Committee Report, February 2008
Mission: To promote the growth of private sector GIT businesses
in New York State.
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.
Define the business categories that comprise the GIT industry
in NY State
Using the working definition developed by the 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."
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)
- End-user businesses (e.g. insurance agencies, realtors) [note:
we need to decide if this category is a focus since they are
not involved in producing data but are consumers]
- 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.
In addition, Kent Garner, president of the Center for Governmental
Research Inc. has agreed to help research the NAICS codes that might
fit the above groupings and this would lead into the discussion on
trends in the industry below.
Quantify the current state of the GIT sector in terms of
employment and business revenue trends
Using the NAICS codes from above, we will try and quantify the
trends in the GIT businesses over the last several years. This would
be done at the state level since the codes may not track well at
the regional or county level due to data suppression.
Based on the committee members’ experience, the following trends
have been observed;
- 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.
- 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 can’t be
exported as easily.
- Professional services (licensed, certified, authoritative
map sources) – these services are also increasing for the same
reasons cited above.
We might want to consider a survey of a sample of businesses as
well
Investigate the primary factors affecting growth of the
GIT sector
The Southern Mississippi study identified 27 factors that can affect
the GIT sector’s growth and we will review these for relevance to
NY State.
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.
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.
Increase the awareness and involvement of GIT businesses
in NYS professional forums
- NYSGISA representatives to present at professional forums such
as engineers to show relevant information on how GIS can effectively
be integrated into their projects.
- 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.
