Gartner Adds Companies with Location Intelligence Capabilities to BI Magic Quadrant

Gartner, the market research firm, released its report (registration may be required to download) on companies reviewed for its "magic quadrant," a chart showing the leading players in business intelligence software solutions. Making the grade were companies with location intelligent functionality. Most companies in the report use location as an adjunct to their reporting capabilities while only one, Alteryx, truly relies on its geospatial roots to leverage location-based data in a more significant way. Others, however, use maps for primarily visualization rather than analytics. Here is a synopsis of each with both Gartner's analysis and my take on where they fit in the quadrant.

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ArcGIS for National Government: What is it? Is it New? #esrifedcon

Today, Esri launched ArcGIS for National Government at their Federal GIS conference. What is it and is it anything new for ArcGIS users?

ArcGIS for National Government, as best I can discern from the presentations, is composed of data services, combined with pre-assembled workflow templates that also includes pre-configured model builder workflows that result in a specific "information product." If you happen to be working in an intelligence agency, there are specific templates/workflows called "ArcGIS for Intelligence."

For example, the ArcGIS for Intelligence solution contains specific content and other information products such as basemaps that may convey "live" current events happening in the world and provides the user the ability to drill down to information about actual incidents. The basemaps may include ready to use layers specific to that application or cartographic elements, such as a light gray, low contract basemap so point and polygon data will not be overwhelmed with colors and attribution of a typical base map.

Another aspect of the solution provides for the creation of an user-defined image or data catalog with a rating scale so users can see how helpful a data layer or image has been to others. Any value-added work created within a project can be published to the catalog and registered as a service that others can use as well.

Additionally, users can access ready to use products including analytical templates to answer specific questions. If you were working as a border patrol agent, these templates would include applications for:

• Situational awareness
• Border patrol mobile applications
• Border crossing activity

The template, then, includes standard map layers (land cover, water, etc.) but also known trails that illegal aliens will use and the locations of border arrests plus polygons for border patrol administration areas.

Finally, the solution also includes a pre-configured model builder template for these applications. The user then gathers data by browsing ArcGIS Online to look for layers that may be more specific to his/her own project area. Once the analysis has been completed, the entire analysis can be sent out via a layer package that other users can pull into their ArcGIS system.

Is any of this new? What's new is that these kinds of solutions are packaged. While the underlying technology is not new, Esri is trying to simplify the workflow, which would be particularly useful to neophyte GIS users. And with an expected expansion of knowledge workers that want to avail themselves of geospatial technology but are not yet expert with ArcGIS, this certainly gives them a push in the right direction. In a way, it reminds me of the large, post-sized workflow models that Esri used to publish for certain vertical industries. This is the evolution of those posters for the era of "cloud."

Pitney Bowes Software CEO O’Hara Discusses Autodesk Relationship and Software Strategy

Yesterday I conducted a brief phone interview with Pitney Bowes Software CEO John O'Hara and he brought me up to speed on several initiatives at PBS and the positioning of the company.

On the PBS/Autodesk strategic announcement and that of other partnerships O'Hara said: "Now is the time to look at partners like Korem and more strategic partners such as Autodesk. Many Autodesk customers are dealing in the large construction projects but still have the need for GIS capabilities." O'Hara mentioned that Autodesk saw Esri moving into design space and therefore saw an opportunity to work with PB as a partner to go up against situations with Esri. Similarly, Autodesk and PB have some dependence on desktop software and largely don't play in the same space. PB is focused on business applications of GIS in markets like insurance, banking and retail while Autodesk plays in the planning , engineering and energy space. Autodesk's go to market model is through a huge network of partners; and PB has a more direct sales organization.

Information that was not provided in the initial press release about the partnership was that PB will sell Autodesk software through their channel and Autodesk partners will resell MapInfo through theirs. O'Hara sees high growth opportunities in the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) where infrastructure opportunities exist. Currently the direct sales organizations of each company are coming together to identify solution where they have not been working together before.

O'Hara said that software has become a more important part of PB's overall strategy as the company undergoes a transformation  away from old mailstream business to the customer communication space. While clients have spent money with PB in the mailstream business, the company can now engage with them around more revenue creating capabilities such as leveraging the client's prospect database and helping them w/analytics. Because of PB's exceptional history and long-standing relationships with clients sales executives can get easier access to the C-suite. Typically, when PB discussed their portfolio of business intelligence and marketing solutions, their customer will say,  "We had no idea you were in this  space," said O'Hara.

Data management and quality assurance is a huge opportunity for PB according to O'Hara. PB is in this space and when combined with location-based applications PB is able to enrich the entire database. Clients like the idea of data enrichment  quality assurance according to O'Hara. PB can help cleanse and enrich customer databases and manage communications with customers. PB is hoping that their complete solution in the area of customer management will be a natural extension of their mailstream business.

And what barriers does O'Hara see for existing MapInfo clients moving to the cloud? O'Hara says that clients want on-premise and cloud solutions.  "We're betting on both horses and we're looking at the long tail of our products," he said.

And what about the MapInfo channel partners? "We're very much focused on partners; our revenues are still at 40% from the channel," said O'Hara. Most of this is from VARs selling desktop apps. "We're trying to do a better job with them," he said.

Oracle, Teradata Offer Next Gen BI, Location Intelligence

I had to do a double-take when I saw this announcement that Teradata, a company focused on "big data," and Oracle were teaming to create solutions for what the press release stated was the "next generation BI capabilities." It took me by surprise as I believed these companies were competitors. One blogger from datanami referred to the relationship as being that of "frenemies."

Even more surprising was that the relationship seems to hinge more on geospatial technology integration than just basic business intelligence applications. According to the release:

Newly released next-generation BI capabilities empower IT and business professionals to effectively leverage geospatial analytics, improve system performance, and enhance management of complex BI environments.  The new capabilities include: Teradata Geospatial with Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (OBIEE) mapping capabilities – joint technologies work together to better inform companies' business decisions with automated, integrated location intelligence.

Big data, BI, location intelligence, geospatial ... be still my beating heart. This alliance signals a few things:

1. Location-based information is becoming a real data hog and must rely on data appliances that can handle the volume and process it with BI technology
2. Teradata, while having some BI tools, is looking for more fire power in apps, while Oracle probably sees an opportunity to sell more BI apps.
3. Location intelligent (LI) solutions are now more prominent in the vocabulary of the mainstream IT players
4. Customers are demanding location-based data analytics.
5. There's no mention of:
   • 
     Oracle Spatial integration
   • Oracle Exadata Appliance - an applicance for big data
   • Oracle's partnership with Cloudera to bring Hadoop to the Oracle Big Data Appliance

Of course, this press release came from Teradata. Oracle has many solutions for handling big data but I just found it odd that Teradata Geospatial is mentioned without Oracle Spatial seeming to be in the mix. I hope to have a statement from Oracle soon.

Regardless, this announcement is somewhat self serving for my interests because both organizations will be present at our Location Intelligence Conference 2012 this may and will sit on the "Big Data" power panel. Pat Sack, CTO of Oracle's National Security Group and Robert Trentkamp, senior partner of Claraview, a division of Teradata, will be on the panel.

Take our poll - Where do you see location technology benefiting enterprise IT in 2012