• Investment World
• eWorld
• Catalyst
• Mentor
• Life
• Canvas
• Praxis
• Urban Pulse
• Brand Quest

Vinson Kurian

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, March 10

PROXY Systems India, the Technopark-based offshore development centre of the Holland-based Mercator Geosystems, proposes to consolidate further in GIS integration, a niche area that it specialises in.

Speaking to Business Line, Mr Ilmar Kotte, Managing Director, Proxy Systems India, cited the methodology of geographical targeting employed to determine the topographical ``centre'' of any human endeavour, covert or overt, and carried out at frequent intervals.

Geographical targeting is a perfect instance where GIS has added tremendous value to existing systems. Several Dutch police establishments are considering deploying the application to track down criminals.

Proxy is looking at implementing GIS solutions as decision-making instruments for organisations. There is high potential for integrating GIS components into existing or newly created enterprise systems for extracting additional information from the geographical distribution of location-based data.

This could mean building a prototype GIS tool for the police department to enable it to figure out the dens of criminals.

Elaborating, Mr Kotte said geographical targeting works in a way that it helps the police to use available data and logic to zoom in on areas frequented by a criminal. It works on the premise that a criminal would think twice before deciding to commit a crime in a neighbourhood.

Instead, he will choose to go some distance to do it, if only to feel safe. By incorporating these details into a mathematical model, the police can aggregate the location specifics normally available in a database maintained for the purpose and pinpoint a certain location as the likely residence of a criminal.

``We are not actively acquiring any local business right now since we have our hands full with projects commissioned by our parent in Holland, Germany and the UK. We will explore the local market in course of time, though. We have invested Rs 20 lakh and employed six people to start with. By the end of the year, we propose to expand to maybe 20 people. The fact that Indian market is only warming up to GIS tools-based system offers a potential market here'', Mr Kotte said.

The company's experience with designing and building enterprise systems shows there are a number of systems which have a hidden potential for factoring in, and make good use of, additional information in the form of GIS-based data. This would be an enhancement to the functionalities available in existing systems.

For instance, in the management of marketing. ``We have found that it has not been implemented in many of our client systems. But, most of the time, it is relatively simple to implement because the components to create the functionalities are readily available'', adds Mr Kotte.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section
Is your cell operator fleecing you?

Copyright © 2002, The Hindu Business Line. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu Business Line