Ask any organisation about their top strategic objective and they will typically respond with “Safety Improvement”. Then ask the same organisation what is the biggest hurdle they have to tackle if they are to achieve this objective and nearly all will respond with "poor communication". So why then is it that most organisations fail to recognise the role that digital mapping has to play in improving communication. It is, after all, one of the best communication mediums available to them.
Often, it is because the provision of digital mapping is seen as a support or back-office function, delivered by specialists in an IT world that is riddled with techno-babble. At the same time, there is little or no pull from the user community because they are conditioned to believe that their business processes can only use paper maps and that technology will only let them down. Finally, justifying significant financial investment in a large scale project is not easy at the best of times, so now that there is increased financial pressure and conflicting demands on scarce resources, it has just got even harder.
The bottom line is that companies are looking for step changes. In other words they need to challenge and re-invent themselves, because spending time and money on a system or process refresh and/or making marginal improvements are not even considered. Companies need to be innovative and even take calculated risks if they are to succeed in tackling their big strategic objectives,
Cost and efficiency Improvements in GPS; more generally-available and affordable aerial photography and, improved data access opportunities, have all combined in a way that kick starts innovation. Finding ways to embrace these opportunities is the challenge, especially when delivering into business areas that traditionally have been viewed as inflexible and resistant to change?