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Isosceles Turbo Charges Web Mapping Business with GeoInnovations
Just as different car models often use the same engine, Isosceles Information Solutions Inc. of Manotick, Ontario, often employs the same software to produce its Internet maps. But you wouldn’t know it by looking at the final products.
“We develop functional applications on top of core software,” says Mr. Bob Dams, vice-president with Isosceles. “But that’s often where the similarities between any two mapping solutions stop.”
Formed in 1998, Isosceles is a consulting company that specializes in custom-developing spatially oriented business information solutions for governments, industry and non-governmental organizations. Since its inception, Isosceles has partnered with GeoConnections’ GeoInnovations program on four projects:
- An initiative with the National Energy Board to put Frontier Lands geophysical and geological data on the Internet
- A website for the Model Forest Network that enables users to interactively query, retrieve and print out maps and related socio-economic information for 11 model forests across Canada
- An interactive eco-tourism website for the National Capital Region
- A fish habitat portal that connects geospatial data warehouses at the federal, provincial and local watershed levels using Internet map serving tools
Sustaining a 100 per cent increase in staff
Now employing more than 20 full-time staff, Isosceles owes much of its growth to the GeoInnovations program. “We’ve increased our staff by 100 per cent and sustained this growth for over a year because of involvement with GeoInnovations and sales that we’ve leveraged from the program,” says Mr. Dams. “It’s really helped to establish Isosceles as a leading web map serving solution provider.”
Funding from GeoInnovations enabled Isosceles to evaluate the predominant web map serving software available on the market today. Based upon this analysis, the company chose two leading commercial web map serving software programs (the “engines” described earlier). Isosceles has been gaining expertise in each ever since. “We can build prototypes and complete projects in a lot less time because we’ve now developed a huge library of custom programs,” says Mr. Dams. “GeoInnovations enabled us to create this intellectual property.”
And Isosceles is translating this intellectual property into newfound business.
Boosting revenues by 60 per cent
“The experience we gained from working with GeoInnovations has helped us increase revenues by roughly 60 per cent this past year,” says Mr. Dams. “We’re supplying web mapping solutions for various federal government agencies and others that have resulted directly from our GeoInnovations work.”
Clients such as Natural Resources Canada, Environment Canada, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Heritage Canada and the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources have all taken advantage of Isosceles’ burgeoning web mapping expertise. Isosceles recently provided the interactive web mapping for the Virtual Museum of Canada initiative, which won the gold medal in the “Unique Achievement” category for the Technology in Government Distinction Awards. “As a result of this success and other similar important undertakings, we’re now able to tackle large projects with much more confidence,” explains Mr. Dams. “Our development expertise and project experience positions us to go after business this year that we wouldn’t have been able to pursue last year.”
Expanding internationally
In fact, Isosceles is leveraging its experience to expand beyond Canada as well. Already exporting services to the USA, Isosceles has outstanding bids for projects in the Caribbean, South East Asia, the Middle East, Africa and South America. All involve integrating Internet web tools with more traditional geographic information systems and remote sensing analysis tools.
Another one of Isosceles’ current GeoInnovations projects involves building connections between spatial data warehouses at the federal, provincial and local watershed levels through interactive mapping within a standard web browser. By accessing the spatial data through this secure extranet portal, biologists and planners will be able to evaluate how proposed waterfront developments would likely impact fish habitat. Before, users had to request information from other organizations, wait for it to arrive, analyze it, and then assess its value—a time-consuming process. “Now they can just link into the system and share the data,” says Mr. Dams. “It’s a more efficient way of working together.”
Realizing growth potential
What would Isosceles have done without GeoInnovations? “Our company would not have grown as quickly,” says Mr. Dams. “GeoInnovations allowed us to build capacity and expertise within our company, which has led to new business. It’s a great program, and as the administrative and partner contribution mechanisms with various federal government organizations evolve, it will only get better.”