GIS@development August 2002: "Product Development"

Product development is often defined as the process by which a concept takes the shape of a product and comes to market. It is a complex function involving distinct disciplines like market analysis, strategic planning, design, development, finance, marketing and sales. The complexity of these disciplines traditionally (except the last two decades) required product development to be no longer a domain of a few talented individuals, but a collaborative effort of many persons and organizations. The upcoming knowledge based society and the rise of software industry in the contemporary era has been changing this. Be it DOS or Hotmail or khoj.com product development in the field of software has different philosophy to follow. It is now more on the intellectual capability of an individual.

What drives the research community to develop new products?
Market Forces!

Market Forces can be domestic or global market driving the economy of the country. The thread joining the cradles of product development tells us that all these countries have a strong domestic market. The strength of the domestic market is again a factor of the revenue generated from the domestic market and also of the local policy however subtle it may be to promote and support locally developed products apart from the ongoing policy issues on spatial database in public domain.

It is also seen that the evolution of product was a part of a continuous service being provided to one or many of clients over a period of time in the domestic market, which led to the development of a process definition and product development. One can look at ESRI for an example, which through started in 1969 was primarily into service segment before they moved into products in 1982, more than a decade after they had started providing services.

Well, than we should be very happy to have so many private organizations from Asian region engaged in providing services. With specific reference to India we wish that very soon they will mature into delivering products, or reusable components based on the experience gained in providing services. It would have been near to the above mentioned scenario in India, but for the mechanical system in which many of our private players seems to be more than happy with providing overseas services. In contrast, China has a very strong domestic market in the field of GIS and remote sensing, where most of the players are busy providing services to the domestic market. In short run we may feel good about it, they are busy handling their local projects and are not competing with the Indian players in the International area, but if we have to go by history, it may not take much time on their part to use their experience gained in providing turnkey to develop new products. This apart from the capability acquired to execute projects on turnkey basis. Because a project executed in the domestic market generally calls for a solution on a turnkey basis, which include processes critical to product development. In comparison services rendered abroad are generally not for critical components, as they are not based on the understanding of the market or client�s need, rather it depends on the basis of negotiation with the contracting agency. This deprives the service provider from learning the essential component of market behaviors and it�s relationship with product development. Losing an opportunity to fine tune products based on the market response. So, what do we do?

Stop map digitization! No. We have to encourage the domestic market. We have to take the responsibility of nurturing and strengthening the domestic market. Not only in the field of GIS, GPS and Remote Sensing but in all the fields of applied technologies. The Spatial Industry is in the process of transition where the realization of the importance of research and development has started showing in the form of increased spending in the R&D. Although the spending pattern has been homogenous in specific segments of government and private organizations, they will have a point of convergence. Government R&D has been more towards developing core GIS engines like GramChitra, Gram++, ISRO GIS, Census GIS, GramDrishti, GramChitra etc. Private organizations are working more towards developing components, which will find in-house reusability to start with.

The industry is in the position to further explore the collaborative research in the win-win model, with the bottom line that we have to turn our R&D strengths into economic and commercial benefit. An example could be the initiative to commercially exploit Gram++. The sales, however modest speak volumes of the need to have commercial ventures to market and improve the product, which was developed in an academic environment. The opening up of the platform for small non-government and private organizations will also play a key role in the vertical development for specific industry segment.