MalaysiaGIS.com

Source: Computimes, The New Straits Times (page 12)

"The company achieved an average growth of 57 percent per year in the pass three years. And this year, the growth is again expected to pass the 50 percent mark," said Earth Resource Mapping president Stuart W.Nixon.

With the new ER Mapper 5.0 for personnel computer (PC) introduced about a month ago, the growth could even surpass 100 percent, he said, claiming that the ER Mapper is already the leader in the Unix market for image processing solutions.

The company hopes to become the leader for image and map processing solutions on the desktop with the PC-based ER Mapper, Nixon told Computimes at the launch of ER Mapper 5.0 in Kuala Lumpur last week.

On the main revenue contributor to the company, Nixon said most of its revenue is generated outside Australia. Only seven percent comes from Australia, while the remaining 93 percent comes from other continents (North America, Europe, Africa and Asia). Nixon said the continents contribute equally to the company's revenue.

Earth Resource Mapping has offices in the United States to service its distributors on the American continent, in London for the European and African continents and the Australian office for the Asia-Pacific region. However, Nixon stressed that the Asian region with growing markets like China offers good opportunities for Earth Resource Mapping.

To better service its distributors, Earth Resource Mapping will open an office in this region before the end of next year, he said. However, he declined to reveal the country selected by the company for its Asian office.

According to him, the functions of the regional offices are to support its authorised distributors and partners. The company does not sell direct to customers.

At present, the company has about 300 authorised resellers worldwide and it intends to increase the distribution channels.

Nixon said one of the company's key success has been its extensive distribution channels in addition to low product prices and ease of use of the software.

He said the ER Mapper could presently be utilised over 30 markets including forestry, water and irrigation, oil and gas exploration, map production and telecomunications.

Of the software, Nixon said the company will release version 5.5 of ER Mapper next year and version 6 later that year. Among the key enhancements integrated into the new releases will be in the area of three dimensional graphics, vector data editing in 3-D and orthophoto generation.

Nixon also said that the company was working closely with Compaq Computer, Silicon Graphics and Sun Microsystems to enhance its product.

The launch of ER Mapper 5.0 was organised by Terra-Control Technologies Sdn Bhd.