Understanding The Value Of Geoographic Information in a Turbullent World

Understanding the value of geographic information in turbulent times
Steven Feldman

Changing environment
Economic crisis demands better RoI
Shift from producer centric to customer responsive organisation
Changing perceptions of value

Budgets under `pressure

Return on Investment

Cost does not equal value
Because geodata is expensive to produce does not mean that it is valuable to customers
Customers determine value with their choices

Private Sector doesn’t necessarily do it any better

“Creating, maintaining and delivering a comprehensive, high quality map database is a multi-step, labor-intensive process. We currently employ over 270 employees in our centralized production facility and a global workforce of over 700 geographic analysts in 32 countries”
Financials (2007)
Revenue $853m (~€604m)
Data creation & distribution costs $396m (~€280m)

At street level at the point of consumption data is

The old adage
Data equals 75-90% of the cost of a solution
Not necessarily
Driven by data monopolies and rigid pricing that did not reflect the different value that the same data brought to different applications

Check before you dig

We areNational Mapping Agencies

Street maps are becoming commodities

Strengths