Sunil Kumar Makkena, Senior Vice President, Utilities & Geospatial BU and Delivery, Cyient explains how Hexagon Geospatial has been supporting Cyientโs solutions
What is the role of geospatial technologies in modern industry?
Today, geospatial information has grown to become a common source of data, and is widely used directly or indirectly by several industries โ be it governance or entity communications. With major transformations taking place in the last 10-15 years, geospatial technology has become a key to managing business operations for many industries. Major breakthroughs in geospatial content have come from industries with fast-growing, emerging technologies. For example, within the communications industry โ where tracking, mapping and managing assets is critical โ surveying of assets is being conducted using GIS. Another example is in the area of land administration, where there is demand for ground surveying. LiDAR and aerial imagery are now used to optimize the survey method. The cost-saving and efficiency from using GIS has overtaken traditional survey methods, resulting in significant growth in the geospatial market. The overall market size of geospatial today is $11 billion, with a projected annual growth of 9.6% by 2019.
What in your opinion are the new policies that could encourage the uptake of spatial technologies in work processes?
The new policies being outlined for the growth of smart cities is a good example. Government and enterprises want exact base maps and utilities. They require a common point of interest for their application. The map policy needs to be amended to bring in greater clarity or simplification on the data definitions, usage and access process. For the geospatial industry to grow to global ranking, related policies need to re-looked at and amended so that access to geoinformation is easier.
How do you see the geospatial technologies play a major role in smart cities?
I see geospatial technology vendors adding a lot of value to smart cities. At Cyient, we have the ability to address various technologies and systems to make the concept of smart cities a reality. For example, urban infrastructureย has components like communications, transportation, administration, and utilities in terms of electricity, water and gas. Each of the components within a smart city needs to get smarter โ be it smart energy, smart navigation or a smarter way of managing e-governance by using a variety of technologies. Geospatial solutions not only have the ability to bring all these entities together, but also to work seamlessly for building a โsmarterโ city.
What are your key offering for smart cities and how do they benefit the citizens?
Smart governance, smart energy, smart communications and smart transportation are Cyientโs four major offerings for smart cities. Our smart governance offering includes using UAVs for accurate mapping and real-time information, which is the base for everything. Our smart energy offering uses geospatial technology for asset condition management and control operations. We have end-to-end service offerings for smart communications starting with planning and designing the network to maintaining the network and the data center. We are also offering smart transportation solutions, having mapped the whole of North America. Moreover, we are doing lot of real-time data updates for the navigation industry on a global level.
Geospatial information and technology is seeing massive growth and is reaching a phase of transformation. Technology vendors are moving from being product-oriented to addressing a business segment completely
How is Cyient leveraging its association with Hexagon Geospatial?
Cyient has a good, longstanding relationship with Hexagon Geospatial. We have been working together for the last 20-25 years and have moved up together in the value chain. While Hexagon Geospatial has been supporting Cyientโs solutions, Cyient uses Hexagon Geospatialโs products for 3D modeling. We have mapped cities and built 3D models in countries like the US, Europe and parts of the Asia-Pacific region. We use Hexagon Geospatial ERDAS for image processing. ERDAS adds value and high precision to the 10-cm aerial imagery we process. We have also done coastal zone mapping with 10-cm accuracy.
Geospatial industry has been going through a phase of consolidation and transformation in the last few years. Has this affected your business?
Geospatial information and technology is seeing massive growth and is reaching a phase of transformation. Technology vendors are moving from being product-oriented to addressing a business segment completely. We are constantly innovating and trying to add value to customers in different industry segments. We have the knowledge of how geospatial technologies can be applied to various industries. With other industry groups, like IT companies, moving into the geospatial business, we have the ability to lead by combining our knowledge with new IT tools. We can add more value to our customers. This gives us a head-start against our new competitors in the market.
