GI Market in the UK

It’s going down the pan, the experts say, the market is shrinking but it really is the time for LBS! At a recent meeting of the newly formed AGI North Special Interest Group, in Leeds, Andy Wells from Inforterra spoke about the Service and  Suppliers SIG, and focused on the report they commisioned on the UK Geographic Industry.

The full report by Andy Coote costs membership of the AGI + the group, but the summary was published (possibly here?). Some highlights from the talk:

• External drivers: Recession – cost reduction. Regulation. Enterprise computing. GI awareness – “google maps paradigm”
• Tech drivers: Web2.0, sas, oss, crowdsource, ubiqitous
• Commercial sector: land & property: huge area. But, halt in construction work. expect 50% less income. Insurance: more use for risk management (assoc. with climate change). Transport, tied in with fuel and logistics
• Central govt: lack of direction. defence ok for operational stuff. uncertainty re: INSPIRE & transformational govt.
• Local govt: Market is very tough. Reoganisations. No e-govt monies left. Problem with software licenses using only a fraction of capabilities.
• LBS: GROWTH. Pointers = teleatlast, navtaq. Future, 3D real worlds in games. Venture capitalists entering mkt.

Growth preditctions:

• Government: 0-5 %
• Utilities: 5-10%
• Commercial: 10-15%
• Consumer (LBS): >100%

The service and systems group also served to fufil some other roles, market assessment, informal networking, sharing of tendering processes, and the aim to grow geographic capacity as a whole. They are collating a vendor neutral database of case studies of the use of GI, which should be of benefit to all.

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