Geospatial Opportunities Abound in 2013
Traditionally, the new year presents an opportunity to take stock of the coming year. MBA is especially upbeat as we enter 2013 because of the recent continued funding of the two business assistance programs we administer on behalf of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) and the Mississippi Development Authority (MDA) designed to help improve the economy in the region.
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By: Chad Whitney
With the start of 2013, Lime PI Digital has an important tip that just may help your business develop ways to further expand and grow by developing a digital marketing plan. With an efficient marketing plan in place, your business will be able to plan, implement, track, and revise your marketing strategies for the year ahead. So many times our businesses experience growth, but as owners and marketing professionals, we are unsure how to replicate and improve on last year's performance.
It all begins with a clear strategy and goal system to understand the hows and whys of growing your business. The next step is to work the plan over the next 12 months and analyze performance to determine the overall improvements the program provided to your business. The creation of a digital marketing plan for your business can be key in getting the Internet and the power of search working for your business. Create a budget and clear goals for the coming year.
Here are five tips to creating a reasonable budget and strategy for your digital marketing plan:
- Create a set of goals to achieve during the next 12 months
- Create a budget that includes advertising on Google AdWords. AdWords can
deliver fast performance gains while you continue to work your plan
- Add room in the budget for creating more content on your web property or
properties. This can pay large dividends in social and organic traffic
- Include Software expenses. Many web based softwares are now offered as
services. Don't forget to include room in the budget for partners like Constant
Contact and HootSuite
- Don't forget to budget for analysis. Analysis can be a key part of understanding
how to grow your business.
Devote a portion of your budget to analyze your plan over the next 12 months. Start off with a big push in the beginning of the year. The first quarter will be key to your success by getting the ball rolling.
Commentary From: Michael Liu, Sr. Vice President, Dutko Worldwide
Well the 113th Congress has been sworn in, as has President Obama for his second term. (And Joe Biden has started to campaign for the Democratic Party nomination for President for the 2016 election; and on the GOP side Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, Paul Ryan, and Bobby Jindal are all testing the waters in earnest…)
And the prospects for major reforms and win-win outcomes on spending, taxes, and fiscal policy are no better than they were in late November. In fact, the conventional wisdom in Washington is that things will get worse, before they get…worse. Stinging from their "defeat" in the election and then losing on the "fiscal cliff" battlefield at the close of the 112th Congress, Republicans are getting ready for a showdown in the Spring using the end of the current Continuing Resolution and impending Sequestration, and to a lesser degree the debt ceiling as their leverage points.
Senate Democrats will try to meet the House challenge by proposing a budget that includes more tax increases (no joke), along with some spending cuts (but not anywhere near what House Republicans will agree to). The White House will continue to brow beat the GOP as heartless and foes of social justice, while the President will spend as much time on guns and immigration as he will on the budget, talking to the Democratic Party base in trips outside of Washington somehow thinking that this will move the immovable in Washington.
But let us not forget that we live in a very volatile world.
It will not take much for the President and the Congress to have to turn their attention away from domestic issues in order to deal with foreign affairs as a matter of national security.
By Spring, concerns about Iran will be back in the headlines as Israel becomes increasingly concerned about the steady progress in the nuclear capabilities of Iran. Europe will remain an uncertain economic morass that will be hoping that Merkel can hold on to her control of the German government. Greece and Italy will be unstable allies in the fight against disintegration of the Euro as domestic politics in those countries could upend the efforts of the last 18 months to impose necessary austerity measures on their national budgets.
Al Qaeda will make headway in the new governments of the Middle East, and gain influence in Syria as it continues the devolution into civil war.
Reverberations from the Middle East will accentuate unrest in North Africa as we have seen recently in Mali and Algeria, which in turn will cause major jitters in Europe. Whether our troop withdrawal from Afghanistan will help to stabilize or destabilize the region is still open for debate (especially with the current turmoil in Pakistan between the current government and judiciary).
New heads of state in Japan, South Korea, and China, will add to the uncertainty on the trade and monetary fronts of these major economic powers. And North Korea's enigmatic young leader coupled with ASEAN wariness of China in Southeast Asia will keep defense analysts on their toes.
Unfortunately, world history does not provide a good track record on the emergence of great leadership in such times. Such leaders usually await emerging onto center stage with the actual occurrence of great calamities that are the result of bad economic policies, mistakes in military judgment, and tepid leadership among the world's powers.
Nevertheless, in this climate gains in the short and medium terms by businesses that sell to the armed services domestically and abroad can prosper. Likewise, businesses connected to domestic energy will be well positioned for growth and strengthening as unrest in overseas energy sources increase. (And in fact, we have seen a spike in our firm's clients in both fields in that last six weeks.)
These are indeed interesting and dangerous times.
Image of the Month
National Mall in Washington, DC As Seen From Orbit
(Credit: NASA)
Astronauts on board the International Space Station captured this view of Washington, D.C. and the surrounding area on Sunday, Jan. 20, one day before the public Inauguration of President Barack Obama.
This detailed view shows the Potomac River and its bridges at left, with National Mall at the center, stretching eastward from the Lincoln Memorial to the Washington Monument toward the Capitol building, where the ceremony was held.
Read more: spaceref.com
Items of Interest
National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency Exercises Option
Signal Magazine
The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) reissued contract HM0176-11-C-0002, for administrative reasons, and exercised option year 2011 simultaneously under reissued contract HM0176-13-C-N002 to NJVC LLC, Chantilly, Va. The Information Technology/Information Services (IT/IS) contract provides the NGA IT Enterprise Operations and Sustainment (O&S) support to NGA IT systems at approximately 170 sites (90 manned/80 unmanned) around the world. The award consists of cost-plus-award-fee (CPAF) and firm-fixed-price (FFP) support. The total CPAF value is $379,945,641; the FFP value is $11,632,110. The period of performance for option year 2011 is Jan. 1, 2013 to Dec. 31, 2013. NGA, Springfield, Va, is the contracting activity.
Geospatial Technology For The Energy Industry
By: Geoff Zeiss
Energy demand will increase by over one-third between now and 2035. A massive investment of some $37 trillion in the world's energy supply system is needed during 2012-2035. Environmental issues have become a major concern in the energy industry. It is projected that energy-related CO2 emissions will rise from an estimated 31.2 Gt in 2011 to 37.0 Gt in 2035, leading to a long-term average temperature increase at the Earth's surface of 3.6 ºC. Just to reduce the estimated long-term average temperature increase to 3 ºC requires a significant investment in energy efficiency leading to energy intensity improvements 2.6 times the rate of the last 25 years.
Some examples where geospatial technology plays an important role in the energy sector ithat I discuss in the article nclude transmission line route routing; energy density analysis to target buildings with high energy footprints; energy performance optimization of buildings; vegetation management for transmission lines; estimating solar potential and optimizing PV panel positioning; reducing utility truck rolls by "bringing the field into the office", disaster management; and increasing the value of enterprise systems such as outage management, asset management, and work crew dispatch by integrating geospatial technology… Read more, geospatial.blogs.
DigitalGlobe Announces Election Deadline for GeoEye Shareowners
GCN.com
DigitalGlobe, Inc. (DGI), a leading global provider of high-resolution earth imagery solutions, recently announced the deadline for shareowners of GeoEye, Inc. (GEOY) to elect the form of consideration that they wish to receive in DigitalGlobe's pending combination with GeoEye.
Pursuant to the Agreement and Plan of Merger between the parties and the anticipated closing date of January 31, 2013, all shareowner election forms with respect to the consideration to be received in the merger by GeoEye shareowners must be received by the Exchange Agent, American Stock Transfer & Trust Company, LLC ("AST") by no later than 5:00 p.m., New York City time, on January 29, 2013. Under the terms of the agreement… Read more,
news.investors.com.
Western states build a platform for storing GIS data
GCN.com
The Western States Contracting Alliance (WSCA) and the National Association of State Procurement Officials, working in collaboration with the states of Colorado, Montana, Oregon and Utah, have awarded four contracts for GIS public cloud hosting… Read more,
gcn.com.
Ever fear getting caught in an earthquake? Did you know there is an iphone app called Earthquake Buddy that will send a warning email to alert you of impending danger? The app, which could be handy in some parts of the world, is the result of a combination of technologies. (remote sensors, cloud computing, and GIS) Read more,
gisuser.com
EIGS IN THE NEWS
Houston Students Using GIS to Impact Community
DirectionsMag.com
The High School for Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice (HSLECJ) is now back in session and learning concepts that few other schools across the country offer their students. Recently named in the top 10 percentile of high schools in Houston's Independent School District, the school has invested in creating outstanding Law and Criminal Justice thinkers. One of their programs making a positive impact in the classroom and the community focuses on geospatial technologies… Read more, directionsmag.com
DigitalGlobe Tells Analysts It's Prepared for Growth
DirectionsMag.com
In a recent conference call with financial analysts, DigitalGlobe's CEO Jeffrey Tarr promised the merger with GeoEye would create the potential for a "high growth, recurring revenue geospatial information business." With that, Tarr signaled to stockholders… Read more,
www.directionsmag.com
Global Perspectives
GIS to help create National Product Traceability system for Ghana
Citifmonline
The Geographic Information System (GIS) will create a data base for exporters in food and agro processing products, which will enable Ghana to avoid the risk of having its exports to the European Union (EU) markets reduced. The EU Commission's decree… Read more,
citifmonline.com
Improving crops: Centre of remote sensing in the offing
The Express Tribune
FAISALABAD: A state-of-the-art Centre of Remote Sensing for Agro Informatics will be set up at the University of Agriculture Faisalabad (UAF) in a bid to train provincial government officials conducting crop survey in farmlands and ensure that its… Read more,
tribune.com.pk
EIGS Perspective (Full text)
Traditionally, the new year presents an opportunity to take stock of the coming year. MBA is especially upbeat as we enter 2013 because of the recent continued funding of the two business assistance programs we administer on behalf of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) and the Mississippi Development Authority (MDA) designed to help improve the economy in the region.
Likewise, for the geospatial industry as a whole, things are looking pretty bright for 2013. Here are some things to hang our business hats on:
- Jack Dangermond, President of Esri, explains that the largest market for GIS professionals will continue to be in the area of supporting enterprise geospatial infrastructure and applications. This marketplace continues to grow and [the above mentioned trends] will require knowledgeable people in data, technology, and the whole new world of lightweight apps.
(Geospatial Today, "Interesting Days Ahead...Outlook 2013")
http://geospatialtoday.com/gst/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2922
- David Potere, an analyst of the Boston Consulting Group states that the geospatial market could be the largest industry that no one has heard of and that the geospatial services industry is big and growing fast—and so is its economic impact. https://www.bcgperspectives.com/content/interviews/metals_mining_value_creation_strategy_potere_david_geospatial_growth_engine/)
- Richard Serby, president of GeoSearch, predicts that the 1st quarter of 2013 should be reasonably active and a good sign for job seekers. He presented the results from a geospatial employment trends survey of eighty U.S. employers at GIS in the Rockies showing that nearly 75% of employers describe hiring as on par with or higher than the past two years and nearly 2/3 predict job growth will stay the same or rise as compared with the last two years. http://www.directionsmag.com/articles/geosearch-tracks-u.s.-geospatial-employment-in-q3-2012/285161
- Joe Francica and Adena Schutzberg of Directions Magazine feel that, in spite of the potential decline of dollars flowing down from the federal government for geospatial projects, there are some bright spots for companies to "pivot" toward including logistics and a bigger push into exclusively selling services to commercial customers. Tune into their podcast to hear more:
http://www.directionsmag.com/podcasts/how-will-declining-federal-budgets-impact-the-geospatial-market/290720
- James Fee, GIS blogger and creator of Planet Geospatial, after hosting a panel of experts about navigating the geospatial career field, concludes that the industry is healthy, growing, and multifaceted, and it's a great time to be working in GIS and related professions.
http://www.weogeo.com/video/Hangouts_with_James_Fee_Geospatial_Career_Panel_2012_-_Navigating_the_Field.html
A final note as we embark on the new year, we encourage you to add "Utilize MBA/EIGS Business Services" to your New Year's resolution list as we continue to provide these top-quality services to our members in an effort to help maximize business success in 2013.
- Networking Opportunities
- Proposal Review
- Business Counseling/Mentoring
- Financing Opportunities
- Participation in MBA Events
- Political Impact
- Business Training and Seminars
- Venture Capital Workshops
- Commercialization of R&D
- National Press Release Drafting & Distribution
- Job Listings/Recruiting on MBA Website
- Web Presence
Here's to a prosperous 2013!
