Business Development Committee Report NYSGISA

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Business Development Committee Report NYSGISA

• Scott Sherwood, Pictometry, Chair
• John Trimber, James W. Sewall
• Verne LaClaire, PAR Govt Systems
• Austin Fisher, Fountains Spatial

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Mission of the Business Development Committee

• To promote the growth of private sector GIT
  businesses in New York State

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Objectives

• Define the business categories that comprise the
  GIT industry in NY State.
• Quantify the current state of the GIT sector in
  terms of employment and business revenue trends.
• Investigate the primary factors affecting growth
  of the GIT sector.
• Identify potential courses of action to stimulate
  growth.
• Increase the awareness and involvement of GIT
  businesses in NYS professional forums.

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Define the business categories that comprise the
GIT industry

• Using the working definition developed by a
  University of Southern Mississippi study, GIT is
  defined as
• an information technology field of practice
  that acquires, manages, interprets, integrates,
  displays, analyzes, or otherwise uses data
  focusing on the geographic, temporal, and spatial
  context. It also includes development and
  life-cycle management of information technology
  tools to support the above.

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• From a practical point of view, the businesses
  can be considered to fall into the following
  categories
• Data related services (engineers, architects,
  photogrammetry, remote sensing, oblique imagery,
  web hosting, etc.)
• GIS Consulting (software development, application
  development, needs assessment, etc.)
• Professional services (licensed, certified,
  authoritative map sources)
• Software Developers (manufacturing)
• Data Production (data mining)
• Educational institutions as a business center, as
  related to workforce development, and also as a
  provider for services listed above, sometimes in
  competition with private businesses.

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Quantify the current state of the GIT sector in
terms of employment and business revenue trends
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NAICS Codes

• Using NAICS codes, we tried to quantify the
  trends in the GIT businesses over the last
  several years. This needed to be done at the
  state level since the codes do not track well at
  the regional or county level due to data
  suppression.
• The codes are general in nature and did not
  support breaking out the categories in sufficient
  detail to permit tracking economic trends so this
  task could not be completed as hoped.

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Employment Statistics

• However, The New York State Senate Research
  Service has kindly offered to develop estimates
  of the number of GIT businesses and their basic
  economic attributes.
• Based on a preliminary analysis performed by Paul
  DeFrancisco, Statistical Associate Editor, a
  search on DB's Selectory database turned up 744
  firms with at least one site location in the
  State. Several search iterations were run, trying
  various values for the available industry
  criteria. The most accurate yield seemed to
  result from "Line of Business Keywords" that
  begin with geog, geop, geol,topo, GIS, map,
  photogrammetry, sensing, or surveying.
  Interestingly,this search neglected to capture PB
  MapInfo, whose Line of Business was coded as
  "Business professional software publishers.
• This task will continue in an effort to refine
  the data on the businesses and as an input to a
  survey of the businesses.

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Committee Observations
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Data related services (engineers, architects,
photogrammetry, remote sensing, oblique imagery,
web hosting, etc.) these areas have slowed over
time since many of the larger data collection and
conversion projects have already been completed
and are now into the maintenance and digital
conversion stage, which are typically much
smaller dollar value contracts. These smaller and
shorter contracts in turn, make it difficult to
hire and retain qualified employees. Data
collection projects sponsored by New York State
have in some cases taken business away from
smaller NY State based businesses. The work
that would have traditionally been done by them
is now done by out of state and off-shore
businesses.
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• GIS Consulting (software development,
  application development, needs assessment, etc.)
  this area has been increasing in general,
  possibly because of the maturation of the data
  conversion projects mentioned above and because
  these services cant be exported as easily.

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• Professional services (licensed, certified,
  authoritative map sources) these services are
  also increasing for the same reasons cited above.

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• Software Developers (Manufacturing) There have
  been some successes NY State but the trend is
  flat.

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• Data Production This area is highly
  competitive, especially from overseas.

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• We are also exploring the possibility of
  applying for a grant to conduct a survey of GIT
  business in NY State to obtain a better
  understanding of the trends in employment and
  ways to promote them. We are investigating
  available grants for this effort.

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Investigate the primary factors affecting growth
of the GIT sector
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• In general ,the completion of major projects in
  the past, the competition from out of state and
  offshore businesses, as well as educational
  institutions that act in a business generating
  capacity are all factors that affect growth of
  the GIT sector in New York State.

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• The Southern Mississippi study identified 27
  factors that can affect the GIT sectors growth
  and we are reviewing these for relevance to NY
  State. Those highlighted in yellow are thought to
  be particularly relevant.

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Factors Affecting the Industry

• Evolving geospatial information requirements for
  society
• Increased reliance on the use of geospatial
  information technology for decision-making
• Availability and accessibility of geospatial data

• Increased pressure and capacity to measure
  workplace productivity, performance,
  cost-effectiveness, and efficiency
• Increased pressure to demonstrate the value,
  impact, quality, and practicality of geospatial
  information technology solutions
• Accelerated rate of change and more uncertain
  work environments

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• Increased emphasis on customer service and
  expectation of quality products and services from
  the workforce
• Increased sophistication and variety of tools,
  technologies, methods, theories, and choices in
  GIT
• Increased diversity (demographics, values,
  experience) at all levels of the workforce
• Increased expectations for higher levels of
  judgment and flexibility in worker contribution
  (specifically, for more creativity, risk-taking,
  adaptation to change, and teamwork)

• Increased use of systems approaches that
  integrate geospatial information technology in
  the workplace
• Business strategies that concentrate more on
  geospatial information technology services and
  require strategic geospatial information
  technology actions
• Changed emphasis in organizations from loyalty to
  merit, accountability, performance, and relevant
  skills
• Globalization of business, increased and expanded
  international markets, joint venture, overseas
  ownerships, and competition

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• Increased need for commitment, meaningful work,
  and participation on the job by a larger
  proportion of the workforce
• Increased use of flatter, more flexible
  organization design, smaller, self-contained work
  groups and reduced staff
• Increased skill requirements in response to
  rapid technological change
• Increased education and diversity in the
  U.S. workforce
• Continued corporate (re)structuring

• Change in size and composition of organizations
• Revolutionized training through changes in
  delivery methods
• Finding new ways to develop solutions
• Increased focus on performance improvement
• Proliferating and integrated high performance
  work systems
• Transforming into learning organizations
• Accelerated organization emphasis on human
  performance management
• Continued role of federal government in
  developing policies and programs that impact the
  private sector

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Identify potential courses of action to stimulate
growth

• Concentrate on the professional services and the
  development of unique products that can not be
  easily replicated.
• Consider regional locations or satellite offices
  that can take advantage of the proximity to areas
  of high consulting activity.

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• Investigate opportunities for promoting NY
  based businesses and US based businesses in the
  face of out of state or foreign competition
  (preliminary research indicates that, generally,
  state officials are reluctant to show favoritism
  to their own firms because these same companies
  might be placed at a disadvantage when seeking to
  contract with other states that adopt similar
  preferential policies. There is some latitude,
  however, in how NYS government RFPs are written
  (i.e., they might be structured in such a way
  that particular New York businesses are likely to
  score higher than their out-of-state competitors.
  This same thinking applies to local governments
  in NY State).
• Capitalize on and promote the excellent
  educational facilities in the state as a source
  for a well-trained work force.

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Continued

• Educational facilities can be a source of
  technical innovation that leads to
  products/services that can be the basis for a
  successful business start-up (e.g. MapInfo,
  Pictometry)
• Explore better connections between the
  educational institutions and businesses such as
  enhanced internship programs
• Investigate technology transfer programs with the
  Air force that are available to GIT businesses.
  There are 4 federal technology transfer
  laboratories in NY. Locations are Rome,
  Watervliet, NYC, and Greenport LI.  A brief list
  of expertise areas is listed below
• Rome - Information Systems
• Watervliet - materials engineering and modeling
• NYC - Environmental /chemical / nuclear
• LI - Animal Disease Center

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Increase the awareness and involvement of GIT
businesses in NYS professional forums

• NYSGISA representatives to present at
  professional forums such as engineering societies
  to show relevant information on how GIS can
  effectively be integrated into their projects.
  This will be coordinated with the Marketing
  Committee.
• Promote relevance of presentations and content
  and attendance at NY State GIS Conference,
  Geospatial Forum, and other events. The current
  attendee profile at most events is very heavy on
  government employees and some vendors that
  support that market.

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Q A - Discussion

• Suggestions for ways to promote growth?