Terms such as ‘ownership and extent’, ‘vector’, ‘geospatial’ and ‘shape files’ are indicative of a new language for the average business person. Their meaning can take on a real significance once that business person learns the association with location and mapping.
As part of the 2012 Olympic legacy, Britain has been building by leaps and bounds. The country continues to develop and grow and export its particular brand of expertise: creative but considered planning and development.
The Olympic Park and Village which spawned a new community in Newham, previously a deprived area of east London, has become a benchmark for best practice in construction and infrastructure. The strength of the accomplishments of the 2012 building programmes lay in the intelligent application of precise data.
The journey from 2012 to now is all about the big picture
The interpretation of data has always been a business driver. Customer insight is the only conduit for best in class service delivery: speaking to purchasers and service users in a way that is appropriate, accessible and meaningful to them.
The construction industry and its related sectors are no different. If retailers or hoteliers or housing developers or transport engineering firms want to build thriving concerns they need to understand who (and to a certain extent what) is out there. Are you building a major structure? Do you need to purchase surrounding residential property in order for your development to become a viable proposition? What was onsite previously? What’s below the surface of the subdivision?
Geospatial data and geographic information mapping systems (GIS) integrate to allow investors to know the answers to these questions and to see a true representation. Usually, investors are not engineers, planners or architects. The professional interpretation of data is a business critical requirement.
Being able to build in a viable location using the appropriate materials is both a time saver and, further down the line contributes to revenue generation and sustainable communities.
Layers have meaning: standard toolkit for infrastructure professionals
If you’re tendering for new contracts, it’s likely that you already know your unique selling point, your value proposition and you have your consultancy pitch committed to memory.
Are you using interpretation and visual display of data to accentuate how your prospective clients can build better, faster and potentially with significantly greater returns? Are you exploring how you can use new platforms to integrate mapping and modelling tools? Is integrating current data into your mapping tools a business as usual approach?
Data-driven technology is now the industry standard. If your business is waiting for things to slow down or for other, more traditional routes to present themselves, you’re likely to miss the best that business has to offer from now until 2020.
2020
Industry experts and pundits hail 2020 as the next era for GIS technology. According to experts, the market is expected to have grown in value by at least 10%. There are a number of systems available to professionals. For HM Land Registry customers, the data provided is compatible with all mapping systems and is often used to create overlays in big picture scenarios.
As future cities become a reality beyond 2012’s Olympic Village, 2020 will see infrastructure professionals applying their skills to the finishing touches: schemes such as high-speed rail project HS2, being in on the ground floor of supply chain provision to the new UK motorway network or demonstrating their exportable expertise at Dubai’s Expo 2020.
Whatever your current or planned area of expertise, geospatial data and more flexible mapping systems are fundamental elements to help you develop the big picture.