IGN France International operates around the globe, providing geographic engineering services to institutions, private industry and other government agencies interested in acquiring expertise. Recently the company moved into a new direction with a new thrust. Jeff Thurston, editor of V1 Magazine interviews Nathalie Marthe-Bismuth, IGN France International general manager to learn more about the company and the new direction it is taking globally.
V1 Magazine: Let’s begin at the beginning since many people reading this are around the globe. What is IGN France International and what is the relationship of your organisation to IGN? How and where do the two connect?
Marthe-Bismuth: IGN France International is a geographic engineering company that is recognised worldwide as a key player in its field. It is involved in the setting up of projects no matter how simple or complex and offers its expertise to foreign decision makers or to French decision makers that are active in export. Its core business – geodesy, metrology, cartography, databases, GIS and web portals – targets the following fields of activity: cadastre – land assessment, environment, agriculture, security, energy…
The IGN France International main shareholder is the French National Geographic institute (IGN). Among the other shareholders, we can mention EADS Astrium, Esri or the Spanish Centre for Geographic Information (CNIG).
V1 Magazine: How does IGN France International connect with geographic and geomatic communities across France as it pursues it’s goals? Does IGN France International operate to serve those communities or is it more aligned to individual projects and independent of the French business community?
Marthe-Bismuth: IGN France International is not involved on the French market. To achieve its projects abroad and to answer its clients needs, IGN France International sets up technical or commercial partnerships, with French and foreign companies.
V1 Magazine: IGN France International speaks about a ‘geographic information engineering’ focus, can you explain what that means and involves? How does that term relate to the use of the term ‘geomatics’ or ‘geospatial’?
Marthe-Bismuth: At IGN France International, we generally use the term geomatics rather than geospatial, as geomatics covers all the fields in connection with geographic information. Geospatial is more focused on satellite imagery.
V1 Magazine: Your organisation speaks about value-added products. What kinds of products and services will IGN FI offer?
Marthe-Bismuth: The strength of the company is to participate with the client, in everything from the definition of strategies and public policy to the transfer of knowledge. Our range of competencies goes from the project management assistance, to the project management itself, technical assistance, training and transfer of skills and technologies.
IGN France International provides decision-support for mapping institutes, local ministries, local authorities and private companies such as developers, system operators, consultants, urban planners…
IGN France International offers to its client a tailor-made expertise even though it has also adapted a range of products directly coming from the IGN R&D (Geoview, 3D Urbanis, Reference3D…)
V1 Magazine: Recently IGN FI announced a greater presence in the Middle East. What does tha involve and why has IGN FI chosen to become more involved there?
Marthe-Bismuth: In February 2009, IGN France International won a consultancy bid in the field of 3Dmodels. Following the bid, IGN France international decided to open-up a new branch, in Abu Dhabi. From Abu Dhabi, the IGN France International Abu Dhabi branch is willing to offer its expertise to the countries of the whole Gulfe region and develop strong partnerships with companies deeply involved in the Gulfe markets.
It is also interesting to mention that the Gulfe region is not an entirely new market for us as IGN France International already had major references in that area, such as the marking of the border between Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
V1 Magazine: What do you consider to be the strengths of IGN FI? What are the challenges facing the organisation as it seeks to fulfill both domestic and international responsibilities?
Marthe-Bismuth: The strength of the company is to participate with the client in everything from the definition of strategies and public policy to the transfer of knowledge. Geographic information is an indispensable element of all major projects.
IGN France International offers a large range of competencies and offers to its client a tailor-made expertise. There is not competition between IGN France International and IGN, as this is IGN that is in charge the domestic market.
V1 Magazine: France is naturally involved throughout the European Union, does it follow that IGN FI is involved in EU projects like INSPIRE and other EU initiatives operating across Europe?
Marthe-Bismuth: IGN follows the INSPIRE initiative discussions from an institutional point of view when IGN France International is more directly involved when projects are identified. In that case, IGN France International would closely work with the members’ states willing to develop INSPIRE type projects.
V1 Magazine: Géoportail was launched in 2006 and I remember the initial struggles, but it seems to have grown and even expanded in language offering. What is the goal for Géoportail? Does it connect to IGN France International?
Marthe-Bismuth: Geoportail is an IGN initiative. Its goal is to provide all users with easy online access to geographical data of public interest, including cartographical display of such data, which are sourced and provided by Geoportail’s partners. Geoportail meets the European requirement expressed in the project for a European directive, INSPIRE, whereby the European states must set up services enabling electronic data research, consultation, download and processing.
More than 20 members, both for geographical data-producers and data-users, are already part of the Geoportail community. Based on the Geoportail experience, IGN France International is willing to develop same tools abroad.
V1 Magazine: In the spring I saw IGN present at Imagina Conference in Monaco, an event oriented toward 3D visualisation. Is 3D a major direction for IGN FI? What is 3D Urbanis and what is the goal of that initiative?
Marthe-Bismuth: Indeed, IGN and IGN France International shared a booth at Imagina, in 2009. We both aim to become major players in rising markets, such as 3D. We do believe that a city’s 3D georeferenced data, incorporated into our dedicated software solutions can be of great help to decision makers involved for instance, in sustainable city development.
The strength of IGN France International in that field is to offer the IGN-developed 3D tool that proposes unequalled performances both in terms of results and thus of time constraints and costs.
3D visualisation has so many applications. Among them, we can mention the enhancement of the urban territory and its heritage, the optimisation of urban development while respecting environmental constraints, the management of urban growth and the possibility to act rapidly in case of disasters (whether they are natural or industrial).
At IGN or IGN France International, we do believe that this is only the start of the 3D.
V1 Magazine: What does IGN FI see as the major challenges facing the geographic engineering community today? How do you think we should be dealing with them?
Marthe-Bismuth: The main challenges the geographic information companies have to face, are in relation with the creation of long-lasting tools that could be used in various sectorial fields. They have to adapt new issues (climate change, environmental issues for instance) and therefore need to adapt the solutions or tools they offer. They are also related to the setting up of large-scale referentials, accurate, homogeneous and interoperable allowing the sharing and the diffusion of the data to many users.
V1 Magazine: Can anyone acquire the services of IGN FI and how are they offered? Is your organisation responsible for generating it’s own budget?
Marthe-Bismuth: Our main clients are the mapping institutes, local ministries, local authorities and private companies such as developers, system operators, consultants, urban planners…We are able to work directly with these bodies and are also registered with all the multi-lateral development banks and those in charge of bilateral public aid.
Of course, as any private company, IGN France International has to generate its own budget. We realise an annual export turnover of €19 million.
V1 Magazine: Can you explain what your GeoView product is designed for and describe a few examples where it is being used?
Marthe-Bismuth: Geoview is the IGN-developed production tool, commercialised by IGN France International. Allowing the mass processing of data within a country or continent, Geoview is a complete production software package for cartographic data. Geoview will be an essential tool to any cartographic institutes or defence organisations expecting a high level of technical performances.
V1 Magazine: Why would someone want to work at IGN FI?
Marthe-Bismuth: Every year, IGN France International works on 100 projects on all continents. To achieve them, we need highly-qualified man-power that we can find inside or outside the company. In addition to its high-profile personnel, IGN France International also takes advantage of its network of independent experts who are called upon depending on the specific needs of each project. We may need experts in photogrammetry, in geodesy, topographers but also economists, agronoists, geologists…
We do think that the large range of projects IGN France International is working on, is an important part of the motivation of the people working with or for us.
V1 Magazine: It appears that IGN FI is making a new and fresh approach to the international community, that’s exciting, where do you see this leading and what would you like to be doing 5 years from now?
Marthe-Bismuth: IGN France International will still be working on major projects and will still offer tailor-made solutions and expertise to its clients (IGN France International has been cooperating with some countries-partners for more than 20 years). IGN France International will still promote the IGN quality label while in the meantime, will develop high technologies oriented tools, such as geoportals, 3D high resolution tools…).
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Biography
Chief engineer of bridges and roads with an MBA diploma from the HEC group, Nathalie MARTHE-BISMUTH is the IGN France International general manager.
For more information: www.ignfi.com
