Industry overview
The GIS industry brings together various stakeholders who enable end-users adopt a geographic approach to problem-solving and decision-making. It includes vendors, who develop spatial technology products, companies that provide services and solutions on those technologies, vendors who create map data products, and those who supply specialised hardware and systems. We continue to see development and growth in all these areas – GIS technologies have grown more sophisticated, are helping to address even more complex business issues and have extended their application through web-based and mobile platforms.

Service providers are helping develop applications and databases that are now accessible to a greater number of users within an enterprise making spatial information even more relevant to business operations and decisions.

Map data vendors are improving the accuracy and coverage of their products and we are seeing major advances in earth imaging and data collection techniques. As a result of all this, end -users in industry and governments are in a position to leverage even greater value from GIS which is further driving the growth of this industry.

Thrust area
An important thrust area is the move towards “mainstreaming GIS”, that is, making the technology accessible to the widest possible base of users and thereby, maximising its value. GIS is transforming from a department-level tool within utilities, telcos and governments into an enterprise-wide tool that supports decision-making across several businesses or organisational processes.

GIS can integrate traditionally disparate processes like property ownership, utility assets and emergency services because each of these functions depends on location and the spatial relationships between property, assets and people.

Organisations are looking to exploit their existing data and turn them into systems that enable information sharing between and across departments and support enterprise-wide applications.

For example, government agencies are leveraging their parcel maps and property data into a land information system that can be accessed by building inspectors, tax assessors, planning personnel, emergency response personnel as well as the community at large.

Markets
Based on available indicators and our own experience, the GIS market witnessed appreciable growth in 2006. Legislation and regulatory compliances have been the business drivers for a number of GIS engagements within the utility and telecom industries. With more responsibilities devolving to state and local governments, these entities have become larger consumers of GIS within their e-government initiatives.

We are also seeing very rapid growth in the personal navigation and LBS markets. The market has been well supported by advances in related areas like product technologies, database management and data acquisition.