Enabling Mobile Mapping
Dr. Robert F. Austin President Austin Communications Education Services 2937 Landmark Way 2119 Egret Drive Palm Harbor, Florida 34684 USA Tel: +1 (727) 787-1125 Email: docbo@aol.com Anthony J. Quartararo III President Spatial NetWorks, Inc. Clearwater, Florida 33764 USA Tel: 727-538-0545 Email: ajq3@spatialnetworks.com Abstract Advances in mapping, telecommunications and computing technology offer solutions for geospatial technology in the mobile workforce. The products of leading software vendors support delivery of spatial technology on wireless devices. This paper discusses these mobile mapping technologies and introduces a delivery model, the Application Service Provider (ASP). This strategy allows organizations to use spatial technology without costly investment. The ASP model provides a cost-effective and efficient strategy to deliver mobile mapping solutions to an organization. Introduction When he created the television series “Star Trek,” Gene Roddenberry forbade the use of pencil and paper on board the USS Enterprise. This decision led directly to the “invention” of the tricorder and indirectly to the invention of voice-activated, ubiquitous computer access on board the ship. In the 1970s, the notion of a portable computing received another boost with the conceptualization of the Dynabook at Xerox PARC by Alan Kay (a man well known for his statement that "The best way to predict the future is to invent it.") By the late 1990s, a combination of technological advances in microchip capacity and speed, power management tools and screen quality produced an avalanche of newer and increasingly sophisticated information and communication gadgets. In April 1996, Palm Computing took the idea of the Newton, reduced its size, added functionality, improved the handwriting recognition ability and cut the Newton's price in half, to produce the first modern PDA, the Palm Pilot. The release of the Windows CE operating system introduced competition and a parallel development trail, resulting in products with brighter, higher-resolution screens and greater interoperability with desktop computers. The simultaneous development of the Application Service Provider (ASP) business model dovetails neatly with this technological evolution. Ideally suited to a thin-client computing environment, the ASP provides great application richness for the PDA world. Driven initially by the usefulness of traditional Personal Information Management (PIM) products, the diffusion of PDAs is now being driven by the availability of a new generation of mission-critical applications. Application Service Provision The ASP Industry Consortium, the leading international organization on the Application Service Provision model, defines an ASP in this manner: “An ASP deploys, hosts and manages access to a packaged application to multiple parties from a centrally managed facility. The applications are delivered over networks on a subscription basis.” The ASP model can assume many different forms, ranging from simple to complex. One well-known example of an ASP is MSN Hotmail, an application that is fast, effective, easy to learn and operate and free of charge. The concept of remote access to applications and information is not new. Many senior professionals remember using the industry’s origins in mainframe corporate networks and “time-sharing” systems that allowed optimal use of scarce, expensive, shared computing resources. The primary difference between these business models is that an ASP can deliver solutions to a wider range of consumers over a much more cost-effective, public “network” – the Internet. Spatial ASP The ASP model can be applied to the GIS industry quite effectively. The development of web-based technologies from leading GIS vendors as well as the maturation of third-party, thin-client computing platforms such as MetaFrameXP & NFuse from Citrix and Tarantella Enterprise 3: ASP Edition make the spatial ASP a feasible solution. These technologies, combined with growing broadband communications capacity, enable delivery of robust solutions to a variety of industries. There already are examples of successfully deployed spatial ASP solutions in the consumer market, notably MapQuest.com, National Geographic’s MapMachine and Expedia.com. While these applications are not true GIS platforms, they do provide spatial information and are delivered via the public domain Internet. Equally important, they point the way to successful adoption of the ASP business model for GIS users. Several firms in the US are using traditional GIS client/server and desktop applications in a thin-client computing configuration to deploy customized solutions to geographically dispersed offices and field engineers. This enables delivery to a distributed workforce with centrally controlled software maintenance. Each time the GIS application is changed, update and redeployment is faster and less expensive. Moreover, IT . managers are able to ensure license compliance from a single location. Spatial data are maintained using standard data validation routines to prevent conflicting or “unauthorized” versions from being unintentionally posted to the master data set. Evaluating an ASP Solution There are many issues to consider when evaluating an ASP strategy. It is important to consider these issues when deciding whether to implement an internal ASP architecture or contract with an external vendor to deliver ASP solutions. Service Level Agreements The Service Level Agreement (SLA) is the basic contract between the consumer (business or individual) and the spatial ASP. This contract addresses typical contract issues as well as issues that are unique to ASPs. It is necessary to understand that, unless the ASP operates their own hosting center, they will have corresponding SLAs with their data center hosting partners and communications providers. The terms and conditions of those SLAs will be passed on to the end-consumer. Several features are recommended in any SLA between a consumer and a spatial ASP. Perhaps the most important is the guaranteed network availability metric. This often is referred to as “up-time” and can range from 98% to 99.999% availability. While “Five 9’s” (99.999% up-time) theoretically is possible, in practice this figure is defined more conservatively in most SLAs. It is important to recognize that this guarantee only refers to network availability, not to the availability of a particular application, because the spatial ASP has no control over the reliability of third-party applications they are hosting and delivering. Despite best efforts, application “bugs” persist and will arise, often at the most inconvenient times, even in a spatial ASP. Another unique feature in the SLA is the frequency, period and metrics for measuring the network "up time." Also included is a clearly stated, concise “credit policy” for situations in which the network does go down (and it will go down). The consumer should know how and when a credit will be given, and how to resolve disputes. While it is not the intention of the spatial ASP to create a crisis situation, the prudent consumer should confirm that the SLA contains appropriate language to address loss of ownership of any data, intellectual property or specialized applications in the event that the spatial ASP, or any related partner organization, ceases to conduct business or otherwise ends the relationship with the consumer. This is an often-overlooked aspect of the SLA. To minimize such risks, the consumer should demand financial reporting and conduct due diligence on the spatial ASP before executing an agreement. Other aspects of the SLA that should be explicit are the details concerning technical support and customer service provisions, upgrades of applications, networks and hardware, training, integration and customization services. Some ASPs include these services in the solution offering, while others provide them at additional cost. We advise consumers to consider these points during the evaluation and comparison of SLAs. Quality of Service With respect to data integrity, loss and consistency, the SLA should contain specific details on how the spatial ASP will provide and ensure Quality of Service (QoS) for the contracted solution. This is a significant issue, especially for those spatial ASPs that intend to deliver their products and applications over the public domain Internet. The foundation for QoS is being able to minimize the delay in IP packet delivery, minimize variations in IP packet delays and provide capacity with consistent data throughput. QoS becomes a mission-critical aspect in a spatial ASP, especially in an environment that is “always-on” and that provides real-time, focused spatial data. High QoS should be evident to the user by the virtual transparency of the data transmission network. In other words, a spatial ASP that has acceptable QoS should be able to deliver, in a consistent manner, the same or better service as the consumer would get if the application and data were in a local computing environment. Security The issue of security receives considerable attention and rightfully so considering the stream of well-publicized security breaches in recent months. While important, security issues should not have a paralyzing effect on selection of a spatial ASP. The reason is that there are several strategies to preserve both physical security and network security. Of course, those strategies need to be implemented correctly to be effective. Physical security for the data center hosting facility is relatively straightforward and very sophisticated. Preventive measures may include continuous video surveillance cameras and guard patrols, electronic security system including fire, smoke and water detection, motion detection and compartmented authorization and access locks for internal and external doors. Independent power supplies and a rigorous maintenance regime also are necessary to ensure continuity of service. Network security, while very sophisticated, continues to evolve and adapt as technology continues to develop and be compromised. A combination of hardware and software security measures should be employed at various points of entry to the system. Several hardware encryption devices can be deployed at the network firewall. Standard SSL 128-bit encryption protocols provide sufficient bit-stream security for transmitting data from the spatial ASP to the appropriate consumers. Such devices, combined with a virtual private network and a robust authentication and authorization scheme, provide ASP data center hosting facilities with more security than a customer’s LAN. This security is focused on ensuring that only those authorized to gain access to data and/or applications are specifically allowed to do so, and then only those areas that have been determined by the customer organization. This security regime is not unlike most corporate WAN/LAN architectures, for example – a clerical employee may not have access privileges to the corporate accounting and salary information but can still gain access to email and other intranet information pertinent to his or her particular job. Total Cost of Ownership This technology is of little consequence if the strategy for implementing a spatial ASP does not have a compelling economic basis. Notwithstanding recent activities in the dot-com world, there are solid, financially viable strategies to pursue a spatial ASP model, particularly in the telecommunications industry. One of the most attractive benefits for communications firms adopting a spatial ASP is reduced capital expenditure for GIS solutions. By adopting a spatial ASP outsourcing strategy, the operating company can eliminate a significant portion of the overhead costs associated with internal support services. This includes the costs of software licensing, upgrades, maintenance, technical support, hardware, IT support and high-end desktop PCs. It also eliminates the need for backup, archive, storage and restoration infrastructure because the ASP typically offers those services. This moves the telecom operator from a capital budget to service contracts, a very important distinction. Another compelling economic point is flexibility in configuration and implementation. A spatial ASP solution often can be modified to suit the needs of individual users without internal IT support. Because the spatial ASP is driven through a browser-type thin-client application, there is little need for continual maintenance and training to take advantage of the application. This translates into a faster time to productivity than a traditional GIS operation, which can take months to build and staff properly. Another critical point in the financial picture is the gain in productivity and the corre-sponding decrease in costs associated with downtime. Since the SLA with the spatial ASP would be in the 99%+ range, this translates into twenty hours or less of downtime per user work year. This is considerably less downtime than many organizations’ inter-nal LANs, and the cost-savings alone from this benefit could justify the ASP strategy. Finally, a spatial ASP approach to managing data helps to eliminate the redundant costs so common within an organization. In a spatial ASP, one land base data set can serve engineering, marketing and maintenance departments – there is no need to maintain multiple versions and copies of the same geographic information. Likewise, the telecom company can leverage both economies of scale and economies of skill. Because the spatial ASP maintains a core staff that services multiple accounts, individual consumers can benefit from shared resources (for example, data center hosting facilities and expert IT and GIS support), and companies can reconfigure their internal staffing requirements to take full advantage of the outsourced spatial ASP. Internal versus External ASP One other key decision should be addressed: the strategy of outsourcing non-core functions to a spatial ASP vendor or constructing the business unit within the current organization to deliver those same services to the other business units and locations. There are considerable merits to both strategies. First, by keeping these functions as an internal business unit there is the satisfaction and “peace of mind” that comes with having employees rather than vendors manage business-critical information. In some cases, the resources and infrastructure in medium and large organizations are as well prepared to deliver the spatial ASP services as an external organization. There is also the benefit of familiarity with the culture of a corporation. However, an internal spatial ASP still requires the same level of formality and structure in establishing an SLA and other contractual standards to avoid falling victim to the complacency that is also endemic in many corporations. If the internal spatial ASP cannot fulfill its service mission, there is little chance it will realize the potential benefits. In considering an external spatial ASP vendor, cost is the primary driver for most organizations. The spatial ASP can provide opportunities for economies of scale and economies of skill that an internal spatial ASP cannot offer. Because a spatial ASP vendor provides core services to many different industries and clients, it can spread overhead and infrastructure costs across multiple revenue-generating clients, whereas the internal spatial ASP serves only “one” customer. Second, an external spatial ASP is more likely to stay current with technologies that further improve its services to the market. It will continue to re-invest in capital improvements such as storage, servers, security, provisioning and communications because of competitive pressures, while an internal ASP would likely be allocated an operating budget that does not allow for regular improvements in technology. Finally, the spatial ASP vendor is able to leverage industry presence with various technology and content providers to create a better value proposition than an internal ASP can assemble independently. By negotiating larger volume discounts and strategic alliances, the spatial ASP vendor is able to provide a greater variety of options to the consumer than would be possible otherwise and still provide a less expensive solution. Licensing Considerations There are several pricing models put forth by the ASP vendors. Although the process of refining these models continues, there are two basic options for clients: unlimited access and per unit. Unlimited Access This general pricing model allows a user to pay a fixed fee in exchange for access to the application solution at any time, for an unlimited amount of time. For simplified accounting purposes, usage typically is quantified, and clients are billed, on a monthly or quarterly basis. In this model, an organization that wants ten users to have access 24x7 would sign up for services at a flat rate per month, per user. This model is attractive to organizations that require predictable monthly or annual costs. It is also useful in organizations that experience little change in their demands for service. If the ten users are likely to make consistent demands over the life of the service agreement and the number of users is not likely to vary, this pricing model is likely to suit the needs of the organization. Most ASP vendors offer basic solution packages for this fixed fee, but also offer a catalog of additional services that users can request. The costs for these additional services are built upon the base fee per user. This allows greater flexibility per user and provides a means for the user to customize individual solutions. Per Unit This option for pricing is analogous to residential telephone service or wireless calling plans. There is a base price per unit, typically in minutes or in some cases, seconds, that is charged per user when access is authorized to a given software solution. This pricing also applies for a basic application solution and additional features or components would be added to the base cost per unit. The system captures a user’s login time to the system, as well as the logoff time, and then computes the corresponding units for billing purposes. For simplified accounting purposes, these times are aggregated to a monthly consumption and then billed accordingly. This option is attractive to organizations with cyclical demand and staffing needs such as project management companies or other service firms that operate in the communications industry. This allows them the flexibility to leverage the spatial ASP without committing capital resources to maintaining internal infrastructure and operations and still satisfy their respective clients’ needs. The drawback to this pricing option is that there is no predictability in monthly costs due to the cyclical and temporal nature of the individual user’s consumption of the service. The case of the Telecommunications Industry The fundamental technology for delivering GIS and mapping solutions through the ASP on a thin-client, mobile computing environment exists and continues to improve both in quality and availability. However, the very best in technology and applications is of little value unless there is “something” to deliver, that is, spatial data. Without content to populate databases or with which to conduct analysis, the spatial ASP holds little value. This point is not lost on the growing number of data product vendors in the market. These information providers play an important role with both the end-consumer and the spatial ASP vendors. In the communications industry, leveraging spatial data products in an ASP solution is a smart strategy. It avoids costly redundancy in base map data and problems with portions of data that are “out of control,” resulting in late decisions or inaccurate project reporting. Providing consistent spatial data through a spatial ASP to all departments in an organization not only maximizes productivity but also reduces the cost per unit for information. Spatial data content can be customized and delivered to specific user-groups within the organization, yet managed and controlled centrally through the ASP. Thus, for example, the directory, marketing and engineering departments can share information, and the cost of updates, reducing expenditures and ensuring compatibility of information across applications. Regardless of the transmission medium they are using, telecommunications technicians spend a considerable amount of time away from their offices performing a variety of activities. Much of their time is spent traveling to and from the central office for maps and supplies for repairs (“windshield time”). This is a costly and inefficient method of operation. By developing fieldwork procedures that support the delivery of relevant geographic information to the user in the field, on-demand in real-time, several benefits are realized. A typical field engineer could save as much as 260 hours per year in transportation costs alone with a mobile spatial ASP solution, by reducing the number of trips from remote work sites to field offices and equipment yards. Similarly, by providing real-time, focused spatial ASP solutions to technicians in the field, routing times for emergency repairs and service calls can be significantly reduced. The technician will also have the most current, accurate information necessary to complete the service call on-site, without the need for return trips or involvement of non-field personnel. This not only increases customer satisfaction but also decreases the cost of each service call considerably. Several applications have been developed for both the Palm and Windows Pocket PC operating systems for PDA implementation. These applications continue to be refined and with the added functionality of GPS and wireless communications, a multitude of new solutions in a mobile environment will be developed. Accessing Data and Applications Second generation tools (notebook and laptop computers), third generation tools (PDAs and smart paper) and, to a limited but growing extent, fourth generation tools (wearable display sets) are now available at reasonable cost to support field deployment of GIS and related spatially-based technologies. The balance of this paper addresses a specific means of deploying software and data to the field on these platforms. As the requisite computer hardware capability – particularly screen legibility - has enabled field use, the vision of users has broadened to demand a wider range of applications. Nowhere is this phenomenon more noticeable than in mapping and GIS, areas that are intrinsically visual. One early adopter of GIS in the telecommunications industry discovered through field trials of various technologies that more than half of the financial benefits of automated mapping resulted from field access to digital data. But here lies a paradox. A portable computing device such as a Compaq iPAQ, has a screen sufficiently large, bright and granular to display map information in a useful way for field crews. Battery life of four hours or more is a reality (allowing for recharging during lunch and dinner breaks). Finally, with a cost below $500 and complete compatibility with the crews’ existing office computing environment (for example, schedules, contact lists, word processors and spreadsheets), the financial barrier to adoption disappears. However, the portability of the device, hence its viability, can be threatened by the demands imposed by data storage requirements and by GIS platform software (and updates). If we place enough storage capacity in a PDA to retain a complete set of map records and a complete suite of software applications, the device would return to its previous status of wearable baggage. The ASP model offers a simple, cost-effective alternative for access to information and software that resolves this paradox. At KMC Telecom, a regional telecommunications carrier with engineering headquarters in suburban Atlanta, we began developing two sets of PDA-based applications in 2000. The first application was a field inventory tool, similar to tools in use throughout the utility industry. The initial application was designed to support the performance of pole inventories. With its combination of handwriting recognition, soft keyboard and voice recorder, the device and application were well suited to the field crews’ disparate levels of technological sophistication. Additional field data collection applications are planned. The second suite of applications, deferred due to capital constraints, will provide field access to outside plant maps. The outside plant that has been placed in each of the 39 cities served by KMC Telecom is documented in books of B-size (11” X 17”) drawings approximately two inches thick. These drawings (produced from computer files of CAD and GIS data) are updated approximately four times per year and reprinted in their entirety. (Substitution of individual, changed pages is not feasible for several reasons.) Assuming an average of 250 pages per book, this represents 1,000 pages of printing per user per year, with an average of eight users per city in 39 cities, or approximately 312,000 pages of printing per year – just for outside plant. Considering not only printing costs (e.g., printers, paper, toner, electricity) but also binding costs (equipment and materials) and distribution (39 cities times 8 sets times 4 deliveries per year times the cost of air or ground freight), this becomes a significant albeit necessary corporate expense. The cost increase further with the printing and distribution of inside plant records, fiber schematics, permit drawings, route extension drawings and similar information. As an alternative to distributing hardcopy records, with the associated high cost, susceptibility to damage and built-in obsolescence, we began to consider extending access to our existing CAD and GIS platforms into the field. We determined that the entire collection of outside plant records for the corporation could be stored on a one gigabyte Compact Flash-format hard drive in a PDA. Alternatively, we could store the outside plant records, inside plant records and related documentation for any given city on a widely available, low cost 128-megabyte Compact Flash card. More realistically, we can store the bare bones of information on the device and using a wireless modem provide access through an ASP to the information and applications needed for a wide range of tasks. This suite of applications included provisions for access to digital parts catalogs for field inventory and the ability to redline construction prints. Both applications – field inventory and field map access – are particularly well suited to the ASP business model. Relatively sophisticated applications can be provided with a simple user interface and disseminated to the field in real time. This means that issues such as configuration management cease to be a problem (as least from the software update perspective). It also means that two-way information flow can be achieved in real time. Although much fieldwork can be reported at the end of the workday, natural disasters and acts of terrorism lend a sense of urgency to this process. Moreover, real-time communication can be useful if implemented in conjunction with vehicle tracking and navigation systems. The ASP business model provides the flexibility to realize these benefits incrementally, as needed. The model also enables the delivery of complex applications to thin-clients and, through emulation, to ultra thin clients that do not carry any part of the application software locally. Obstacles to overcome The considerable merits and advantages of the spatial ASP model are clear. However, there are obstacles to deployment that will require radical innovation by industry stalwarts for consumers to realize the maximum benefit from ASP use, especially in a mobile computing environment. First, software and data vendor licensing of traditional products is inconsistent with the premise of the ASP business model. There are many applications with a loyal user base. These same applications can be delivered through the ASP model but not cost-effectively using traditional licensing models. The ASP model demands a true “pay-as-you- go” licensing model: a model that generates income for the spatial ASP, the ISV, the data vendor and other partners, as new consumers are signed-up for the various solutions. The current licensing model requires the spatial ASP to either develop its own applications (a costly and risky option) or invest significant sums of capital in purchasing licenses and then “re-selling” them as packaged ASP solutions. While this model is popular with software and data vendors, it does not advance the ASP model and technology past the initial early-adopters and it certainly is not a profitable approach for a spatial ASP. If the spatial ASP is encumbered by onerous licensing requirements in delivering spatial ASP solutions, the risk of failure is needlessly exaggerated. Conclusions It is clear from the growing GIS industry support that the ASP model for delivering spatial solutions is a useful strategic alternative for consumers and vendors. Service providers continue to find new and innovative ways to build and integrate various location-based solutions and deliver cost-effective products to a variety of industries and markets. There is still a considerable amount of work to be done by the software, database and content vendors to help propel the ASP model beyond early adopters. This includes a more favorable licensing model and continuing to develop core products designed to deliver greater analytical functionality through the ASP model. However, the spatial ASP model infrastructure, products, solutions, content and demand are all present for the business model to succeed in delivering innovative spatial solutions to a variety of industries and consumers. In conjunction with the rapid evolution of mobile computing platforms and wireless field communications, this model will realize its full potential in the very near future. | ||
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