September 2009
'Create
solutions,
not projects'
John K. Graham
President
Security, Government
& Infrastructure
Intergraph Corporation
What is the direction that Intergraph
is moving in as far as GIS is con-
cerned?
We continue to invest in a core GIS
platform through our GeoMedia and
G/Technology offerings. As we move
forward, we are beginning to see that
our customers are becoming more
interested in incorporating emerging
capabilities like 3D into their GIS
applications. This is one area we are
currently investing in.
We are also focussing on vertical solutions
that wrap around our core GIS
platform such as public safety and
security applications. Public safety
and security are very topical today in
India and also globally. What we
notice as we provide public safety
solutions across the Americas,
Europe, the Middle East and Asia is
that the footprint for these solutions
is steadily growing, so the marriage of
GIS and incident response and management
capabilities is an ever-evolving
part of our portfolio. Our solutions
are being steadily adopted around the
world. While we continue to invest in
vertical solutions to assist organisations
around the world with specialised
efforts, we will also continue
to build our core GIS portfolio
because it is the foundation for all of
our solutions.
Another key area of our current R&D
efforts is the common platform initiative
to bring together the best features
of G/Technology and GeoMedia.
The goal is to continue to create an
architecture that is flexible and able
to easily incorporate future technologies
to meet customer needs.
How are the stimulus packages
offered by different governments
being viewed by Intergraph?
Intergraph always strives to make sure
that the solutions we build are timely
for the market. What we currently see
in the US and parts of Europe is that
as governments are deciding to further
invest in infrastructure, we need
to spend time to figure out where they
plan to spend the stimulus dollars. In
the US, we are seeing stimulus funds
being tied to projects like road infrastructure
and smart grid for the utility
space. We are also currently working
hard to educate federal and state government
customers about the capabilities
Intergraph offers that could help
them take advantage of stimulus
funds. A good example of an area we
are focussing on right now is roads
and load bearing capacity, and the
management of permitting for these
efforts. We are working closely with
our customers to ensure that their
stimulus funds are spent wisely.
As the person heading the unit spe-
cialising in providing customised
solutions to governments across the
world, what is your experience in this
aspect?
Intergraph is committed to delivering
solid value to government customers
in a timely manner through solutions
for areas like transportation,
utilities/smart grid and cadastral
efforts. Our interest is not in developing
huge programmes that never
derive value, but in offering the solutions
in our portfolio that are effective
and efficiently add value. We want to
be sure that our solutions are repeatable
and not overly customised and
that they have a short implementation
cycle and quick time to value.
Our military customers are in a different
league in terms of operational
funding. We ensure that we offer
them solutions that impact military
operations at the ground level. We
have solutions around motion video,
exploitation, combining video and
UAV technology with GIS - essentially
the kind of solutions that a military
organisation can use and leverage
effectively in an operational environment.
My principal thought while
leading the SG&I division at Intergraph
has been, "do not create specialised
projects everywhere, but create
solutions that can be leveraged
throughout the world. For example, a
solution developed for India can at
the same time have applicability to a
problem in Australia or any other part
of the globe."
We put a lot of effort in SG&I around
our portfolio planning process and trying
to make sure we have a strong
strategy around GIS and vertical
industry solutions so that we have
repeatability of these solutions.
With specific reference to India, what
are Intergraph's plans?
As a global organisation, our technology
is being used in more than 60
countries. Having a strong global footprint
and also local involvement and
engagement is a key part of our strategy.
This strategy works well in India.
We see India as a robust market in
which we plan to expand in the
future. We currently have growing
market coverage in India through our
partners and development employees.
In the last 12 months, our visits to
India has increased dramatically and
we plan to continue this increased
activity in India moving forward.
As discussed above, there are two
core markets for us. One is to leverage
our open, flexible core GIS platform
and build vertical and regional
solutions on top of it. We would like
to be very flexible and open to allow
that to happen. So with good local
knowledge and technology available
across this country, we are looking at
marketing our technology solutions
which have great local application.
The other market is for our security
portfolio. We are currently involved in
airport, port and infrastructure security,
which is a bit different than traditional
public safety solutions. While
security applications are all about
monitoring and assessment, most
public safety organisations function
after an incident occurs. Security
starts before that. It is all about
establishing and monitoring perimeters
and borders, being able to assess
situations and being able to alert the
appropriate parties automatically.
What are the specific efforts from
Intergraph in evolving its homeland
security solutions?
Our homeland security projects touch
the US, Romania, Middle East and all
over the globe. For example, some of
our technology was used in the Pan
American games. Today, we see a
trend among every major country and
municipality to be security conscious.
We will therefore continue to invest in
this portfolio, and as the world continues
to evolve, our portfolio of products
will continue to address more
aspects of homeland security. We see
it as a key component of our direction
moving forward. It is a natural outgrowth
of our competence in public
safety.
The edge that Intergraph has is in not
just being a GIS company, but also
being a solutions company and having
specific offerings that help address
homeland security. We have installed
security systems for everything from
airports, borders, large events and
infrastructure security and we want to
be sure that our portfolio continues to
address all these venues.
Specific to India, I see a very good
opportunity to leverage some of the
experience we have in the market
with key strategic partners and also
directly. That will be a very strong
part of our strategy, focus and direction
in the future.
What are the initiatives by Inter-
graph towards the education
sector? How do you
address the 'mind
share'
issue?
We see
investing in the education sector as
another means of attracting new
users, talent and mindshare for the
future. We have a programme with
George Mason University in Washington
D.C. where we established a new
relationship around GIS. We will
continue to expand our
relationships in the education
sector because it
is a great way to
familiarise more
people with our
technology and
also to discover
new talent as
our company
grows.
What are
your present
global and
regional
focus areas?
The global
footprint of
our customer
base is much
broader than I
assumed before I
started at Intergraph.
There are
solid installations
that Intergraph
has carried out
through the years
in many regions.
Certain markets
are presently
accelerating very
quickly, including
the Middle East and
Asia, particularly
Southeast Asia, India
and China.
Our local teams are critically
important to us, as they bring
local knowledge with the
help of our partners to
decide the right
technology fit
for each
customer. Moving forward, we have
plans to develop an even stronger
presence in developing markets.
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