A Changing Market for Digital Navigation - TomTom Pushes for Newer, Faster Innovation for Mobile and Enterprise Solutions

When you have only two major players in a market, the competitive differences are magnified. And if one coughs, the other sneezes.  Such is the case with TomTom and NAVTEQ. Both companies have acquired or been acquired; experienced layoffs, and refocused their business model. The disruption can be directly tied to an explosion in the mobile device market. You would think this would be good for both companies? But in a market where everyone has a navigation device, and you are competing with a company that is both a client and a competitor (i.e. Google), what do you do?

Reorg
Today, TomTom issued a statement regarding the company's reorganization and we've posted the important news items; see the company's press release and All Points Blog about the layoff of 10% of their workforce. When I spoke with company executives this morning, they reiterated that the change to their business model would focus on faster time to market of products and the ability to leverage core assets that include traffic data and an adherence to the Navigation Data Standard (NDS).  The NDS has been identified by TomTom as a means to help standardize how maps go into navigation devices.  Charles Cautley, managing director of the Automotive, Enterprise & Government Business unit (AEG) for TomTom said, "NDS is hugely strategic for TomTom." Cautley believes that this simplifies content accessibility and the map compilation process.

TomTom sees that there is still lots of growth in maps, POIs and especially traffic products. In the traditional GIS and enterprise market, the company sees growth in various site selection applications as well as real-time information to engineers and city planners. TomTom wants to combine their map products, traffic information and geocoder, essentially a bundle of their strategic assets, and offer them to industry segments.

A focus on Dynamic Traffic Data
Late last year, TomTom released their Traffic Manifesto thereby attempting to stake a unique selling proposition in the navigation market. On a webinar yesterday (December 7), the company announced that they had captured 5 trillion anonymous GPS traffic measurements since 2007 and used the data to create a rich database of historical traffic profiles. The data goes into TomTom's HD Traffic products.

Why the upheaval in digital navigation? What's Changed?
Navigation is becoming pervasive," said Cautley. "Everyone can have navigation; more devices; in car units; or web at home. "[TomTom is] rethinking how you take advantage of navigation." TomTom wants to leverage both crowdsourced and probe data to create more accuracy in maps. "[These] new data are giving us tremendous information," said Cautley. "The strategy is a move to provide more dynamic content … Better quality and more value to our customers."

Geospatial Data Providers Segment Data Products and Continue to Innovate Beyond Just Raw Data #esriuc

The big four data providers, DigtalGlobe, NAVTEQ, TomTom, and GeoEye are no longer playing second fiddle to geospatial software solutions vendors. They are innovating in ways that go beyond simply selling raw satellite imagery or raw street centerlines. From points of interest to live traffic to LiDAR to SAR, airborne sensors to building models, you name it, these companies are rushing headlong into selling all kinds of geospatial data and packaging derivative products in ways that are truly market-driven. All of these companies offered something unique but you have to spend time with each to dig into their special sauce.

DigitalGlobe

Let me first focus on a few unique product configurations from DigitalGlobe (DG). The company has segmented their imagery packages into demand-driven solutions.

FirstLook is a subscription service that covers 120 global hot spots  where likely natural or manmade disasters or events can occur. You get imagery from these pre-selected areas with both post and pre-event data. For example, planning for a major sporting event, city planners may want to do some emergency management preparations. Imagery is collected as soon as satellites can be tasked and becomes available within 24-48 hours. Subscribers can also get a 30 day refresh post event

AssuredLook is an imagery site package focused on national security and defense and data is collected over areas such as North Korea, the Middle East and China. Data is refreshed in 14 to 30 day intervals.

While security may be the main focus of FirstLook and AssuredLook, businesses can use these services as well to look for economic vulnerabilities. Think about its use by the hospitality industry that may be affected by civil unrest as was seen during the Arab Spring. Hotel chains were scrambling to secure their personnel and clients. Or when tornadoes ripped through North Alabama and Joplin, Missouri this spring, corporations had to evaluate assets and understand how their logistics would be impacted. I found that these two services were exemplary in their ability to service niche markets.

DG also has an imagery set called Diplomatic Facility Support Package (DIFAC) that is just focused on areas of diplomatic importance. This product includes a vector data set as well including embassy locations and other political points of interest. I just see this as another niche opportunity that DG walked through and took advantage of something that seems like an instant winning proposition.

NAVTEQ

NAVTEQ has built a strong presence in the enterprise geospatial market and its relationship with Esri is expanding. The company recently released their NAVTEQ map in the Esri file Geodatabase format. Esri StreetMap Premium Advanced now includes NAVTEQ Traffic Pattern, Point Addressing and Transport. NAVTEQ has also begun to capture LiDAR data but has not productized the offering as yet. NAVTEQ is also expanding its partner network and increasing the number of navigable data products in international markets that are now included in ArcGIS Online. Listen to the podcast that goes into more detail about the working relationship between the two companies featuring Esri's Mike Tsengouras and my good friend Milton Ospina from NAVTEQ.

TomTom

TomTom unfortunately suffers from a branding issue that belies their presence in the enterprise marketplace. Because of its strong association with TomTom's portable navigation devices in the consumer space, customers might be inclined to forget the acquisition of Tele Atlas last year which before that acquired Geographic Data Technology (GDT). And because of the close association between Don Cooke, GDT's founder, and Jack Dangermond, GDT, now TomTom, was the preferred street centerline vendor. Cooke now works for Dangermond running the Community Maps program. But TomTom's enterprise products in the logistics and fleet management market combine the company's high definition real-time traffic information with route guidance. So, it would be unwise to overlook TomTom just because you think they only sell neat PND's.

GeoEye

GeoEye's play in offering solutions has taken a different tack than that of DG. The company released information for the Esri UC that provided information about Esri Enterprise License Agreements for small municipal and county governments, public safety agencies and utilities that enable them to put an ArcGIS® system in place. Within that agreement is the GeoEye Image Pack which has a three-year term license and delivers the sub-meter, high-resolution imagery products. GeoEye stated in a press release that "new collection and event options are also available if no archive data exists or if a customer is responding to a crisis or planning for a major event." The solution pack includes GeoEye-1, IKONOS, and aerial imagery from MJ Harden, a GeoEye company. The objective is to target local governments under tight budget constraints.