Company: ARC Advisory Group
Industry: Advertising / Marketing / Mkt Research
Location: Dedham, MA, United States of America

Many publicly traded enterprise software suppliers external to the GIS market have already reported substantial reductions in 2009 revenues. “However, GIS software differs from other enterprise software markets due to the extensive sales to businesses in non-cyclical sectors such as utilities and government. Therefore, the economic downturn’s effect on the GIS market is expected to be subdued in comparison to the downturn’s effect on other enterprise software markets,” according to Clint Reiser (creiser@arcweb.com), Enterprise Software Analyst, and the principal author of ARC’s “Geospatial Information Systems Worldwide Outlook” (http://www.arcweb.com/res/gis).

Electric Power Adopts GIS as Smart Grid Platform
The transmission and distribution operations of the electric power industry have adopted GIS solutions as the standard platform technology for the management of their networks. GIS sales to this vital industry are predicted to experience above average growth due to the expansion and ongoing management of electric power infrastructure in emerging economies and increased investment resulting from the Smart Grid initiative in the United States. The Smart Grid initiative will introduce distributed generation and new devices into the electric power grid. This will require substantial network reengineering. GIS is the likely technology to be used for the design, analysis, and ongoing management of the new network configuration. These evolving requirements are expected to increase the level of GIS adoption, upgrade, and modification within the electric power industry.

Emerging Technologies Reshape the GIS Market
The deployment of GIS server solutions, or “Enterprise GIS”, has grown considerably over the last decade. As a result, GIS has become accessible to numerous employees across an organization in sectors such as government and utilities. Over the same period, mobile GIS has become more prevalent and shows promise for increased adoption in network design and maintenance functions. More recently, the use of web services and cloud computing have become emerging trends within the industry. Spatial analysis capabilities in conjunction with customer demographic data and other general data sets are already being delivered to the market through the software-as-a-service (SaaS) model. The continuing adoption of mobile GIS, the SaaS delivery model, and other forms of cloud computing have great potential to transform and expand segments of the GIS market in the near future.
For more information on this study, please visit www.arcweb.com/res/gis

About ARC: Founded in 1986, ARC Advisory Group has grown to become the Thought Leader in Manufacturing, Energy, and Supply Chain solutions. No matter how complex your business issues, our analysts have the expert industry knowledge and first-hand experience to help you find the best answer. We focus on simple yet critical goals: improving your return on assets, operational performance, total cost of ownership, project time-to-benefit, and shareholder value. Further information can be obtained from ARC, Three Allied Drive, Dedham, MA 02026, 781-471-1000, Fax 781-471-1100, E-mail info@arcweb.com, Web www.arcweb.com.

Clint Reiser (creiser@arcweb.com)
Phone: 781-471-1159