INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW

Staying Ahead of the Marketplace: SpatialAge Technology, Tools, and Trends

In these days of tough competition, tight money, and concerns over damage prevention and recovery, companies must continually assess every aspect of their operations in order to remain competitive and viable. The industries we serve are eager to implement new technology if it leads to a fast return on investment. With the right technology partner, one who has experience, a commitment to quality, and a proven track record of success, the opportunities for both improvements in productivity and better utilization of existing assets are well achieved through practical applications of technology. As a result, better information is available for better decision-making, access to that information is easier for more people and processes, and quicker response times are assured. All of these criteria are becoming increasingly more important in the management of information technology.

SpatialAge Solutions understands these concerns and is highly qualified to deal with them. We are driven by our own demands for high quality and by our desire to drive down costs while increasing the efficiency and quality of our products.

Business Drivers

For the past several years, information technology has been undergoing major platform changes. The Internet, geospatial DBMS, and Java have each had a major impact on improving accessibility, not only to applications, but also to a wide variety of data. Always “tuned-in” to the industry, SpatialAge technology is based firmly on these changes and conforms to the following principles:

• Each project must have stand-alone ROI and be a step toward the future.
• High-priced desktop GIS and computer-aided design tools will follow dinosaurs into extinction.
• The marketplace will expand, bringing many new tools to more users, extending to the very edge of corporate environments. All enterprise users will have access to geospatial data via web-based GIS tools.
• Software and data will diverge. The GIS industry will no longer be concerned with what a software product does with this or that data set.
• Today’s proprietary geospatial middleware functions will be performed by database management system software.
• System integration will become more crucial and less difficult, and component integration will challenge corporate information technology resources, methods, and procedures.
• All spatially located enterprise data will be geocoded and placed in corporate datastores.
• A strong emphasis will be placed on data integrity initiatives.
• Geospatial will be used as a competitive tool for service provisioning and repair.
• There will be inexpensive, wireless access of Geospatial data for the mobile work force and for location-based services.
• Companies that specialize in high-productivity tools for industry-specific solutions will thrive.
• Full-scale conversion of geospatial data will become a central industry focus enabling integration, collaboration, and data sharing among the many functional areas of the enterprise and its clients and supporters.
• Existing assets must be fully utilized and redeployed.

These trends and other near-term realities make geospatial integration a viable and more appealing option for all industries throughout an exploding range of application sets.

Visual I.T.

Current computing architecture allows us to rethink old formats that were driven by drafting limitations and property records requirements. We can now think of new and better ways to query and display facility information.

When Byers designs products, we start with the user in mind. We have developed a "knowledge acquisition" methodology for determining user requirements. We then develop solutions that maximize the benefits of automation. We are careful to rethink business processes alongside of mechanization opportunities. Nonetheless, it is sometimes hard to break the mold of automating existing processes and records. For example, in today’s computing environment, it is no longer necessary to organize outside plant (OSP) data based on the manual plat or wire center concepts. New geospatial databases enable data to be stored as a single geographic entity, with hardcopy outputs being user-defined in terms of scale, annotation, and thematic content. This means that you can produce a map of a wire center, a route, or a forecast section, showing only feeder cable and cross boxes, with the symbols and text readable at the desired scale — all from the same database.

Assessing Technology

Sometimes a “flashy graphics” demo may obscure the more fundamental issues of what is the most effective way to provide information content to users.

It is easy to see how "slick" presentations can impress a review team. It is also tempting to let optimism hold sway while avoiding implementation details. However, software is not a video game. Its purpose is to enable work to be done faster and better. Far and away, our strength lies within our ability to handle the "gritty" details of a job and to deliver a product that helps users to do their jobs better.

Although “usability” is our obsession, it does not necessarily translate into a visually appealing presentation. Delivering credible solutions to users is what really counts. It is being able to perform a task with the minimum “clicks and ticks”, which is anything but glamorous!

The sales process at SpatialAge is truly consultative. We really “dig in” to determine how best to get the job done. We make the best use of your existing resources. We respect the investment you have in your computing environment and business processes. We do not expect you to start over and fit your business into preconceived notions of how we think you should run your business.

Our special skill is the practical application of technology.

When we present a solution, we explain how we expect to execute the project - including the good, the bad, and the ugly. And when implementation time arrives, there won’t be any excuses necessary because you “didn’t understand what we meant.” Our industry has had enough failures born from poor communications and unquestioning enthusiasm.