Map India 2000 - Keynote

The death of geography will make it difficult for producers to set different prices around the world. This is already a reality for software that is paid for and downloaded over the Internet. No longer is a customer willing to pay 150 Pounds in London for a piece of software that costs 150 Dollars in New York City. Online commerce will destroy these anomalies. No company will be able to charge a premium when consumers know precisely what things cost elsewhere.

Today's buyers - the most harried consumers in history - are flocking to the Net because it's simply the most efficient place to shop for a whole range of goods and services. In a world of nucleus families, demanding jobs and quality time that's measured in nanoseconds, search economies will become hugely attractive to consumers.

Search economies are one-half of the new convenience equation. Fulfillment is the other half. The goal is not just to minimize the hassle of finding something but to minimize the hassle of getting it as well.

Retailers still tell customers, you have to come to us. But online consumers are saying, you have to come to us. My place, my time is the new mantra of consumers everywhere.

Geomatics Solution Providers
The GIS vendor community, has recognized the demands of the consumers and potential of the Internet. It is clear, that none of the proprietary file formats or operating systems, were designed to take advantage of the Web. Forced by the market pressures, vendors have come together to develop interoperability standards and non-proprietary formats, even at the "risk of losing customers previously `captured' by deep investments in their proprietary systems". They cooperated with the Open GIS Consortium (OGIS), a non-profit organization, to develop interoperability standards and products like GeoMedia.

The solution providers have also recognized that today's geomatics user is likely to be much less technically qualified and unwilling to invest in extensive training. As the Internet becomes ever more pervasive, the geomatics industry would undergo far reaching changes. The Internet is already introducing many more people to geomatics and setting new standards for interactivity, ease of use and pricing. With the evolution of Application Service Providers (ASPs), consumers would have the option to down load applications, depending on their needs, eliminating the hassles of software ownership, obsolescence and so forth. This very much represents the business perspective and the future of Geomatics.

It is self-evident that a service industry should be "focused upon customer-orientated services", new millennium or not. The digital revolution in photogrammetry has overthrown the century-old establishment in less than a decade. Thanks to the new regime, consumers, - can now even "serve themselves". Low-cost consumer products will lead the market demand. This phenomenon is a prelude to major change, similar to that caused by word processing technology in the typesetting industry. In the final analysis, consumers do not care how goods are produced. To them, the ultimate "end-to-end" solution is having their expectations met at a reasonable price.

At Rolta, we are adopting many of these practices, while servicing our customers world-wide.

To summarize, Geomatics is no longer the domain of a select club of Geomatics `experts'. It has entered the mainstream - IT and with it the second era of GIS has begun. This era is characterized by `open solutions' and the dominance of the Web.

It is true, that the Internet dominated era, raises frightening questions regarding adaptability and survival. The GIS data sector as well as the solutions vendors, can no longer ignore them and have to urgently gear up to meet these demands.

Ultimately, the mantra for survival in this era, would be the same as in the earlier era: "relentless innovation and unparalleled service", of course delivered in newer ways. I have no doubts, that the Indian industry would gear up and meet these challenges head on.

Finally, Ladies and Gentlemen, I thank you for your attention and wish you all a very fruitful time at this Conference.