Major report from leading industry analyst defines an emerging market...

The availability of new technologies and operational integration with systems such as ERP and SCM are the main drivers of the geoengineering market, according to a major new report from Cambashi, the leading analyst specializing in IT for industry. "Cambashi examines Geoengineering" takes an in-depth look at geoengineering, reporting that expenditure on sales and services for this new market is expected to exceed US$1.2 billion in 2000, up from US$1.07 billion in 1999.

In addition to examining the market and requirements for geoengineering software, the report identifies the roles played by owner-operators, contractors and service providers. It also reviews the top five global geoengineering software vendors and identifies many national and international suppliers.

"When it comes to large-scale infrastructure projects such as a new highway, a pipeline or a university campus, IT applications are traditionally deployed from a number of different areas, including GIS and AEC CAD," says Cambashi president and CEO, Mike Evans. "Companies that have been providing general CAD and GIS technologies are now beginning to focus their efforts on the specific requirements of this new market, providing applications that address the lifecycle of the project from planning through to operations. Integrated information flows are helping individuals and teams make decisions and deliver results quickly and at lower cost."

The report defines geoengineering as combining roughly equal parts of CAD and GIS with earth sciences, photogrammetry, and civil engineering, and core IT disciplines such as project management and database management. Yoav Etiel of Bentley Systems, comments: "GIS observes and plans, CAD designs, geoengineering changes the earth."

Typical geoengineering users include public and private organizations ranging from central and local government to utility and telecommunications. According to the Cambashi report, expenditure on software and related services for this market is expected to exceed US$1.2 billion in 2000, up from US$1.07 billion in 1999. The two key drivers in the market are the availability of new technologies, such as web-based collaborative engineering and design, and operational integration with systems such as ERP and SCM.

This market is being driven by a number of factors. Around the world, utility and telecommunications companies have either been de-regulated or are in the process of deregulation. Large-scale projects, which have been predominately funded by the public sector, are now funded by joint public/private initiatives. The number of stake-holders in the projects is increasing and they all expect to see a return on their investment.

New technologies such as WAP, and new applications of existing technologies, such as GPS and the Internet are being used in the search for operational efficiency. New standards such as aecXML will facilitate access to and the sharing of data. Project-based web sites, which have long been the dream of vendors (technology) rather than users (reality), are now providing useful capabilities. They will increasingly be adopted and display substantial savings in project timescales and costs.

The leading application providers in this market started in these other domains. Bentley Systems has evolved from a CAD background to being the major vendor in this new market. Autodesk is the third major geoengineering vendor with its roots in CAD. In the GIS domain, Smallworld has transformed itself from a GIS start-up to a company that focuses on the telecom and utility market sectors, which together make up one third of the geoengineering market. ESRI, the leader in traditional GIS and mapping, is active in this new market, primarily through its wide range of partners.

One key to success is the rate at which the application vendors are integrating the geoengineering applications with other project management systems, e-mail systems such as Microsoft Outlook and mainstream operational applications such as ERP. Announcements already made by the leading vendors indicate that this is happening as fast as, if not faster, than the market can react.

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