MalaysiaGIS.com

Source: The Sun (page 2)

But Rimman VM had other troubles as well. Rimman VM's chief executive officer, Firdhaus Akber, said the biggest challenge he found is that many people prefer to ask for directions instead and they do not trust Malaysian maps. "People think Malaysia is constantly changing, that the roads are always changing," he said.

"To help people get used to using online maps, we set up Streetdirectory.com as a free service. We also have over a hundred people going out everyday to collect map data," added Firdhaus, or Ferri as he likes to be called.

Ferri said that another challenge being faced by Rimman VM is geoconfidentiality which exist in most Asian countries. Many countries in Asia do not want to share their map data because they consider map data to be an important part of national security although countries like the US and Singapore make their map data available to everyone.

Despite the obstacles in their way, the company was set up here in Malaysia in March this year and is expecting to make approximately RM2.2 million in sales by the end of this year. 40% of the country is owned by Singapore-based Virtual Map (provider of the technology) and 60% is owned by Malaysia-based Rimman International (provider of Klang Valley map data). By leveraging on the support by its parent companies, Rimman VM only needs to employ 6 staff. Ferri said the company has a low burn rate and expects to be profitable by the end of next year.

LBS is a niche market with a broad range of applications. Ferri expects Internet services to generate 10% of the total sales, tracking and navigation 30%, Geographic Information System (GIS) 30% and consultancy services 30%. The company also has other areas of market such as print services which publishes a street directory book available for sale to the public.

In the area of Internet services, Rimman VM has three products: Maplite, Campus/Facilities Maps and Retail Locator.

"Maplite is for companies and people, they buy a map to put on their websites as a guide to their offices or homes," Ferri said. Maplite costs RM80 and Rimman VM has a lot of customers. Campus / Facilities Map is an online map we develop for campuses, facilities or places with large areas, is also quite popular. Their Retail Locator product is for commercial websites to provide their customers with information on the location of their nearest outlet and the way to get there. "Most of our customers for this product are banks and retailers," he said.

In navigation and tracking, the company offers the GPS Tracking System, a navigation and tracking solution for clients. "We have navigation devices in the form of mobile phones, PDAs or in-vehicle navigation. PDA are the most popular because users can still use it while they are out of their cars. We also have Automated Vehicle Location Systems (AVLS) for fleet management and vehicle security," said Ferri.

For GIS, the company provides software to aid planning. Rimman VM's GIS is raster-based (picture-based) instead of vector-based (based on raw data). Ferri claims that the only other company using raster-based GIS is in the US.

Raster-based GIS have less mapping content and is less interactive but it is a lot more easier to use that vector-based systems which are more expensive and need highly trained uses. Most users of Rimman VM's GIS are marketeers and city planners.

In consultancy services, the company provides proven solutions in major industries such as: information systems; transportation and logistics; tracking solutions; retail/branch planning; real estate planning; urban planning; traffic management and facilities management.

One of Rimman VM's clients is MasterCard. The firm provides them with a Retail Locator solution to help MasterCard's customers find other branches in Asia.

Ferri quoted MasterCard International vice president Mark Patrick as saying, "Virtual Map's ability to deliver quality products and services consistently was a key reason we selected them as our solution provider."

Another one of Rimman VM's client is MalaysiaOnline. The company is using Rimman VM's map engine to power their map services. Ferri said MalaysiaOnline chose his company as their solution provider because raster-based map are fast and easy to implement.

"In the area of Internet services, we have no competitors. Some might say WAP portals are our competitors but they provide maps for mobile phones not the Internet," Ferri believes that Rimman can actually work together with some of these firms to provide solutions. Currently in navigation and tracking and GIS market, they face heavy competition from companies using vector-based GIS. Ferri said that they have a lot of competitors in the consultancy market.

Despite the competition from foreign companies, Ferri is very optimistic of Rimman VM's opportunities in the local market which is still relatively new to LBS. Ferri said that when location based services was at an infancy in Malaysia, many other companies made promises to offer mapping and location services but none have come up with any concrete solutions. "We the only ones with a finished product here," said Ferri.

Ferri said that the market for location based services needs a lot of customers to support it. "Location based services is not a new idea but we are proud to be the pioneer to enter to the market with a viable product," he added.