Intergraph Collaborates on Interoperability with other OGC Members Autodesk, Laser-Scan and MapInfo For More Customer Choices and Better Flexibility

Industry leaders to produce enterprise interoperability kits based on Oracle Spatial

HUNTSVILLE, Ala., Sept. 17, 2003 - In an effort to further advance enterprisewide interoperability, Intergraph Mapping and Geospatial Solutions, a strategic member of the OpenGIS Consortium (OGC), today announced a customer-driven initiative with other consortium members, Autodesk, Laser-Scan, MapInfo and Oracle Corp., to facilitate interoperable data sharing and access using the market-leading Oracle Spatial, open, enterprise database technology. A first-of-its-kind collaborative effort positioned to develop and submit open specifications to OGC's consensus standards process, this initiative takes steps to enable additional seamless data exchange capabilities at the database level in organizations where separate departments require a range of applications.

"Intergraph has been championing enterprise-wide interoperability through OGC since the introduction of GeoMedia(R)," said Preetha Pulusani, President, Intergraph Mapping and Geospatial Solutions. "This initiative, growing out of our collaborative efforts within the OGC process, is one of a number of significant steps that Intergraph is taking to enhance the interoperability of its solutions by enabling customers to more efficiently move data between diverse departments and disciplines. In addition to our core products that implement OpenGIS specifications, we can now offer our customers the ability to access and maintain, within an Oracle environment, a variety of geospatial data sets including features and descriptions, in application formats provided by all of the participating vendors. Based on our success with this initiative, we urge all vendors within the community to support our approach, and encourage them to work with us within OGC to further extend the potential of the multi-vendor environment."

Each vendor will provide free Interoperability Kits for complete data access through Oracle between Intergraph, Autodesk, Laser-Scan and MapInfo's tools and technologies, regardless of the application used to create, analyze or view the spatial data. Now, organizations with previously implemented systems, software and training that are "mix and match" to best fit their budget and information requirements can experience the benefits of interoperability. Using the new kits, customers can eliminate complicated data transfers or the storage of multiple copies of the same geospatial data between departments, thus preserving data integrity and enhancing productivity.

At the INTERGEO Conference and Trade Fair on September 17-19 in Hamburg, Germany, attendees will get the first look at demonstrations of this enterprise interoperability capability among the four vendors at Intergraph's Booth # 12D44. Additionally, a white paper on GIS interoperability via Oracle Spatial, and information on the Interoperability Kit, is available at www.intergraph.com/gis/interop/oracle.asp.

Interoperability Kits enable data sharing automatically Intergraph, Autodesk, Laser-Scan and MapInfo have created Interoperability Kits based on Oracle technology for customers looking to leverage or build multi-application environments. Oracle Spatial is well suited for this joint initiative because it offers data interoperability across applications, regardless of which tools applications, or Web services are used for access. Oracle's spatial data model gives basic enterprise access to geospatial information, providing a standard structure for point, line, and area features. Text and oriented point feature representations have not yet been standardized, and as a result, are still being treated differently by some major GIS product lines.

The purpose of the Interoperability Kits is to automatically convert text and oriented point features across the different applications. For example, a land use feature class with descriptive text being maintained by a local government's planning department using GeoMedia Professional can be read by Autodesk Map or MapInfo Professional as part of the land use information. Likewise, pipe or valve descriptions and labels of a water network being maintained by a public works department using Autodesk Map can be read with GeoMedia or MapInfo Professional.

"We are excited to see Intergraph and this group of OGC members engaged in this unified approach to interoperability processes using Oracle," said Steve Hagan, Vice President, Server Technologies at Oracle. "Oracle Spatial is used around the globe in thousands of enterprise and national GIS, digital mapping and wireless location based services applications that are shared by and accessed through every major spatial and GIS partner technology. We believe that this initiative is an important milestone in the continuing evolution of open standards and will support continued development of this initiative within the OGC consensus process."

Achieving interoperability for e-government

Staffordshire County Council in the United Kingdom uses a range of off-the-shelf applications including Intergraph GeoMedia Professional, Autodesk MapGuide and MapInfo Professional to view, query and update data within Oracle. Laser-Scan's Radius Topology provides automatic server-side topology management. A key step to achieving United Kingdom e-government targets ahead of the 2005 deadline, the system streamlines Staffordshire's business processes and makes its spatial data ready for sharing with other government organizations. Property Information Manager of Staffordshire County Council Wyn Jenkins comments, "Interoperability is clearly the key to sharing data, making it available across a wide range of platforms is essential if we are to meet requirements and targets."

This initiative marks a progression in the industry toward the goal of data and enterprise interoperability. Autodesk, Intergraph, Laser-Scan and MapInfo are committed to maturing and submitting the results of this effort into the standards setting programs of the Open GIS Consortium (OGC).

David Schell, President of OGC said, "I applaud the efforts of this group of OGC members. They have learned to work together in the spirit of cooperative development, which is the essence of the standards process. Such collaborative activities build the market and hold the potential for introducing valuable new specifications into the consortium's consensus process. We encourage the group to continue its collaborative efforts through a formal working group of the consortiums and look forward to their developing the broad member participation needed to create a useful standard."

Intergraph's Interoperability Kit is expected to be available later this month. For more information about the Kit and availability, visit www.intergraph.com/gis/interop/oracle.asp.

Intergraph Mapping and Geospatial Solutions

Intergraph Mapping and Geospatial Solutions is a leading geospatial solutions provider for the following markets: local, state and federal government; transportation; utilities; communications; location-based services; photogrammetry; remote sensing; cartography; and military and intelligence. For more information, visit www.intergraph.com/gis.

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Intergraph and GeoMedia are registered trademarks of Intergraph Corporation. Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation and/or its affiliates. Other brands and product names are trademarks of their respective owners.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION:
Rita Roberts, Media Relations
256-730-1430 or rgrobert@ingr.com