'Weve grown to a full-fledged GIS offering

Whats the reason for the growing buzz around GIS?



Over the last two years, the GIS industry has matured largely. GIS is an old

industry. Earlier, it was more of a theoretical science used by scientists for

forecasting earthquakes, material resource management, etc. However, over the

last few years, it has taken a solid push with Google Earth, which brought GIS

to home PC. Today It has become a laymans tool.

What is Autodesks focus on the GIS space?



Autodesks Geospatial business focuses on the GIS market. We are trying to
create a market for the Geospatial product line. Weve identified certain

segments as the prime focus, which includes areas with strong engineering and

CAD components. In India, we are targeting market segments like utilities,

transportation, mining, geology, mapping, and data conversion agencies.

In terms of offerings, today, weve grown to a full-fledged GIS offering,

catering to all GIS users. Our product offerings include Map 3D, Map Guide, Map

Guides Studio, and Topobase. Of this, Topobase, which is a real high-end

platform, is not yet available in India but will be released in the near future.

Manideep Saha, head, Infrastructure Solutions, Autodesk, India and SAARC Region

But why go for separate GIS tools when AutoCAD was already being used in

GIS?



Traditionally, AutoCAD has been used for creating the primary data for GIS.

So, typically, our products were used for data creation and then moved into

another GIS tool. However, there were issues of inaccurate data in this and a

lot of rework had to be done. Therefore, it was required to have specific GIS

tools. In order to avoid data errors, were encouraging people to create data on

Map 3D, which is a GIS tool rather than AutoCAD.

What trends do you foresee emerging in the GIS market?



People have invested a lot in GIS software with a lot of aid coming from

World Bank. Now, the clear trend is creating applications on that software. To

provide value addition, industry specific applications are being built on our

products. About 6-7 industry specific applications will be made available in the

next 3-4 months. Some applications that are available on Topobase are utility,

land record management, asset and facility management, etc. One can create more

complex applications on top of Topobase.

There is also an emerging trend of integrated IT and GIS to manage the

infrastructure of the entire city. This is both from the initial design

standpoint and post implementation managing standpoint.

Shipra Malhotra



shipram@cybermedia.co.in