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Smart Broker
As the name suggests, Smart Broker is an electronic brokerage service that can put together "smart" or cost-effective packages that will make it more affordable for users within the Canadian Geospatial Data Infrastructure (CGDI) to acquire data products.
Essentially, Smart Broker provides a web-based brokerage service to reduce costs for data users and risks for data providers. For users of geospatial data, the cost of purchasing data will decrease because the broker will put together a "project" for various customers with similar needs, then spread the cost among the project members. For providers of geospatial data, the service will justify the expense of producing the desired data products by making the needs of data consumers visible. Smart Broker will create a community or marketplace of like-minded purchasers. Smart Broker will also provide another channel for sales of their products above and beyond the traditional sales and marketing channels and will specifically address the community formed via the brokerage service.
Once data users have registered with Smart Broker, they will be able to create their own projects; define their requirements, including deadlines and required levels of data processing; search for other projects of interest; and opt into projects. Then, registered data providers will have solid commitments and criteria before going ahead with the product. In the end, because data providers will produce fewer products on speculation, they will take on less financial risk.
Other features of the Smart Broker include a catalogue service and a smart search service. The catalogue service allows both registered and non-registered users to see current projects and the data products being created for them. The catalogue should stimulate interest within the wider CGDI community, leading more participants to join projects. The smart search service assists less knowledgeable data users in finding relevant products by offering this catalogue and exposing them to potential uses for particular products.
By lowering the cost of data, and by reducing the technical knowledge users need to find appropriate data products, Smart Broker aims to build a user community with like interests, and make CGDI information relevant, accessible and affordable for a wider market. Municipal governments, for example, and private companies that have neither the technical staff to acquire products nor the budgets to pay for single-use products, will benefit from the functionality and use of Smart Broker.
Primary Partner:
MacDonald, Dettwiler & Associates Ltd.
Richmond,
British Columbia;
Partners: RADARSAT International, British Columbia Ministry of Sustainable Resource Management, Manitoba Conservation, DigitalGlobe
Funding From GeoConnections: $225,000.00 ( 45.0 %)
Estimated Inception Date: June, 2003
Estimated Completion Date: April, 2004
Deliverables from this project benefitted the following provinces: All provinces