Survey of key GI players within Europe - EC GI & GIS Portal

of 29.9 billion, of which 80 percent were achieved in the civil market and 20 percent in the military
market (Airbus also plays a role in this distribution). The company employs over 100,000 people at
more than 70 production sites, above all in Germany, France, Great Britain and Spain. Although EADS
is an N.V. according to Dutch company law, is quoted on the Frankfurt, Madrid and Paris stock
exchanges. More than 34% of its shares are widely distributed among different shareholders but it has
a strong French association through the French holding company Sogeade (Lagardère, French state)
which holds over 30% shares, and the EADS Strategy, Marketing and Legal Affairs headquarter
functions being located in Paris. EADS SPACE, which is the important company division in terms of
the supply of GI products and services, represents roughly 10% of the activities of EADS. It is present
in four European countries, France, Germany, UK and Spain, with revenues of 2.6 billion (2002) (with
Astrium consolidated at 100%) and 12,300 employees (2002). In terms of GI EADS is a world leader
in earth observation satellites, is a prime contractor for over 60 communications satellites, and is a key
player in the Galileo European satellite navigation system. Also in the GI sector, it is responsible for
Spot Image (distributor of GI derived from the SPOT programme Earth observation satellites),
Infoterra (UK/Germany - supplier of GI products and services for agriculture, forestry, oil and gasexploration,
telecommunications, mapping and security–policy markets, based on airborne and
satellite-based sensors), Eurimage (Italy - content provider of multi-satellite data (LANDSAT, ERS,
RESURS, IRS, RADARSAT) and derived products, and Galileo Industries (Belgium, Italy - joint
venture with Alenia Spazio and Alcatel Space as main contractors of the Galileo European satellite
navigation system).
Founded in 1990 under the name ALSOFT, GeoConcept SA (www.geoconceptsa.com) has
specialised in the creation and publication of PC based GIS software systems. In order to acquire the
resources to export its technology, the company took on three French investors in 1996 after which it
launched its product range in Italy, Switzerland and Belgium, and south-east Asia. In 1997,
encouraged by these first international steps, GeoConcept SA strengthened its European stance and
prepared its entry onto the Japanese and American markets. GeoConcept SA has developed
international strategic and technological partnerships to support this global expansion. One such
partnership is with Business Objects, the “world leader in integrated decision-support tools” 20 and with
Itochu, the fourth largest Japanese industrial group. GeoConcept now has over 12,000 users in
Europe alone. The principle GeoConcept product is the object based GeoConcept G5 software, which
is the basis for enterprise, internet, transport, logistics, sales & marketing, defence and mobile
applications. A particular strength of GeoConcept is its geo-marketing software and data; it was rated
No1 in Europe for Geo-marketing in 2001 with 11% of the global market according to Daratech 2003.
ESRI France (www.esrifrance.fr) claims to be the GIS market leader in France. It aims to provide a
total solutions service with the full range of ESRI products and recognises training as an important part
of the GI implementation equation. As well as being a key player in the provision of GI products and
services ESRI France has also been involved in a number of EC backed GI projects, for example La
Clef. It has an impressive list of strategic partners, including among others IBM, ORACLE, Microsoft,
SAP, HP, Leica and Trimble. On the international front ESRI France has set up an export agency to
manage commercial activity outside of the metropolitan French territory and the overseas French
departments and territories. ESRI France is particularly active in Africa, being the ESRI local
distributor in Algeria, Ivory Coast, Madagascar, and Senegal. Some examples of recent
implementations include:
i) a partnership with the Technical Institute for Cereals and Forage (ITCF) to
develop prototype precision agriculture software
ii) TIGER (Computerized Treatment of the Management of the Network of
the Sewers) for monitoring sewer networks
iii) in conjunction with Planfax (more below) an internet search service has
been developed (research by street, company, service or place)
iv) An internet application has been developed for network of management
and monitoring water in the Artois-Picardy basin (http://www.eau-artoispicardie.fr)
Claritas (http://w3.claritas.fr/france/) is part of the multi-billion dollar media and information company,
VNU and with more than 1,000 lifestyle characteristics about more than 35 million people throughout
Europe, it claims to be the “leading lifestyle data supplier in Europe since 1985”. Claritas France is
part of the Claritas Europe group which also includes offices in Germany, Italy, Poland, Portugal,
Spain, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom integrating direct marketing, database marketing and
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GeoConcept Website
Survey of key GI players within Europe Page 30