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Designing an Integrated Enterprise Model to support Partnerships in the Geo-Information Industry
M. Mostafa Radwan
Phone: +31 (0)53 4874351, Fax: +31 (0)53 4874575
email: radwan@itc.nl
Liliana Alvarez
Phone: +31 (0)53 4874229, Fax: +31 (0)53 4874575
email: alvarez@itc.nl
Richard Onchaga
Phone: +31 (0)53 4874299, Fax: +31 (0)53 4874575
email: onchaga@itc.nl
Javier Morales
Phone: +31 (0)53 4874299, Fax: +31 (0)53 4874575
email: morales@itc.nl
International Institute for Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC)
1 The new geo-information production organisations
1.1 Challenges
Digital geo-information technology was initially introduced in many NMAs around the world, in the late 1960s, mainly to support data acquisition and to replace lengthy and rigid cartographic operations. Experience in these organisations, however, indicates that return on revenue on the heavy investment made is still below expectations. This is because these organisations still follow their traditional way of doing business. This tradi-tional way of working was designed when government funds were secure and the mapping market was relatively stable, unfortunately, that is no longer the case. At present, these organisations have to work differently and should pay attention to the following considerations:
- Reduced government funds and the need to generate revenue to support its existence;
- A fast growing GIS-market and the emerge of a new generation of geo-information users;
- User’s dissatisfaction due to lengthy base-mapping programs;
- The user’s need for new products that substitute the conventional base maps;
- New competitors encouraged by cheap technology and easy access to raw data, and with the exibility to adapt to changing requirements;
- The continuous development in information technology and its impact on the geo-information industry.
1.2 Improvement Actions
In many countries, NMAs are under the pressure to revise their mission and become competitive and self funded, without violating their national mandate. This requires these organisations to deliver services to the customer’s specifications. That is, to provide data and other tailored products in time, at affordable costs and with the required quality. It is also important for NMAs to play a role in developing the necessary infrastructure to facilitate access to their goods, such as data, processes, etc. [6].
Improvement projects should in any case benefit from modern business concepts applied in other industries. These concepts include, a.o., Business Process Redesign (BPR), Work ow Management (WFM), Total Quality Management (TQM), Enterprise Resource Management (ERM), Just-In-Time (JIT) Services. These concepts should guide the organisational shift towards a better marketing strategy and an optimum use of technology to achieve business goals [18].
Geo-information providers, NMAs in particular, need to redefine their working strategies and embrace mod-ern business practices in their production processes to meet diverse customer demands, and at the same time obeying their national mandates. These should lead organisations to focus on their core competencies, and outsourcing and collaboration with others organisations in areas, which are not their strengths. Examples of collaboration strategies can be found in Ordnance Survey (Partner Initiative), the National Imagery and Map-ping Agency NIMA (Partnership Division) and the U.S. Geological Survey USGS (National Map project) [19] to mention some.
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