Get informed and be inspired at the MUGNZ Conference

The MapInfo Users Group Conference is always a great opportunity to network (and have a few drinks!) with peers from across the geospatial sector, hear about the latest MapInfo developments, and get some insight into the wide variety of projects underway in the world of geospatial technology. This year’s conference is no exception, with topics as diverse as the new Topo50 map series, the KiwiImage project, modelling of Powelliphanta snail habitat, and the latest in mobile mapping and web-based geospatial implementations.

You’ll get an international perspective from overviews of Vegas MapWorld and the GITA Conference; and Mike Osbourn from Cumberland County in the US will provide a case study via live video stream. Other presenters include the NZ Geospatial Office, Victoria University, NZ Defence Force and the Ministry of Education. There will also be plenty of opportunities to see the latest MapInfo software in action and to hear about what’s around the corner.

Critchlow is the Platinum sponsor of the conference, and our new Chief Executive Jos Kunnen will be there along with several other Critchlow staff. You can’t miss our stand – just look for the big ‘X’ – so stop by and say hello!

For more information on the conference, visit http://www.mugnz.com/

AnySite is here!

As promised a couple of issues ago, we can now bring you the fantastic benefits of MapInfo AnySite.

AnySite is an easy-to-use yet extremely powerful tool for site and market selection in industries such as retail, hospitality, real estate and financial services. It allows business decision-makers and marketers to analyse relationships between store or site performance and customer demographics. AnySite performs powerful predictive analytics and modelling functions to enable detailed site analysis and decision support.

Critchlow has worked closely with MapInfo to adapt AnySite for New Zealand businesses and to provide a full suite of location and demographic data specific to local markets. Last month, we implemented AnySite for our first New Zealand customer, a well-known nationwide retail chain. Such is the competitive advantage they expect from AnySite, we can’t tell you who they are, but some of the business benefits they’ll be able to enjoy are:

• Improved site selection efficiencies and outcomes
• Valuable insights into the competitive landscape
• Accurate prediction of consumer needs and spending patterns
• More effective marketing and promotion based on consumer behaviour and lifestyles
• The addition of advanced mapping capabilities to your website or Intranet

We’d love to tell you more, so please contact us at info@critchlow.co.nz or ask your Client Director for further information.

Where is best? Optimising application deployment for Mobile and SOA

In the modern world of multiple computing tiers, designers and developers of GIS applications now have the ability to build and deploy solutions to mobile, desktop, middle tier, services oriented architecture (SOA) and/or database tiers, depending on the specific customer need and the desired business outcomes. As a result, business has been able to benefit from shorter development cycles and maximised use of hardware and software resources; while also more effectively leveraging existing investments in people and infrastructure.

Meanwhile, end users – whether they are frontline staff, decision makers, business partners or customers – are making use of an ever-growing array of location intelligence information, served up exactly when, where and how they need it. Location intelligence solutions are popping up everywhere, from office desktops to laptops out on the road, in vehicle navigation systems, on PDAs and mobile phones… you think of the device, and there will soon be an application for it, if there isn’t one already.

Choices and challenges

But with all these opportunities comes a major challenge: Given the choices we now have, how do you decide where a new solution should be developed and deployed? In the new whitepaper From Mobile to SOA, Pitney Bowes MapInfo provides a plain English explanation of the functionality, strengths and weaknesses of each computing tier and of the emergence of SOA as the services-focused paradigm.

When applied in the GIS realm, the SOA model allows businesses to build and deploy rich location intelligence solutions that generate significant additional value from existing infrastructure, resources and skills. For example, one customer who had a significant corporate investment in .NET was able to enhance this investment with the addition of geospatial technology to develop a field force management system. The outcomes for the business have been much improved customer service along with increased efficiencies and reduced costs for the field force operation.

Pitney Bowes MapInfo offers solutions that cross all the computing tiers, from spatial database technology to .NET and Java-compliant software development kits to the Envinsa platform, built especially to leverage the SOA approach. Using these tools, Critchlow’s development team has helped customers successfully design and deploy a huge variety of applications that are delivering significant business value. If you’ve got an immediate business need but you’re not sure where to start, or if you’d just like to find out more about how geospatial technologies can enhance your current environment, please feel free to contact us for a chat.

To get your copy of the whitepaper From Mobile to SOA: A Guide for Optimized Application Deployment, please email steve.critchlow@critchlow.co.nz with your contact details and let us know if you’d like it sent as a PDF or as a printed document.

Industry luminary joins Critchlow Board

It gives us great pleasure this quarter to welcome John Skeates to our Board.

John has a long background in building successful, innovative technology companies. From 1998 to 2002, he was extensively involved in Marshal Software, one of New Zealand’s foremost technology success stories. After Marshal was acquired by NASDAQ-listed NetIQ, John continued with the company in an executive role until 2004. He has also been involved as a director or advisor to a range of other innovative, technology-driven Kiwi companies.

He sees geospatial and location intelligence as technologies on the cusp of enormous global growth, as location-based information becomes central to business strategy and operations as well as to our personal lives (think Google Maps and in-car navigation, for starters).

“Geospatial technology has been talked about for a long time, but it’s now ready to take centre stage because of headline issues like climate change, resource management and fuel prices, as well as the ubiquity of services like Google Maps,” says John. “Companies really have to think hard about issues like optimising service locations and the economics of getting from A to B. That means geospatial solutions and data are increasingly coming out of the back room and being used for frontline business decision-making.”

He sees Critchlow as unique in the New Zealand market, because of the breadth of its offerings and depth of experience.

“As far as I can see, Critchlow is the only company that can offer the consulting and training services, the software and the data. Because of that breadth and depth, Critchlow can take a position of real thought-leadership as businesses become much more aware and smarter about what is possible when you apply location-based information in areas like market research and business intelligence.”

Bigger, better NationalMap3 coming to your desktop soon

The release date for NationalMap3 is drawing ever closer, and we’re excited to show you all the improvements we’ve been able to incorporate.

“Critchlow datasets are always expanding and, thanks to the co-operation of a number of companies who work with us, we can now offer you more data than ever before, direct from the primary sources,” says Critchlow’s Infrastructure Manager Russell Bowden. “A number of new datasets are planned which will address a wide variety of applications and needs.”

Major improvements have been made to the base layer datasets to provide even more detail and accuracy without degrading system performance. In addition, the hierarchical structure used for the roading network will now have motorways, state highways, primary roads, connector roads and local roads as separate layers which can be turned on or off as required, making road mapping cleaner and simpler to use.

For your driving pleasure and that of your customers, detail on petrol stations has been incorporated in the Routing add-on and will also be available as a stand-alone plug-in. New information includes the station’s brand and information on fuel types, opening times, cafes, phone numbers and addresses.

“We’re also adding information on public parking buildings and council-maintained outdoor lots, including the number of spaces, opening times and maximum daily charge,” Russell reports.

“Points of Interest data is being enriched in other areas, too. For example, rather than simply following the default convention of having a single religious symbol for all religious points of interest, we’ve replaced these with symbols for nine religious denominations commonly found within New Zealand. Each is easily identifiable by the symbol of that faith.”
Current NationalMap2 users have already received some of the new features as part of their July update and will automatically get the full new version with their November update. If you just can’t wait, we’ll also be giving you the opportunity to get your hands on it sooner. Contact your Critchlow Client Director for more information or email us at info@critchlow.co.nz

Navteq head predicts the future

Judson Green, the normally media-shy president and CEO of Navteq, recently granted a interview to Directions Magazine in which he shared his thoughts on where the world of geospatial is heading. Among the developments he predicted we’ll see soon are rapid consumer and business uptake of services providing real-time dynamic information, such as traffic information, petrol prices, parking availability and weather data; and new business models emerging in areas like location-based advertising and leveraging of location-related content from specific user communities.

Judson also expects we will soon start to see the integration of advanced map-based information directly into the engine of vehicles to improve safety, efficiency and productivity. "Don’t think of our map going into a nav system in the front seat of the car; think of our map going into the engine of the car to help drive the car…and therein you find dozens and dozens of applications which would fundamentally improve the safety of the car, the productivity of the car, the efficiencies, and we think that’s a very exciting area,” he says.

Critchlow has contracted with Navteq to provide the data for its New Zealand business, so we are excited to see how Judson’s predictions play out in the local market. Incidentally, Nokia’s acquisition of Navteq was recently approved by the EU’s competition regulators, so expect some major shake-ups in the navigation market now that the big guns of Finland are trained on it.

The full interview with Judson is worth a listen
– you can find the podcast here http://apb.directionsmag.com/archives/4395-.html (approximately 20 minutes long).

Governator muscles up on GIS

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is mandating much greater use of integrated geospatial technology across state government. He called on the state’s CIO to create a task force to help other agencies and departments tap into GIS and geospatial technology to serve the public in a variety of areas including emergency response, public health and the environment.

In New Zealand, while both central and local government has come to recognise the value of GIS and geospatial, we still lack a unified drive and vision from the top. Perhaps we need the Governator’s muscle to get things moving once and for all – what do you think? Send us your thoughts and comments to info@critchlow.co.nz

Getting to know Janet Bateson

What I do at Critchlow
Apart from acting as the company’s collective memory, having been here for 12 years, I’m probably best described as a business analyst, although I get involved in project management, product management, pre-sales support and application testing. My official title is Senior GIS Consultant, but I’m not sure if that’s because I’m the oldest person in that role or because I have a lot of experience! I’m passionate about data analysis and enjoy working on spatial software development projects in an analyst role.

What I did before joining Critchlow
I spent 15 years in the mapping industry in the UK. Most skills were transferable, but I rapidly realised the Ordnance Survey National Grid did not apply too well in New Zealand and certain map features are not the same. In the UK we walked on the pavement, here we drive on it.

In the UK, I worked for an aerial survey company, engaging in mapping projects including mapping Kuwait and mapping coal stock volumes during the miners’ strike in the 1980s. I’ve also surveyed control points for aerial survey on a Scottish mountainside during a November blizzard and dug for survey bench marks in a frozen East Anglia landscape in February. Apart from that, other jobs included tractor driving and delivering Christmas post on a bicycle in the snow.

What's next for me?
With increasing fuel prices I see routing applications increasing in importance. I look forward to working with clients in the transport sector to help them optimise their use of navigation data. I also see Envinsa Online Services becoming the product of choice for more and more companies integrating spatial functionality into their enterprise applications. GIS is no longer a separate discipline, but a fundamental part of every day business data management.

What I do in my spare time
I try to stay fit. My sporting interests over the years have evolved from hockey and indoor cricket, via sailing, golf and netball to tennis and yoga, with an occasional ski trip if I can manage it. Travelling is also a passion, but with all the family in the UK, it tends to be in that direction.

Training and Events

In-house training programme August - November 2008

Don’t forget, we are also able to accommodate special requests outside our established programme and in other centres. If you want to know more, just contact us on info@critchlow.co.nz or by calling 0800 MAPPING (0800 627 746).

Come and see us at these upcoming events

MapInfo User Group of NZ Annual Conference
15 – 16 Septembert
James Cook Hotel Grand Chancellor, Wellington
http://www.mugnz.com/

ALGIM
23 – 26 November
Wairakei Resort, Taupo
http://www.algim.org.nz/site/Default.aspx

Talk to us

We want to ensure that we give you news that is relevant, informative and interesting.

If you’d like to make your views known on this newsletter or on our website (we also accept compliments!) and/or any improvements you’d like to see made, just send an e-mail to steve.critchlow@critchlow.co.nz and we’ll do our best to incorporate them. Thanks!

Know where our Client Directors are:

Duncan Ashenhurst
duncan.ashenhurst@critchlow.co.nz
04 910 6213 / 027 414 4065

Terry Drummond
terry.drummond@critchlow.co.nz
04 910 6204 / 027 652 0792

William Lee
william.lee@critchlow.co.nz
09 363 9545 / 021 893 017

Niki Soteros
niki.soteros@critchlow.co.nz
04 910 6209 / 021 540 098