Formerly the Public Sector Mapping Agency, Geoscape Australia today is an independent, self-funded company headed by former Australian Olympian, Dean Capobianco.33 Geospatial data is gathered by Geoscape Australia and is provided to other organisations to help them become much more precise in delivering their services to customer locations. Many traditional address databases are inaccurate in that they refer to suburbs, roads, street numbers and the like which may not officially exist. The history of where buildings are, road names, certain regions informally named and not officially registered as places, such as Kings Cross, is patchy at best. Services as diverse as fire-fighting, pizza delivery, contact tracing, ambulance pick-ups, Uber rides, market research, infrastructure development and social security are hampered by inaccurate location information. All of these services can continuously improve the way they help their clients by knowing with geospatial accuracy, utilising the global satellite network, exactly where they and their clients are. One can imagine, with burgeoning drone and autonomous vehicle traffic, for instance, how data analytics from companies such as Geoscape Australia will become increasingly essential. Continuous improvement at keeping geospatial location data accurate will become crucial for improvements to safety, security and, in commercial settings, profits. Avoiding accidents, responding quickly in emergencies, ensuring government services are efficient and helping businesses serve customers better are all outcomes of good location accuracy. The COVID-19 pandemic, with all the spatial distancing and the application of contact tracing, might have been the first time you thought much about accurate geospatial location data. Future considerations in the industry will be about accuracy and usefulness of the data, but also its power over people’s social relationships. In workplaces, a debate may be needed about privacy versus necessity when it comes to knowing everybody’s precise location at particular times.
Questions
1. Identify three different organisations that would be able to improve their operations by having more accurate geolocation data. Explain why.
2. Discuss how Geoscape Australia could promote its data services to client organisations by referring to the continuous change process mode.
3. In what ways might transition management issues affect Geoscape Australia itself?