Hexagon AB, a Swedish publicly listed company, acquired Leica Geosystems AG in October 2005. Since then we have been organized into three divisions; namely the Geosystems Division, the Measuring Tools Division and the Geospatial Imaging Division. We are now part of a larger global group focusing on measurement technologies. Hexagon’s measurement technologies group aims to be the world leader in all its business segments. Leica Geosystems will keep its strong brand image and its culture within the multibrand framework of Hexagon’s measurement technologies group.

As the name implies, we aim to be the leading provider of solutions that enable our customers to improve their productivity in an increasingly competitive environment, by capturing, analysing and presenting information for a wide range of application areas. This translates as state of the art integrated terrestrial and airborne solutions for our customers.

The Geosystems Division focuses on three core areas. Our Surveying & GIS area provides solutions to the surveying, cadastral, civil & structural
engineering, spatial informatics and asset management application areas. This area comprises the largest of the Division’s business areas.

Secondly, the Infrastructure & Engineering area serves the requirements of larger infrastructure projects, which have to be integrated as end-to-end solutions. Many of these projects will involve signifi cant developmental work with customers to ensure system reliability and interoperability. This business area includes monitoring and deformation analysis of buildings and dams, construction solutions, mining and exploration solutions.

Two examples of this are the monitoring of what will become the tallest building in the world, the Burj Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, and the signing of an agreement with the Dawson Mine in Australia to provide an integrated mining management system.

Our Imaging & Scanning area provides solutions to enable mass data capture. Airborne and terrestrial digital scanners represent a quantum leap in the ease of collecting and managing large datasets. We enable the migration from analogue to digital capture solutions thus facilitating a quantum leap in productivity, by improving processing workflow from capture to deliverables.

The ability to spot and develop emerging technologies for our industry has been our heritage. Understanding better our market needs, having a close watch on how technology develops and working with customers in our development process, has brought this about. This interactive engagement with the supplier and user market has enabled us to be at the forefront of the industry.

Many of our customers share the same passion as us to continuously innovate to transform our industry. They trust us to stay committed to productive new technology and to ensure reliability, quality and precision in our solutions, so meeting end user’s requirements. Once a Leica Geosystems’ solution is in place it can be trusted to perform again and again to the highest standards, allowing our partners to concentrate on other aspects of their business.

GPS, or rather GNSS technologies, will enable ubiquitous positioning. It will play a major role as position information becomes more and more important in our daily life. The discussion on Galileo has given rise to new interest in improving the GNSS infrastructure. We have seen efforts to improve the GPS constellation with L2C and L5 signals, the re-population of the GLONASS constellation with improved satellites that will last longer, and of course the various efforts of Galileo in Europe to search for more applications in anticipation of the launch of the new constellation. In my opinion, the consumer market will drive the widespread adoption of this technology while our industry will drive the precision applications. GNSS technologies will and must become easier to use. The technology was already relevant for positioning to survey grade accuracy, machine automation, precise vehicle navigation and so on. We expect that the adoption rate of this technology in our industry will increase dramatically over the next few years.

Our solutions are required for development. For example, without a sound Cadastral system, we cannot assure the reliability of land titles. Without it countries will find it impossible to encourage sustainable investment towards the entrepreneurial use of land to maximize economic benefits. In developing countries, there is much to be done in infrastructure development to aid economic growth, thereby improving the well being of citizens. In the developed countries, the renewal of infrastructure to sustain living standards is driving the development of our industry. Obviously the level of sophistication in using these technologies is different in the developed and developing nations. We are committed to offer solutions that match the needs for each particular solution. We see this as our contribution towards the betterment of human kind.

Education is the key to adopt the new technologies. Users have to understand the GNSS systems and the specific aspects that have to be considered to get to survey grade accuracy. The tradition theodolite and chains, and more recently the totalstation resolving position via angles and electronic distance meters, are methods that are more or less entrenched in the curriculum of future surveyors. GNSS technologies have to become part of that curriculum in developing countries.

The faster the pace of economic development the faster will be the adoption as productivity improvement becomes necessary to optimise resource application. GNSS technology is a productivity enhancer compared to traditional methods. Of course there are situations where GNSS technologies will not replace traditional methods owing to the limitation of the GNSS methods.

There is a positive tendency to cooperate on a regional and international level with regard to positioning technologies. India’s recent agreement to join in the Galileo programme together with a number of other non-European countries is a good example of this.

Whilst it is possible to develop excellent technology on a very local level, either through choice or circumstance, the huge resources needed today for international or global high technology product development tend to lead to a relatively small number of providers of positioning or measuring solutions. However, nations are interested in GNSS technologies for security or economic reasons. The returns on funding question will drive local ambition.

As resources are scarce, the return on an investment should be the main driver of adoption. Cost should be seen in comparison with return on investment. At Leica Geosystems we try to offer products at differing
levels of complexity that will match the needs even of developing nations. We expect that the total costs of adoption will be much lower with our solutions. Considering the life cycle cost of a technology, the cost of product is perhaps the smallest part of the total costs. Our customers understand this very well.

How do you see Galileo? Will it manage to break the existing US monopoly?

The Galileo programme will broaden the number of suppliers of GNSS from 2 to 3. However the Galileo approach has been different from its very inception. Whereas the US GPS system was originally intended as a military system and is still controlled by the US Department of Defense, Galileo was designed from the outset as a civilian programme. It has been able to leverage the experiences of the US GPS and the Russian GLONASS systems, both good and bad, to what will be a more open, integrated commercial positioning system.

The rationale behind Galileo was strategic, commercial and economic. Certainly reduced dependence on the US GPS system was a strategic goal but more importantly the European system allows greater commercialisation in terms of value adding activity and access to the massive hardware and technology possibilities, and savings in transport costs and other social benefi ts. I do not believe in the concept of monopoly for GPS systems. Galileo will provide increasing reliability and
availability for GNSS technologies.

Leica Geosystems has an enviable record of ‘first’s’ in our industry; first automated data logging electronic tacheometer (TC1), the first GPS system designed for surveyors (WM101), the first total station to combine automation and coaxial reflectorless measuring (TCRA1101) and most recently the first truly integrated combined GPS and TPS (Smartstation). The list goes on.

We like to think ourselves as the innovator of this industry. Other players observe us closely and try to catch up with our innovation. True innovation has to be differentiated from marketing initiatives. We are certainly proud of our achievements. The technology is only one aspect of our innovation; more importantly is the inclusion of the customer in our innovation process.

We are all responsible to develop the market. Educating the market to use our technologies is a key to adoption and acceptance. In my opinion, the industry tries its best to increase the adoption of new technologies. However, vendor companies have also a need to earn a “fair day’s wage” for their efforts. Therefore both the customer and the vendor must believe in a relationship that is mutually beneficial.