ABI Research on “Smart Cities” Clusters Location-enabled technologies

The market research firm ABI Research has packaged a series of reports called "Smart Cities Research Cluster" that gather intelligence on the market size for a variety of location-enabled applications. These applications include

• Fleet Management
• Public Safety
• Smart Meters for Smart Grids
• Traffic Information Systems
• Intelligent Transportation Systems
• Wireless Sensor Networks

...and several more. It’s worth looking into if you have to look at the potential for each segment.

Real-Time Intelligence Visualization-RTIV…new term for your consideration

Real-time Intelligence Visualization (RTIV), as described in a recent ABI Research report, is a combination of various wireless technologies that can act as an integrated system and more importantly, "actionable business intelligence (BI)." These technologies include RFID, Ultra-wideband (UWB), and Wi-Fi, that are often used separately in certain real-time location systems (RTLS). The report suggest that, "These competitive, yet complementary wireless technologies, approaches, and solutions have historically been treated as independent silos, but they are now converging. In a growing number of end-user environments a combination of technologies is being used. For example, passive and active RFID may be used jointly for fixed and mobile asset tagging; Wi-Fi- and UWB-based RTLS solutions may be leveraged for hospital asset tracking; or a combination of GPS and active RFID may be employed for cargo tracking and security."

I’m not crazy about the term, but the concept, in principal, is sound and coincident with my views on where location intelligence systems are going. The convergence we are seeing in GIS/BI and with real-time data will form the foundation of location intelligent solutions. ABI Research suggests this is more RTIV.

Podcast: Why is it so Hard to Sell Geospatial Technology to the Enterprise?

Senior executives from leading technology companies, speaking at our Location Intelligence Conference last week shared that the entire value proposition for spatial enablement is a “push” to the market rather than a “pull” or demand for the technology. Our editors ask: Are we doing an adequate job of selling the technology to more of the people that will eventually implement geospatial tools with other IT solutions.?Why is it still so hard? What are we not doing well? Will it take another “Google Earth” to push the technology deeper into corporate computing or a new crop of graduates to be more geospatially enlightened?

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BusinessWeek: A CEO’s Guide to Location Aware Technology

BusinessWeek has inserted a special guide for CEO’s looking at location-aware technology. The October 9th issue discusses a variety of technologies for supply chain management from RFID to GPS. APB has already noted the interview with Dave Kepler of Dow Chemical. BusinessWeek also discusses telematics with Ryder Systems CIO Kevin Blott. The magazine has a niftly slide show on the use of RFID for labelling and tracking shipments by Wal-mart, FEDEX, Pfizer and others. The article quotes consulting firm IDTechEx as saying that the market for RFID technology will grow from $2.77 billion in 2006 to $26.2 billion in 2016.

Dow Chemical CIO Looks to RFID/GPS

Dow Chemical’s CIO Dave Kepler is looking to RFID and GPS . He’s interviewed by BusinessWeek.

Among the tidbits: there’s no real labor saving, he hopes for return in 1.5 years, the company will be spending millions of dollars in the next several years…