1.What's the message to this year's attendees? Just new products? What type of vision will be presented to them as to why Intergraph is still providing the best total GIS solution?
Certainly there will be a great deal of attention focused on the new release of GeoMedia 5.0.Mapping, GIS, and IT professionals will want to hear about the new levels of performance, flexibility, and scalability we have built into the GeoMedia products.GeoSpatial World conference attendees are implementing our technology in government and commercial enterprises worldwide - we want to send them home with the latest information about our products and with new ideas from other GeoMedia users about how to improve efficiency and profitability.
Also in the spotlight will be IntelliWhere OnDemand, a new vector-based mapping software product for personal digital assistants (PDAs).This off-the-shelf solution is ideal for organizations employing mobile workforces in government, transportation, utilities, and the military.Benefits include wireless field access to data such as intelligent maps, diagrams, and asset information.
We will also feature the direction of our product strategy - to combine
both mapping and GIS functionality in one integrated, open, standards-based
product suite.Enterprise systems, interoperability, Web services, and
data access have become mainstream needs and are top priorities in Intergraph
Mapping and GIS Solutions' products.Promoting and enabling open communication
among individuals and organizations worldwide is our objective.At GeoSpatial
World 2002, we will demonstrate our ability to facilitate these capabilities
with the goal of inspiring attendees to implement them more and more into
their workflow.
2.How many attendees do you expect? More than last year?
We anticipate approximately 1,000 attendees.This is about the same
as last year.We believe the events and aftermath of September 11 have
impacted attendance this year.
3.Where is Intergraph's strength in the market today? With traditional customers in local government and engineering?
Intergraph Mapping and GIS Solutions focuses on its core products and on industry solutions.Our core GIS offering, the GeoMedia product suite, has matured with the version 5.0 release and provides new functionality in data capture, data validation, analysis, map publishing, and Web mapping.
We are focused on significant segments of the industry with our industry solutions including: public works, for infrastructure management of water and wastewater systems; transportation, for management of linear referencing systems; land management and parcel management; and location-based services (LBS), with a focused division called IntelliWhere that is part of Intergraph Mapping and GIS Solutions.
4.Is the Intergraph strategy to continue to offer more products to the traditional customers with targeted solutions, or will newer markets be surveyed for the potential growth that they offer and hence additional solutions to be delivered in the coming year?
We believe LBS and IntelliWhere have vast growth potential, and we are investing in that area.Our traditional customers will have a need for LBS and we will provide it for them, but they're not the only market.Location-based technology can be used in many different applications - we'll provide the functionality to companies that need to offer the service to their customers. We don't go directly to consumers, but provide our platform to companies that do.
We want to build on the valuable assets we have and grow our business. We are doing this in a number of ways.The first is by developing partnerships in several categories.We are participating with strategic level partners such as Oracle and IBM and becoming more and more a part of business systems such as CRM.We are not a leader in these bigger markets and we are finding other systems integrators to take us into these markets.In some cases, it's a matter of them embedding our technology through an OEM relationship, and in others we come in as a partner to implement the geospatial element.
Another area in which we are promoting partnerships is our successful Team GeoMedia program.This program was started when we released GeoMedia 1.0 to build and maintain a qualified network of consulting firms, system integrators, data providers, end users, resellers, enterprise software/solutions providers, and development partners.We've recently created another tier of partners, which includes our Registered Solutions Provider (RSP) and Registered Solutions Center (RSC) programs, which provide a portfolio of products and services, long-term partnerships, and expertise to implement real-world business solutions that help customers achieve maximum return on mapping and GIS investments.
All of these new focuses, however, will not diminish the attention we give to our traditional customers and their needs.We will continue to develop the capabilities of our core products and our industry solutions. We are committed to open systems solutions and data interoperability - our goal is to provide the latest technology to our customers so they can get full return on their data investment and accomplish their business objectives efficiently.
5.What do you perceive will be the highlight of this year's conference?
Of course, one of the exciting aspects of the conference will be the introduction of the GeoMedia version 5.0 product suite.Sessions will feature these new products and Intergraph staff members will be demonstrating them in the exhibit rotunda - attendees will have a chance to get all their questions answered.
Conference attendees will be anxious to hear more about location-based services, particularly IntelliWhere OnDemand.IntelliWhere was introduced at GeoSpatial World 2001 to a standing-room-only crowd.Since then, the mobile telecommunications revolution has brought about a whole new set of opportunities for Intergraph and for our customers.IntelliWhere staff will demonstrate how attendees can extend mapping and GIS solutions to the mobile workforce using the latest technology.
We will be focusing also on our newly created tier of partners, which
includes Registered Solutions Provider (RSP) and Registered Solutions Center
(RSC) members.The program already supports more than 100 business partners
- many of whom will be joining us at the conference.They will showcase
their technical expertise as session presenters and their solutions in
their exhibit booths.