“Give me the Data” ... PBBI’s Geosk Launches

"Customers aren't saying, 'give me the data in this format; they are saying give me the data!'," says Scott Robinson, Pitney Bowes Business Insight's (PBBI), Director, Global Data Products.  "As we start this concept of making the data on demand ... we are going to market with the notion of Geosk as a fulfillment platform."

It's always been a dilemma for most geospatial professionals to have immediate access to data. Unlike the 1980's when data was delivered on tape or even the early 90's when data was delivered on tens of CD's, today it is unacceptable not to have immediate access. With cloud storage offering better options to host larger data sets, business models are emerging that allows users to take down data on demand.

DigitalGlobe's ImageConnect, GeoEye's EyeQ, and Esri's ArcGIS Online are all offering options for taking down data on demand. But PBBI wants to take it a step further by putting an emphasis on content management. "The area that we think as potentially big opp. Is in content management…where is data that we purchased; where is that project data that we did; where is that content that we purchased, said Robinson."

PBBI's technology stack is comprised of WeoGeo forming the backbone with Safe Software's FME serving to extract data as needed by the client. The ability to deliver data in exactly the right format and extents was key. Clients want to immediately know what data is available and can they see it. PBBI's objective was to cut the cycle times for getting data to the customer.  In addition, Robinson sees PBBI on a metadata journey to provide clients with value and currency because he believes it forms the backbone of search.

With Geosk, officially launched last week, their data as a service (DaaS) platform, PBBI is taking their library of data and offering a one-stop shop for demographic and business data. But Robinson sees some hurdles ahead.  "The challenge will be how we evolve this. Today it is a download model; can it evolve to support a web app and not deal with any locally stored data." Robinson thinks this is the next wave and the ability to accessing hosted data and rent it. Today the ability to "cookie-cut" only the data you want from a certain area in place now as is per unit pricing. Licensing is always going to be a challenge but PBBI thinks it has thought the problem through and believes it has a leg up on the competition.