Non-classified intel via GIS

Great story about the private sector using non-classified satellite imagery to validate North Korea’s nuclear test claims.

http://www.leesburg2day.com/articles/2006/11/02/loudoun_business/biz68geoeye110106.txt

Location: the bottom line in business

Here is a great article by GeoSpatial Weekly that talks about the impact of location intelligence on process improvement.  The survey polled 1,700 executives worldwide to gauge the role that technology can play in delivering business-relevant location intelligence. According to the results, which were released by MapInfo and BusinessWeek on Wednesday, 64 percent of business executives believe that location intelligence can improve business processes. And 21 percent plan to investigate how such intelligence can impact their organizations within the next year.Location intelligence combines software, data, services, and expertise to enable an organization to detect patterns, risks, and opportunities that customer relationship management (CRM), enterprise resource planning (ERP), and business intelligence (BI) overlook. Approximately 80 percent of data that an organization uses to make business decisions has a location-based component. Optimizing such information as ZIP codes, telephone numbers, and/or addresses can help companies answer critical questions about the location of customers and competitors and identify the places where their products and services are most valuable.

reaching the youth market

What is the impact of the youngest wireless users on the wireless market in general? Location based services (LBS) are a key piece of the puzzle. According to former FCC commissioner Michael Powell, young people are demanding non-stop connectivity and continual interaction with people and services, along with high expectations about being able to personalize those services. That especially means being able to recognize the “context” of the user – including the users location in relation to other things.That includes recognizing the specific context of the user, which includes location. Numerous experts noted the “pacifier” effect of wireless phones (or perhaps a better phrase is the “umbilical cord” effect). It seems like half of the 12 to 21 year-old population is doing something with their cell phones at any given time and every conceivable location – talking, messaging, playing or just staring at it expecting something to happen. Location will be an essential component for this (and future) generations of wireless consumers.

Microsoft BI Posts impressive gains

Ask anyone who the major players in the business intelligence space are, and Microsoft usually gets mentioned with the also-rans. But Microsoft’s BI ranking continues to improve. A recent Gartner Inc. report shows a 35.9 percent surge in revenue growth for Microsoft’s BI platform in 2005, putting it sixth in the BI market. Similar research by IDC and The OLAP Report also indicate a growing momentum in Microsoft’s BI platform, which the company expanded late last year by launching both SQL Server 2005 and Microsoft Office Business Scorecard Manager. SAP tops the rankings, while Business Objects and Cognos, SAS Institute and Hyperion filled in the gap.

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2006/sep06/09-22BIMomentumPR.mspx