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Leica Geospatial Imaging: Towards enterprise solutions
The recent past of Leica Geosystems had been eventful. 'Change' is the word of the day for this technologies development giant. The conglomerate is all set to take on 2006 with a spate of software and hardware product upgrades.
Hexagon BV, a Swedish engineering conglomerate acquired Leica Geosystems in the third quarter of 2005 and this resulted in a significant restructuring of the company. In order to enhance focus and provide commitment to its business units, the company was organized into three divisions with immediate effect - Measuring Tools, Geospatial Imaging and Geosystems. The former division called Consumer Products was renamed as 'Measuring Tools' division and was set to focus on the new, sixth generation of DISTO laser distance meter products. Klaus Brammertz, with Leica Geosystems for four years, continues to lead this division.
The 'Geospatial Imaging' division based in Atlanta is set to focus on software and prepare the entry into vertical markets, which is in accordance with the plans prepared before the takeover by Hexagon BV. Robert Morris continues to lead this division. The Surveying & Engineering Division, the High Definition Surveying Division and the Airborne Sensor Business Unit were consolidated to form the new 'Geosystems' division. Clement Woon, with Leica Geosystems since 1992, and the President of the Surveying & Engineering Division since 2001, leads this division. In addition, the former Leica Geosystems Metrology Division has been fully integrated into the Hexagon Metrology Business Area. As far as the geospatial community is concerned, two key changes are to be noted. Hans Hess retired after 16 years with Leica Geosystems from the position of CEO and Ola Rollen, head of Hexagon took over as CEO of Leica Geosystems. The other significant news to be marked is that the airborne sensors (imaging and lidar), which were earlier managed under the Geospatial Imaging division have now been moved to the Geosystems division,(formerly known as the Surveying & Engineering division). This has been done to project the Geospatial Imaging division as a software solutions business and accelerate its growth in the geospatial market.
Leica Geosystems Geospatial Imaging:
What now?
After the acquisition of Leica Geosystems, Hexagon BV had made its plans vis-à-vis the Leica Geosystems Geospatial Imaging division clear and positive for the entire industry to understand. There are absolutely no intentions of divesting this division. On the contrary, there are stronger and firmer strides towards consolidation of the unique market opportunity that Leica Geosystems Geospatial Imaging division caters to and provides. With the incorporation of the 'sensor business' into the Geosystems division, a renewed and clear focus on the development of geospatial software solutions has emerged that can enable and support the sensor equipment better. Hence, even though the managerial ownership has shifted divisions, the past relationship of Geospatial Imaging software support for the airborne sensors stands strong. The new strategic directions of the Geospatial Imaging Division have been defined. There are two main directions of movement expected in the coming months and years Firstly, an eventful 2006 is in store for the entire industry with Leica Geosystems renewed focus on several new software releases , and enhancements planned for 2006. In addition, the emphasis on fostering partnerships remains, with greater emphasis to working in tandem with the customer's choice and demands, wherever possible. The overall strategy can be summarized as:
- Renewed focus on product development
- Enabling geospatial intelligence in enterprise environment
- Product releases and software enhancements for 2006
- Fostering partnerships
- Meet customer demands and deliver enterprise solutions
At this juncture it is relevant to mention some of the releases of Leica planned for 2006. A few of the products announced in January are touched upon here. These display the committed and far reaching objectives of Leica for the coming times.
ERDAS Imagine V9.0 (EI v9.0)
In EI V9.0 there is a strong emphasis on enabling the 'enterprise' sector solutions. ERDAS Imagine V9.0 has announced that most of the updates are aimed at enterprise environments. Some of the features that enable this are:
- Provides client-side interaction to leverage spatially aware databases, such as ESRI ArcSDE & Oracle Spatial 10g
- Maximizes the organizations' investment
- Oracle support
- Improved support for ArcSDE
Leica Photogrammetry Suite (LPS) Version 9.0
Leica Photogrammetry Suite (LPS) Version 9.0 is aimed at high-volume production photogrammetry organizations. The main rider of LPS 9.0 is that it provides a more efficient means of editing seams for sizable projects that may involve a large number of images. This release also introduced Leica MosaicPro. Updated versions of PRO600 9.0 and ORIMA DP for LPS 9.0 were also included. The mosaic-ing module comes with it, improved seam-editing capabilities, enhanced functionality and improved radiometric adjustment abilities.
Leica Virtual Explorer V3.0
One of the most closely watched releases of early 2006 had been the Leica Virtual Explorer V3.0. Developed to facilitate collaborative decision making through 3D visualization and sharing of geospatial information, Leica Virtual Explorer aims at seamlessly integrating terabytes of spatial data into an interactive "digital earth". The entire Virtual Explorer initiative is aimed at empowering stakeholders to demonstrate 3D spatial relationships, and analyze spatially in a 3D environment. The Leica Virtual Explorer tool suite comprises:
- Leica Virtual Explorer Architect, for constructing and exploring realistic 3D scene interpretations;
- Leica Virtual Explorer Client and Pro Client, enabling the remote exploration of 3D environments;
- Leica Virtual Explorer Server, for quick and efficient streaming of scenes over private networks or the Internet.
What next? A new paradigm
Leica Geosystems Geospatial Imaging is now consciously focussing on a number of positive changes that are contextual to the industry and relevant to the users of geospatial tools worldwide. Enterprise GIS, which is aimed at multiple users, sitting at multiple locations yet working on a common project same time, involves technological capabilities of handling large volumes of data over virtual space with the ability to edit and analyse. It also involves simplifying or customizing geospatial platforms to the extent that it gets integrated to the overall IT strategy of the organisation. All this can be basically achieved by having three types of strategies:
- Adding enterprise applications to desktop products
- New development focused on optimizing for the enterprise
- New releases key for next fiscal year
With all these factors set in mind, the young and skilled geospatial imaging workforce is emerging to be one of the most ingenious and appropriate geospatial team that is aimed at delivering reliable measurements, information and solutions for the entire workflow of its customers. Leica on whole is also powering geospatial imaging by putting precise imaging to work through its broad array of airborne sensors, photogrammetry and remote sensing software solutions to capture data efficiently, reference imagery accurately, measure and analyze easily and present spatial information, even in 3D.
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