Laser-Scan, Autodesk, Intergraph and MapInfo, all members of the OpenGIS Consortium (OGC), have come together to promote a new initiative to achieve improved interoperability between their GIS products. For the first time customers will be able to “mix and match” tools and technologies from the four vendors while benefiting from access to seamless data via Oracle Spatial, the market relational database. This initiative supports organizations where separate departments require a range of GIS applications. In addition, more and more businesses require their systems and applications to be interoperable in order to reduce costs and facilitate smarter working. To this end, Laser-Scan, Autodesk, Intergraph and MapInfo have joined together to develop free Interoperability Kits. Specifically, these kits address the consistent handling of auxiliary information for text and point data, such as orientation.
This initiative extends the value of interoperability being exploited by some of the existing customers and will allow more organisations to reach their goal of a truly interoperable solution. Laser-Scan is committed to delivering products that conform to OGC specifications. We urge all vendors within the GIS community to support this inititaive so that users of many different GIS software packages are able to benefit from truly interoperable products. Laser Scan’s immediate solution is facilitated by the use of Oracle Database, with Laser-Scan’s Radius Topology product enabling the application of server-side rules to ensure consistent, unbreakable, accurate data. Laser-Scan’s Radius Topology is an advanced spatial processing environment, which extends Oracle Locator or Oracle Spatial and provides dramatic improvements to the speed and consistency of spatial data handling. Radius Topology is truly interoperable; whether solutions rely on Autodesk, Intergraph or MapInfo GIS, Radius Topology adds the benefits of advanced data intelligence. In conjunction with Autodesk, Intergraph and MapInfo, Laser-Scan has produced a white paper to show how interoperability works in practice around an Oracle.
