President’s Message

Author: Thomas Harring, President at Hexagon's Geosystems division

Dear reader,

“We are surrounded by data, but starved for insights.”

I suspect that this quote from customer experience expert Jay Bear resonates with you as it does with me. In most geospatial professions, we collect increasing amounts of data. However, data itself does not make us smarter, our operations safer and more sustainable, our businesses more profitable and our world more livable. Data itself has little value — until we extract relevant information from it. Isolated information still has limited worth: We must connect and contextualise it to transform it into knowledge which helps us attain a comprehensive understanding of a situation or challenge. That knowledge is the foundation for insight — a 360-degree view that empowers us to make the right decisions at the right time.

In a world of technology, people make a difference. Smart Digital Realities^TM empower individuals to focus on tasks that require their unique skills and abilities. By generating actionable insights, they help decision makers and stakeholders gain a deeper understanding of their operations, flag weaknesses at the project planning stage and identify areas for improvement. That is why Hexagon’s innovations put users and their experience at the centre. Read more about firstperson innovation in Burkhard Boeckem’s article “Right here. Right now.”

Similar to data, innovations hold value only when put into action: Our technologies and solutions find their true worth when you, our esteemed partners and customers, embrace them and integrate them into your business models. In his piece, "Putting the serve into surveying," Moritz Lauwiner extends a warm invitation to join the collaborative journey of harnessing innovations to drive the surveying industry forward.

Adina Gillespie’s article on “Geospatial digital twins can make us all smarter” outlines how digital twins can form the basis for powerful Smart Digital Realities^TM that provide us with unprecedented insights into present conditions and possible future scenarios.

AI, infused with deep domain knowledge, enhances human capabilities, revealing patterns and aiding the interpretation of extensive data sets. For an example, read Chandler McCormack’s article on the evolution of construction cameras, which have advanced to a stage where they autonomously generate valuable insights.

Gnant GmbH in Austria is a role model for creating a sustainable, lively urban area, using modern construction technology for the rough and the fine. Find out how it is “Putting data to work,” made its business transformation a strategic priority and set itself up for success. Read the interview with Elmar Lenz on “Protecting the protector” to learn how digitalisation transforms traditional industries such as public safety.

With this Reporter issue, we invite you to put your data to work and feast on insights. We feature thought leadership, case studies and interviews that demonstrate how Hexagon’s technology and solutions elevate your decision-making abilities and free industries to overhaul traditional methods and approaches. We look forward to hearing from you. What projects are you working on? How do you transform underutilised data into nourishing insights? And how do you dish them out? Let us know.

Thomas Harring

President, Hexagon’s Geosystems division