We are all going through interesting times, with COVID-19 having an enormous impact on the world. If you look at the pandemic’s consequence, it has affected the economic markets significantly. Looking at the future, there are some megatrends in the world. Over the last year, what has happened to us, and is still happening, has not necessarily changed those megatrends. We will continue to see general population grow, urbanization and digitalization of the world. On the geospatial side, we acquire the data, analyze it and advise based on the data’s insights. So, digitalization is helping us to have various layers of data linked to each other. Thus, if you operate the lifecycle of an asset, be it for marine or land, you need to understand the subsurface and above the surface, which is a service of geospatial information.
The other important element of the megatrend is Climate Change, which has a direct consequence on the industries. Also, when we say infrastructure is growing, it has to do with sustainable infrastructure. There are many ageing assets in the world, and that is very demanding of geospatial technology. Also, as all geospatial specialists know, the spatial base layer is essential to build the Digital Twin. Therefore, I see that this is a market that will probably move forward. The future is infrastructure, in which the geospatial base layer will be important. Also, specifically related to the crisis, we expect governments to have packages to stimulate the industry to get some large projects going.
Concerns around ageing assets, utility networks
Ageing assets are a big concern. For instance, in the Netherlands, Germany and the United States, many bridges are unsafe, and they need maintenance. There are thousands of such assets, and the only other thing that one can do is to postpone the maintenance. But at some point, it is the duty of the governments to step in to take care. Thus, I think there is going to be stimulus packages in some countries that will relate to the maintenance of existing assets. Then there are large infrastructure projects which need to be taken care of. For instance, in the UK, they have the high-speed rail line which is essential, and Boris Johnson kicked that off shortly after the pandemic. He knew that they needed to get going with the project to have the industry working on something. So, there are those kinds of programs where large infrastructure development is already planned for quite some time, and governments may give these projects an additional push to boost the economy.
“If you operate the lifecycle of an asset, be it for marine or land, you need to understand the subsurface and above the surface, which is a service of geospatial information.”
Alternatively, in the past, we have seen some of the utility network owners not wanting to know how their networks are; but obviously, of late we got bushfires and all sorts of accidents happening, and these CEOs were attacked and held liable. Now, there is a whole flurry of activity starting because these companies have an obligation to actually know the quality of their utility network, and therefore, they need to survey and get the accurate data of the network. All of this is very much aligned with the ultimate purpose and ambition of Fugro, which is to create a safe and livable world. We want to help the world to get to a level where we can say that our planet is safe.
Digitalization — the great enabler
A lot is happening in the industry. We probably may see many hardware companies trying to move into the services business in the future. However, being a hardware company, getting into services also creates several challenges. For a service and a solutions company like Fugro, in the past, we were doing one phase of the lifecycle of an asset. However, what we realized was that with digitalization, you can link data layers, build 3D data cubes of subsurface and above the subsurface for digital twins of assets and then actually start linking the behavior of the environment with the asset itself to the data you have around the surroundings and the asset. So, it becomes possible to build a service that is applicable for the whole lifetime of the asset. You can then look at building partnerships with these asset owners where you take the decision to design and build something for a sustainable future — for 25-30 years.
Thus, we understand the client’s problem from A to Z. In that sense, we are more than an extension of the ultimate clients, assisting them to be most efficient in designing, managing and building the asset for the long term. I think this is where it will end up. There will be more specific questions from asset owners who will ask for niche solutions that demand high-quality data and require services and solutions of companies like Fugro to get involved and acquire the data at a certain accuracy level.
Joining forces for mutual benefits
Large software companies like Google and Intel will play a critical role in further enlarging the geospatial market. They will open up all sorts of possibilities to tap into, work together and form partnerships. It is important that we join forces because you can achieve much more if you work together than trying to work alone. In the past, Fugro wanted to buy everything and develop its software platform, but that’s outdated now. Today, you need to have clever partnerships and get unified solutions to serve value to end customers. Undoubtedly, these mainstream or large software enterprises will play a large role in defining some of the geospatial world’s direction. We should see that as a positive, because they will enlarge the market and there will be high demand for specialized, high accuracy solutions. Technology/IT companies often don’t have the expertise to deliver these high-end solutions, so a partnership with them will help both sectors.
Eyeing integrated solutions
We are working on integrated solutions. It is very clear that we need to launch these capabilities, especially on elements, such as Artificial Intelligence and Cloud. Fugro has always had these elements in their research and development group, and today, we have 350-400 full-time dedicated people for the development of solutions in AI and data analytics.
