Intermap Technologies Profile
Intermap Technologies Corporation, through its subsidiaries, operates as a geospatial information company that provides geospatial solutions and analytics for its customers worldwide.
The company’s geospatial solutions could be used in a range of applications, including but not limited to, location-based information, risk assessment, geographic information systems, engineering, utilities, global positioning systems maps, oil and gas, renewable energy, hydrology, environmental planning, land management, wireless communications, transportation, outdoor advertising, and 3D visualization.
The company generates revenue from two market segments, government and commercial, and three product categories, including geospatial data collection, value-added data production and licensing, and related downstream software solutions and services.
The company creates geospatial datasets, including elevation models and imagery, using its proprietary radar technology mounted in a Learjet aircraft. It has two radar-equipped aircraft, which provide operational flexibility related to geographical location of data collection. The company’s radar-based technology allows it to collect data, including through cloud cover or darkness, which are conditions. Its data acquisition and production is controlled and managed through its ISO 9001:2000 quality management system.
The company provides digital mapping and related services, with three classifications of revenue, including acquisition services (fee-for-service contracts), value-added data licenses (geospatial database licensing), and software and solutions.
Products and Services
Data Acquisition and Production
The company’s aircraft could operate worldwide, and with the support of local partnerships. The digital elevation models created from this radar sensor have a 1-meter posting and vertical accuracy of approximately 25 cm in unobstructed regions with slopes less than 10 degrees. The image created from the radar sensor has been corrected to remove geometric distortions caused by the terrain and has a 0.625 meter resolution and horizontal accuracy of 1.5 meters.
Value-added Data Licenses
The company’s radar sensor systems create three core digital map products as follows:
Digital Surface Model (DSM): A digital elevation model that measures the top surface of the earth and objects located on it. The DSM is derived from the radar hitting the top of objects or the ‘first-reflective-surface’. The DSM data includes vegetation, buildings, roads, and natural terrain features. Examples of DSM-related applications include line-of-sight calculations for cell tower placement, property development analysis, and military operations support.
Digital Terrain Model (DTM): A topographic model of the ‘bare earth’. A DTM is a DSM that has had vegetation, buildings, and other cultural features digitally removed, leaving just the underlying terrain. This is achieved using the company’s proprietary software tools that create terrain elevations based on measurements of the ground contained in the original radar data. A DTM provides a geometrical reference frame over which other data layers, such as aerial photography and other types of images, could be draped. The DTM, coupled with surface analysis tools, supports applications, such as the development of topographic maps. The DTM is also a component in analysis involving various terrain characteristics, such as profile, cross-section, line-of-sight, aspect, and slope. Examples of DTM-related applications include flood modeling, agricultural land analysis, recreational GPS applications, internet mapping, optical image orthorectification and automotive applications.
Multi-Frequency Orthorectified Radar Imagery (ORI): The system produces 5 image layers, including four P-band polarimetric images (including HH, HV, VH, and VV), which provide information on infrastructure, including infrastructure under vegetative cover and one X-band image (HH polarization). All 5 radar images are grayscale, look similar to a black-and-white photograph, and image the earth's surface. The ORI’s are derived from the intensity of the radar wave that is rebounded from the earth’s surface back to the radar system, either X or P. The radar imagery is then processed using the DSM to remove the distortions that are inherent with any image collection process. This rectification process results in each pixel in the image being located in its correct geometric position. The ORI is used as the basis for extracting terrain features, such as roads, trees, and buildings and for other mapping applications, such as topographic line maps.
NEXTMap One: Precision, 3D geospatial data at an unprecedented 1-m resolution, produced using the company’s patented Intelligent Resolution Improvement System. It uses high-resolution satellite imagery along with multi-band radar, LiDAR and other datasets to produce NEXTMap One. NEXTMap One is designed for continual and real-time updates, with planned yearly data updates.
Using the above core products as foundation elements, the company produces additional mapping and image products for its customers tailored to customer-specific accuracy requirements, file formats, and coordinate systems. These products include the following:
Custom Contours: Enable the end user to perform profile analyses, elevation identification, slope modeling, or to create maps.
Terrain-derived Hydrology Datasets: Provide water bodies and double line drainages. With this dataset, the end user could perform more stream flow and soil erosion analyses, and snowmelt runoff predictions.
Terrain-derived Coastline Datasets: Represent coastal boundaries in the end users’ area of interest. The end user could use it in coastal GIS applications for analyses.
Slope Maps: Represent the terrain’s degree of slope.
Aspect Maps: Display the cardinal direction of the slope for terrain analyses. The aspect helps define the amount of sunlight striking the surface of the terrain.
Hillshade Images: Provide the end user with a visualization of the topography. It is suited for hiking applications, site planning, presentations, and plotting.
Contours: Provide contour layers as a visual aid to performing profile analysis, elevation identification, slope indication, or to create maps.
Clutter: Includes both Clutter Type and Clutter Height provided for various vegetation and urban clutter classes.
Land Cover: Provides a colorized land classification overlay that identifies and classifies the context of the urban footprint, open land, and forest cover.
The company’s data is licensed to clients for defined end uses, or to value-added resellers to create and commercialize derivative products.
Data-as-a-Service Solutions
InsitePro: InsitePro is configurable insurance underwriting software. The application calculates location-specific risk by combining the company’s geospatial datasets with third-party and public information to create risk assessments for natural catastrophe risk. InsitePro delivers risk information derived from various risk models and datasets in a visual environment, in terms that fit with a client’s business and workflow. Clients could evaluate single locations or large portfolios of locations. InsitePro is gaining market share in the United States insurance market with underwriters and carriers who are insuring flood. InsitePro is sold directly to clients as pre-paid annual subscriptions.
Insurance Services: The company’s Czech office is the principal source of flood risk data, models, and software for the Czech insurance industry. With a continuing relationship with the national insurance association, approximately 80% of flood underwriters in the country use its products and services. The company also serves the Slovak insurance industry, with 80% market share.
NEXTView: The company’s configurable data solution serves various aviation markets, including avionics, drone and government regulatory agencies. The solution combines information and data from both the company’s and Lufthansa Systems GmbH & Co KG (Lufthansa Systems) to deliver terrain and obstacle awareness. The partnership with Lufthansa Systems enables the solution to be certified for avionic applications. Lufthansa serves a major market share of avionics manufacturers and airlines through which it would offer NEXTView.
Markets
Government Agencies: A major portion of the company’s revenue comes from government contracts with national mapping agencies. It is a major supplier of imagery, DSMs and DTMs to the United States federal agencies, including the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency and the United States Geological Survey.
Geospatial Data Market: The company is continuing to develop its insurance software application, InsitePro, to continue to gain market share in the U.S. and European markets.
The company is marketing its geospatial database to various traditional geospatial markets. In these markets, customers use desktop-based GIS and engineering systems offered by strategic companies, such as ESRI (a GIS mapping software company), Autodesk (a 3D design software company), and Blue Marble - Global Mapper (a GIS data processing company) for planning, engineering, environmental management, site, or route selection and permitting.
Selling and Distribution Methods
Data distribution occurs through direct sales, channel partners, value-added partners, OEMs, or through the company’s Internet-based store.
Direct Sales: Direct sales are carried out through a commissioned sales team employed by the company. The direct sales team is responsible for the sale of data acquisition services, licensing of the geospatial database, and software subscriptions.
Channel Partners: To reach markets not accessed by traditional direct selling efforts, the company utilizes a network of channel partners. The channel partners distribute the company’s products and services to their principal markets and create and sell solutions or consumer products based on the company’s product infrastructure.
Seasonality
The company’s mapping services business is primarily dependent on government budgeting cycles and, to a lesser extent, value added data re-sales to state and local governments that are also subject to government budgeting cycles.
Competition
The company’s insurance offerings, including software and services, face competition from software suppliers that include Core Logic, Verisk and Lexis Nexis.
History
The company was founded in 1996.
