Ben Fountain poses the questions to Dr Mike Sanderson, managing director, 1Spatial - Resources - Q10 - Business Weekly

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Ben Fountain poses the questions to Dr Mike Sanderson, managing director, 1Spatial

Written by Ben Fountain
Wednesday, 05 March 2008
"We believe the games playing generation will drive a demand for using the same devices that they use to play games at home as they navigate in the real world." Backgrounder 1Spatial is a leading provider of spatial data management software and services for businesses and the public sector. Based in Cambridge, UK, with offices in Ireland, Northern Ireland, Norway and Scotland, the company has over 35 years’ experience in providing operational solutions to organisations with large spatial databases. The modern era demands the unconstrained sharing of spatial data between systems, business areas, organisations, and the public. With leading expertise in transforming data from CAD and GIS, quantitative data quality control, and spatial database technologies 1Spatial enables the reuse and repurposing of spatial data and access to it through both internal and external portals. Customers of 1Spatial include the Environment Agency, Transport for London, Scottish Enterprise, the City of Oslo, Colchester Borough Council, Dorset County Council, Ordnance Survey of Great Britain, Ordnance Survey of Ireland, LINZ New Zealand, the RAF, AIDU, the US Army Corps, Verizon, Thus plc, Thames Water, MidCoast Water and Tele Atlas. Dr Mike Sanderson joined 1Spatial, (Laser-Scan), in 2001 as Managing Director, leading the successful management buy-out of the company in 2003. He was previously at Oracle and ICL. 1) 1Spatial operates in quite a hi-tech sphere. Can you give a breakdown of your various activities for the lay person. Our software helps make spatial data manageable, and therefore usable. If you have ever bought a house you will have seen planning documents that have been issued by your Local Authority. The Local Authority will typically be using digital mapping from Ordnance Survey Great Britain (OSGB), who in turn use our technology to make sure that the spatial data they supply is accurate. Or if you wanted to check flood areas through the Environment Agency, the flood maps are based on spatial digital data. Our software helps to keep such data accurate, up-to-date and usable. 2) You recently spoke about ‘The Google Effect’ with reference to the drivers for growth at 1Spatial. What is it and how does it manifest itself? The widespread use of consumer applications such as ‘Google Earth’ and Microsoft’s ‘Virtual Earth’ mean that hundreds of thousands of people are now accessing and viewing spatial data – putting increased pressure on the providers of that data to keep it up-to-date and accurate. 3) You also referred to computer games as a possible market opportunity. How does your technology fit into this market? What we’re seeing here is a convergence between technologies. We believe the games playing generation will drive a demand for using the same devices that they use to play games at home as they navigate in the real world. They will want the real world to look and feel more like the virtual world to which they have grown accustomed – for that they will require digital spatial data. 4) Should the average consumer be worried about the seemingly ever-increasing power of spatial data? There are untested issues here for sure. You will recall that organisations that were originally set up to create these data were part of the military, hence Ordnance Survey. Some of the data was more secret then, but would still potentially impact the issues you raise. There is work being done by our industry standards body, the Open Geospatial Consortium on Digital Rights Management and other associated areas and European Union bodies are reviewing the Freedom of Information case. 5) How is your technology relevant to SMEs? There are two links to SMEs for 1Spatial. Indirect and direct. The former relates to SMEs using digital mapping that has been certified as fit for use by 1Spatial, for example in a fleet management application. The latter refers to SMEs who are active in the same industry sector and who partner with 1Spatial. We have more than 50 partners worldwide and almost 50 per cent are SMEs. 6) How significant is it that the majority of your company’s growth seems to have come in just the last few years? It is very significant. This acceleration in growth is due to a couple of key drivers. Firstly, a tried and tested management team that I am fortunate enough to be working with and secondly, our market has now ‘caught up’ with our technology. The growth of applications such as SatNav and the Internet (Google Earth and Microsoft Virtual Earth as we discussed before) means that spatial data has over the last few years become an integral part of consumer items. 7) The company has been particularly acquisitive recently. What has driven this trend? The demand that we’ve described earlier is driving consolidation in the market. Witness the grab for spatial data content in the last 6 months as Tom Tom has acquired Tele Atlas, Nokia has acquired NavTeq. These transactions combined equate to more than $10bn! We are playing in the same domain albeit at a different level currently. 8) 1Spatial is a bit of an ‘old stager’ within the Cambridge technology cluster. What would you say has been the key to your longevity? 1Spatial has always been noted for producing leading edge technology solutions. We aren’t in the business of changing that. However what we’ve succeeding in doing over the last few years, where perhaps others have failed, is that we’ve been able to produce more lightweight commercial products based on the considerable IPR that has been built up over the previous 20 years, which are now driving our growth. 9) The company appears to fulfil a number of key conditions for an IPO. Is this on the cards any time soon, especially given your increasingly international focus? We are currently in the enviable position of being profitable and cash generative; we are therefore not in a position where we are having to seek funding. However, we have a dynamic management team that is always considering all possibilities for growth and an IPO could be one of those options. It’s certainly not something we’ve ruled out. 10) How important is Cambridge to your ongoing expansion plans? Very. Cambridge provides a fantastic resource base for knowledge workers and the cluster is an enthusiastic supporter of companies that are seeking to grow. It has a strong brand, one with which we are proud to be associated. 11) Finally – a bit of crystal ball gazing. What does the future hold for the world of spatial data? The future is a 3D world! Japan has been leading the way in this domain for many years and Microsoft and Google have now invested hundreds of millions of dollars in 3 dimensional visualisation and made it truly global. Navigating with a real world 3D console is going to be exciting. Set as favorite Bookmark Email This Hits: 914 Trackback(0) TrackBack URI for this entry Comments (0) Subscribe to this comment's feed Write comment This content has been locked. You can no longer post any comment.