatial just geospatial but also integration with new and maintenance of the geospatial systems
technologies such as IoT, sensors, AI etc., are that have been deployed. The ability to pro-
information has led the new additions as well. vide services and solutions across the geospa-
to development of We provide end-to-end geospatial solu- tial value chain make us preferred technology
cutting-edge products tions across the value chain from spatial data partner as the client gets all the geospatial
creation to processing, integration (spatial to services, solutions and products streamlined
and solutions spatial and spatial to non-spatial), application according to their business requirements
and solution development as well as update matching their business work flows.

4 IDENTICAL SATELLITES
30 cm Colour Imagery
Swath
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TopTalk
Innovations Transforming Workflows

Natasha Ridley, Director of Product - Apps, Nearmap
E
volving technology and digiti- to virtually inspect a site, customers can
sation of traditional work- spend less time in the field and more time
flows and practices can ulti- on higher value activities. And now, tech-
mately bring more efficiency nology innovations such as AI are enabling
to businesses. Wide array of businesses more transformative practices.
ranging from small landscaping services Nearmap is bringing aerial imagery to
to multinational engineering firms customers that may not have been able to
have been able to introduce more afford or access it previously. We continue
efficient and cost effective workflows. to drive and invest in product development
For instance, by using aerial imagery every day.
Customer-first Approach for Higher Growth

to continuously invest in R&D and product
Tommy Van Der Heijden, CEO, Marxact
development because lack of any progress is
O
ngoing digitalization is making GNSS actually falling back. Companies also need
surveying readily available for a user, ir- to set new standards and look at releasing its
respective of whether he is a professional developments to the customers directly.
surveyor or not. Technological advance- Embracing new technologies, enhancing
ments are enabling customers to carry on surveying efficiency, and implementing it for the benefit
themselves and only hire a surveyor in the most of customers is great strategy that should be
difficult situations. This is beneficial for the surveyors prioritized. Although there are challenges in
as well, as they have more time to work around new driving innovation, it is the only option to fore-
insights and generate more data for analysis. stall stagnancy and keep the business vibrant.
Customer enablement and being firmly focused In 2020, companies should ensure that
on long-term goals over short-term benefits, is one of technological impact on business is largely
the keys to thrive in any business. Also, there is a need positive.
Roadblocks in Embracing AgTech

Kevin Spry, CEO, GeoG2 that basing sound management decisions on
regression modeling is like steering a ship by
T
echnology is increasingly becom- watching the wake. There is also a need to
ing a part of agriculture, but the keep so-called experts and snake oil salesmen
pace of adoption is slow. The out of the industry.
sector has suffered from over Over selling and under performance has
promises and under performance from both been a major problem in the adoption of
government and commercial efforts. Farming technology in the industry. We constantly
is way more complex that more people think. work on evaluating new technology. As a
Most of the use cases of AI that I have seen data company, our emphasis is on improv-
are more regression modeling than real time ing the efficiency of our data collection,
situation awareness that is required in agri- while simultaneously improving the data we
cultural production. There is an old saying are collecting.

TopTalk
LeaderSpeak
Data Calibration Key to Gain Insights

Chris McCormick, Chairman & Founder, PlanetIQ
D
ata certainly has a primary role, but we spawning much more knowledge and applications.
should really focus more on the derived ‘Internet of Things’ data as one of the inputs to
knowledge we obtain from it. Data by “Artificial Intelligence” can certainly glean information
itself is not necessarily useful, it has to out of the large data sets. This also assumes that the
be quality data and systematically calibrated. Data in data is calibrated, meaningful and true – true in the
general, even in the same categories have tremendous real scientific peer review sense, not as an arbitrary
range of information content depending on quality ‘true’ from marketing or commercial bias. That is just
and calibrations. A square mile with 5 meter black and saying that not all data is created equal, or that all data
white imagery resolution has some value, but data with is useful. I think that AI & IoT is certainly making
25 cm resolution and calibrated hyperspectral of that many processes more efficient, from image analysis to
same location has so much more informational content billing to inventory and logistics.
Managing All Those Bumpy Ride Ahead

Yottabytes of Data for HD Maps
Pierrick Poulenas, CEO, Picterra Scott Harvey, CTO, Civil Maps
T H
he Copernicus program from The European Space D Maps are fast-gaining popularity in a lot of industrial
Agency (ESA) alone is collecting more than 250 TB sectors: railways, pipeline, power transmission projects
of data daily. The analysis of these yottabytes of data as well as municipal asset
brings up new challenges for the entire geospatial management. However,
industry. It will have a profound impact on the entire value-chain, the fluid definition of HD Maps in the
from the way we design, launch and operate Earth observation market remains a challenge. Certain
satellites to the way we providers produce highway-only, basic
process, analyze and lane features and claim they have a large
disseminate EO based coverage of HD Maps, while others pro-
added-value information vide additional features but do not have
to industry end-users as the absolute accuracy required to meet
well as citizens. A new the safety standards of autonomous
paradigm approach has vehicles. There is a need to educate
to be defined to support customers on the varying definitions of HD maps.
the long-term growth Another obstacle for an HD mapping and localization company
of the industry and to is that major tech companies (Waymo, Cruise, Aurora, etc) are doing
foster real-world usage mapping and localization in-house, shrinking the current addressable
of EO based products. market size. One of the biggest roadblocks for mapping scalability
At Picterra, we provide a geospatial platform that has been from R&D to production is the need to have a quality control for
specially designed for training Deep Learning-based detectors to the map. Innovation around scalable, even crowdsourced models of
automate the analysis of geospatial imagery. quality control, will be necessary, no matter how much automation is
Within a single line of code, anyone can train and deploy added to the map generation process. Map format standardization is
detectors at scale to identify objects (road cracks, buildings, also the need of the hour.
wildlife, damaged roofs etc.) We empower our customer with Civil Maps’ strengths are currently focused on urban HD map-
the most efficient and cost-effective tool to create personalized ping and localization whereas the traditional mapping companies
analytics, without having to invest in an expensive data-science have expertise in highway HD mapping and large sales and marketing
program. resources.

TopTalk
Geospatial for Actionable Insights

Kedar Kulkarni, CEO, HyperVerge unlock previously unimaginable applications.
T
echnological advances and innova- Digital journey
tions in the recent past have acted as The world embarked on a digital journey a couple of decades ago, and
an enabler for our business, starting we saw the PC, Internet and Cloud completely changing the way busi-
with the advancement in Deep nesses work. Today, Big Data & AI are driving the digitization process
Learning. The novel architecture supported by and HyperVerge is enabling various organizations to leverage the
CNN, RNN algorithms have aided in solving same. We build Deep Learning-based AI algorithms that transform
complex computer vision problems. petabytes of data (images, videos & documents) to bite-sized action-
With the rise of Cloud services, we have come able and accurate insights for defense and commercial sectors.
a long way from the time when satellite
imagery was shared in a physical hard Collaborative Innovation
disk. Leveraging auto-scaling infrastruc- This year, our focus will be on the defense, telecom, insurance and
ture on the Cloud helps us process large energy sectors. We believe that one of the most effective ways to accel-
volumes of satellite imagery quickly. erate the creation of value across sectors is to collaborate and leverage
Then there is the smallsat revolu- complementary capabilities. Hence, we are investing in our R&D by
tion. The influx of satellite imagery on collaborating with various domain partners, satellite and aerial imagery
a near-daily basis combined with our companies. The economic slowdown is unfortunate, but it is an oppor-
computer vision technology has helped us tunity for companies like us that offer new technologies.
Right Use of Data Tech for Cost Saving

Bibhrajit Halder, CEO, SafeAI Yogesh Khandelwal, CEO, GeoAMPS
I W
n the coming years, companies that can best utilize data will ith the rapid increase in the pace of digitalization,
be well positioned in the market. In mining and construction there has been a profound impact on the way busi-
sectors, the use of technology is relatively new, so merely data nesses handle and manage their data. Evolution in
capturing won’t be enough, and there is a need to connect the geospatial data is also unveiling new opportunities,
dots from data to information and from insights to decision. and more spatial analytics is being done than ever before. However,
The companies who master this process are in a position to make there is a growing need of streamlining the data and embedding it
proactive decisions and decisions at a more frequent basis — a con- into the current technology worklfows.
siderable advantage in our industry. Technology provides a key element within process streamlining and
AI is not just about automat- cost saving. As such, it becomes a key
ing workflows and processes; it tool for organizations that are looking to
is also about doing the end work do more with less. Some of the key com-
without any human involvement. ponents of geoAMPS leverage the spatial
Autonomously moving material mapping capabilities and mobile capabili-
is one of the end tasks that SafeAI ties for land record management in several
focuses on. This is a fundamental industries. Both of these technologies
shift, from merely assisting human are on hyper growth path which provides
with a specific job, AI will per- a lot of opportunities to continuously
form the job in place of human. upgrade our offerings. The advantage
Companies also need to be of our product is that it is configurable
transparent regarding how they which allows companies to adapt the
use users data, and they need to be software to their own internal needs, thus
informed accordingly. reducing costly customizations risk.

TopTalk
LeaderSpeak
Innovations in Fast Forward

Multiple Domains Digitalization
Rajesh Paul, CEO, Excel Geomatics ahul Srivastava, SVP & Global Head-
R
Enterprise Apps & Digital Technology, Smart IMS
W
ith the advent of digitalization, geospatial has
K
become ubiquitous in its application. Geospatial eeping track of all your machines, devices, and
data and technologies help in data visualization movable, non-movable assets gets a lot easier and
and location based analytics, which are now cheaper with the help of geospatial data. Geospatial
helping industries and government in making informed decisions is just everywhere. Any new technology is an integral
in less time. With the ever-increasing utility of GIS in all domains, part of digitalization process, which is fast evolving and rendering
there is a need to keep pace with innovations. For this purpose, Excel old technologies redundant. While internet was one of the biggest
Geomatics has established a separate R&D cell with engineers and technological revolutions of the previous decade, today is just a me-
experts from diverse fields to complement each other. AI and IOT dium to implement and leverage digitalization, and definitely not
are essential for any types of smart interventions, and the company enough to get an competitive edge.
has successfully converted few analog IoT has gone beyond connecting
sensors into IOT based sensors. sensors and tapping data for organiza-
New technological developments tions. Customer are now asking for a
have undoubtedly bolstered geospatial platform to interconnect and automate
and unveiled new opportunities; how- all the divisions of their organization
ever, they pose certain unique challenges and gain information, actionable, auto-
as well. For instance, automatic feature mated and result oriented analytics. For
extraction using AI and Deep Learning that, our company is focusing on IoT
has brought down the data cost and security, analytics and intelligence using
it is very difficult to compete against Blockchain, Artificial and Emotional
the companies who have taken lead in Intelligence, Machine Learning, Neural
automatic feature extraction. Network and Deep Learning.
Drone Solutions for Better Decision-Making

stage of an assets’ lifecycle. The primary focus of
Mughlian Thiru Swamy, CEO, Skylark Drones
Skylark in R&D is on developing better proprietary
D
rone data-based solutions offer the ideal algorithms that are developed specifically to model
temporal and spatial bridge to bring the and analyze assets in focus sectors.
worksite to decision makers in near re- Drone-based solutions are crucial for enterprise
al-time. They can also go one step further planning and building and maintaining critical eco-
to give information layers and management tools nomic assets such as large-scale transport infrastruc-
to act on the data that is presented to them, thereby ture, mines, clean energy and farms. They also help
reducing the time to understanding, reviewing and streamline the planning process for these sectors
making a decision. with digital twins, reduce management overhead
The recent push by private and public organi- during construction with near-real time monitoring
zations to digitize not just their workflows but the and extend the lifecycle of assets through preventive
physical assets around which they operate is a positive maintenance. What does this mean for $1Tn+ global
development for drone-based solutions. This trend has asset base? A streamlined planning process built
hastened the adoption of the technologies that bridge on digital twins, reduced management overhead
the asset ground reality with the management and during construction with near real time monitoring,
decision-making processes elsewhere deliver valuable a longer asset lifecycle with frequent preventive
insights that prevent time and cost overruns in every maintenance – all managed on the cloud.

TopTalk
Location for Mapping Mapping for The

Consumer Patterns Future of Mobility
Devashish Fuloria, Founder, GeoIQ Dr Florian Petit, Founder, Blickfeld
I L
n the geospatial sector, companies want to reach out to their iDAR is an enabler in many areas and will drive the
customers in the shortest span of time, and thus knowing development of autonomous driving, smart city
the ‘where’ component is critical to them. There is a massive applications, robotics, drones, and many more. Most
opportunity in predicting dynamic consumer behavior based average customers will experience the results of a
on location. wider LiDAR deployment in an indirect way.
The need to track each mobile As the automotive industry
device has led to an exponential is preparing for the next step
increase in location data, which into Level 3 autonomy, reliable
needs be handled in a totally environment perception as well as
different way as compared to detailed mapping becomes essen-
other tabular forms of data. The tial. LiDAR sensors are at the heart
capabilities to handle these data- of those applications, but so far
sets were limited till a few years devices have been very expensive
ago, but now, with convergence and prone to failure.
of gaming-quality graphics and Blickfeld changes that with its
cloud-handling of data, the map- scalable mid- and long-range sensors
ping tech has grown by leaps and and therefore supports the industry
bounds. in shaping the future of mobility.
Empowering Tech Geospatial Powering

Transformation Data Analytics
Ramakrishnan Ramamurthy, Managing Director, Geokno Amit Seymour, CEO, Satpalda Geospatial Services
I S
n the field of geospatial, technology is merging with atellite remote sensing is scaling new heights with ad-
almost everything to empower the processes. Self-driving vanced sensors, and with the progress in AI and Machine
cars, UAVs, Wearables, Augmented Reality, Internet of Learning, it is getting easier to incorporate the insights
Things all use spatial data and maps for a wide variety of into geospatial domain.
purposes and applications. GIS can be used for analysis of
Another interesting technology is the any trend that one wants to study.
AI/ML based geospatial data processing The trend and impact of recession
algorithms, whereby the large amount of can also be analyzed based on the
manual processing that is currently needed combination of spatial and non-spa-
for data processing may get significantly tial datasets.
reduced in the coming future. We are Technology remains at the core
closely watching this space as it has excel- of creating digital products and
lent benefits for us in terms of time and services, and developing solutions
cost savings. that are most sought by customers.
Some maturity is also coming in the Investing in research and develop-
UAV technology which is a new platform ment and product innovation is
for survey along with some more regula- the mantra of the progress of any
tory clarity from the government. organization.

TopTalk
LeaderSpeak
Open Source Mapping Enabling Businesses

Vivek G Mendonsa, Group Director, Marketing, LYNX-LAWRENCE & MAYO
G
IS has presented us with endless possibilities through its innovative technology and ap-
proach. The methods have already paved the way for data collection and strategic planning.
Thanks to this ever-increasing volume of readily available geographic data, open source
mapping has become a crucial part of how businesses function and individuals get around.
In return, aiding in creating ecosystems for interaction and real-time awareness while helping plan
and create the future. In today’s time, there is a growing realization that adding geographic location to
business data and mapping can help improve insights. The digital world has exploded with everything
fuelled by the internet, be it our communication, daily living or even healthcare. At least 80% of all
data maintained has a location component.
Redefining Info Access is The Power of

Geo-data Always Crucial 3D printing
Matty Lakerveld, CEO, SpotInfo Thorsten Reitz, CEO, WeTransform Jordan Noone, CEO, Relativity Space
W I T
orking in the geo do- f we want to work with geospatial data he benefits of 3D printing are
main for three decades in Europe, there is a need to call mul- unquestionable. We can print
has taught me that most tiple organizations, make negotiations rockets in days instead of years.
geospatial solutions are with them and then get their data on We are not limited or regiment-
designed and developed from a technical DVDs or USB sticks. If we have the same data ed by using fixed tooling in order to make
point of view. Different usage and legacy models all across Europe to get started with, our parts. If there is something we need to
of geospatial data defines the richness, tex- we will be able to apply the same analytical change, or even
tures, modelling, models and learn design a whole new
storing, exchange, much faster. Right product, we can
visualization and now, the training da- easily do that.
publishing of tasets are too small, Our technology
geospatial data. or our models are offerings have
This results in too specific, both for introduced autono-
voluminous data Machine Learning mous manufac-
sources, complex and for classic ana- turing at scale in
geospatial applications and overwhelming lytical GIS work. Given common standards, an industry that has traditionally has been
functionality. we can circumvent both problems. extremely manual.
IoT is a Promising Market

Rolf Skatteboe, CEO, KSAT
be a need for more small satellites that are cheaper
T
here are currently 1500 satellites and more efficient. There is also a rise in the number
in orbit, and the number is of interconnected devices that can be monitored in-
increasing every year. As the stantly through fast tracking. IoT will be another good
demand for accurate imagery market to look at in the future due to a proliferation in
and real-time insights increases, there will these devices.

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JAN-FEB 2020 » VOLUME 10 » ISSUE 05 | ISSN 2277–3134 www.geospatialworld.net

ANNUAL BUSINESS LEADERS’ OUTLOOK

And the most powerful software

geospatial.trimble.com © 2019, Trimble Inc. All rights reserved.

Editorial6 Steven Hagan Barry Matsumori

4 | GEOSPATIAL WORLD | JAN-FEB 2020

JAN-FEB 2020 | GEOSPATIAL WORLD | 5

It Isn’t Disruption; It’s Continuum of Evolution

6 | GEOSPATIAL WORLD | JAN-FEB 2020

Staying Ahead Versus Staying Relevant

JAN-FEB 2020 | GEOSPATIAL WORLD | 7

8 | GEOSPATIAL WORLD | JAN-FEB 2020

JAN-FEB 2020 | GEOSPATIAL WORLD | 9

10 | GEOSPATIAL WORLD | JAN-FEB 2020

years, Hi-Target continues to innovate the future with

precise and accurate solutions by getting you

Be a part of our future of tomorrow.

GNSS RTK CORS and Marine and Software

GIS Handheld UAV Solutions Optical Solutions Laser and MMS

DISRUPTION, NEW CONSTANT

Do you think geospatial industry has seen Outlook

Geospatial World Business Leaders’ Outlook 2020

12 | GEOSPATIAL WORLD | JAN-FEB 2020

FEAR OF GLOBAL SLOWDOWN

What is the biggest threat to growth?

Geospatial World Business Leaders’ Outlook 2020

PROACTIVE, NOT REACTIVE

Which are the biggest

Geospatial World Business Leaders’ Outlook 2020

14 | GEOSPATIAL WORLD | JAN-FEB 2020

RESTRUCTURING TO STAY RELEVANT

Are you restructuring and transforming your leadership teams?

JAN-FEB 2020 | GEOSPATIAL WORLD | 15

AI FOR BUSINESS OPTIMIZATION

Rise of Artificial Intelligence

Yes No Not sure Yes No Not sure

16 | GEOSPATIAL WORLD | JAN-FEB 2020

AI, AUTOMATION TO CREATE NEW JOBS

Create New Jobs

18% Take Away Old Jobs

Preferred Business Models

Outlook 2020 Outlook 2019

Geospatial World Business Leaders’ Outlook 2020

18 | GEOSPATIAL WORLD | JAN-FEB 2020

NEW USER SEGMENTS TO

Will the next phase of Which are the new user

Which traditional sectors will drive growth?

Geospatial World Business Leaders’ Outlook 2020

JAN-FEB 2020 | GEOSPATIAL WORLD | 19

BEST PLACE FOR BUSINESS

Geospatial World Business Leaders’ Outlook 2020

20 | GEOSPATIAL WORLD | JAN-FEB 2020

FOCUS ON NEW PRODUCT

JAN-FEB 2020 | GEOSPATIAL WORLD | 21

22 | GEOSPATIAL WORLD | JAN-FEB 2020

privacy, which has emerged as a conten- Geospatial World Annual Readership

Graph11 47% 40%

Is it okay if third party companies

Graph 8 Graph 9 Graph 10

24 | GEOSPATIAL WORLD | JAN-FEB 2020

Focus Laser Scanner Series –

Editorial6 Steven Hagan Barry Matsumori