Bachelor thesis, Vertiefungskurs VI - E-Commerce

Analysis of GIS-Software – a GIS software market
survey in the Business to Consumer (B2C) and
Business to Business (B2B) market

„Design and development of a criteria catalogue built up on a
classification pattern refer to Professional GIS-(Geographical
Information Systems) Desktop Software“

January 2007

Author: Mag. Ondrej Horsky

1 Contents

1 Contents ... 2

2 List of Figures ... 4

3 List of Tables ... 5

4 List of Acronyms and Abbreviations ... 6

5 Introduction ... 7

5.1 Hypothesis and definition of the aims of the bachelor thesis ... 8
5.2 Description of the methodology of the bachelor thesis ... 8

6 Description of the project ‚Analysis of Prof. GIS-Desktop SW’ ... 11

6.1 Overview of the project ‚Analysis of Prof. GIS-Desktop SW’ ... 11
6.2 Project framework ... 12
6.3 Information about project matter ... 12
6.4 Description ‚cascade model’ – a procedure model for the bachelor thesis research process ... 12
6.5 Description about the Project ‚Analysis GIS-SW’ ... 13
6.6 Phases and milestones of the project ... 14
6.7 Project Overview: GANT Chart ... 16

7 Topics ... 18

7.1 GIS-Software Market Overview ... 18
7.1.1 Description market research company Daratech Inc. ... 18
7.1.2 The Prof. GIS-SW Market 2003 ... 18
7.1.3 The Prof. GIS-SW Market 2006 ... 19

7.2 GIS-Software Systems Overview ... 20
7.2.1 Types of GIS SW systems ... 20
7.2.2 The structure and logic of GIS SW ... 22
7.2.3 The difference between Desktop and network GIS ... 22
7.2.4 Understand the architecture of GIS-Desktop Software ... 23

7.3 Developing process of the criteria catalogue ... 25

7.4 Description of raw- and fine criteria of a Prof. Desktop GIS-SW system according to the results of the primary research phase (qualitative interviews) ... 26

7.5 Description, benchmarking process and design of the criteria catalogue ... 29

7.6 Discussion about the results of the primary research phase (qualitative interviews) ... 30
7.6.1 Design of the interview process ... 30
7.6.2 Conception of the interviews and visualisation of the questionnaire ... 31
7.6.3 Final results of the qualitative interviews of the b2c & b2b companies interviewed ... 33

7.7 Analyzed reference Professional GIS-Desktop Systems ... 36
7.7.1 Professional GIS-Desktop System ‚Arc Info’ (ESRI Inc.) ... 37
7.7.2 Professional GIS-Desktop System ‚MapInfo’ (MapInfo) ... 38
7.7.3 Professional GIS-Desktop System ‚GeoMedia’ (INTERGRAPH) ... 39

8 Conclusion and Views Forward ... 41

9 Literature ... 43

9.1 Literature ... 43

9.2 Online Sources (proquest database) ... 43
9.2.1 Online Sources to the reference systems of Prof. GIS-Desktop Software ... 44

10 Appendix ... 50

10.1 Conception and design of the questionnaires for the structured interviews ... 50
10.1.1 Questionnaire ‚WIGeoGIS GmbH’ ... 50
10.1.2 Questionnaire ‚GISquadrat GmbH’ ... 60
10.1.3 Questionnaire ‚RegioData GmbH’ ... 68
10.1.4 Questionnnaire ‚ÖBB Immobilienmanagement GmbH’ ... 78

5 Introduction

"Der Wechsel allein ist das Beständige."
(Quadbeck-Seeger, H.-J. 2002)

This Bachelor thesis deals with geographic information system software in the traditional GIS-Desktop SW range. The idea of this literature work and qualita-tive field study is to arrange the concept of a criterion catalogue as a decisive base for the acquisition of the market segment‚ professional GIS-Desktop SW systems of Business to Consumer (B2C) and Business to Business enterprise (B2B) serves. A basis for the production of a criterion catalogue was the analy-sis of the extracts of the GIS-Research study of the company Daratech, Inc from the year 2006 [Dara06]. This criterion catalogue should be developed for Business to consumer (B2C) companies that have the application already in use or decide towards this market segment in the close future. For these B2C companies the criterion catalogue was created in this work and should become an important high-class instrument for future purchase decisions of the market segment‚ Professional Desktop GIS-Software (Prof. Desktop GIS-SW).

In accordance to the current scientific literature “criterion catalogue” of the coarse criteria and fine criteria do not to date exist (publicly not accessibly) on the segment Prof. Desktop GIS-SW systems that summarises as a research basis on qualitative interviews (primary research) and literature studies (secon-dary analysis) to be based on.

This work contains the following main chapters: ‘Introduction’ (chapter 5), ‘pro-ject description’ (chapter. 6), ‘GIS-SW Market Overview’ (chapter. 7.1), ‘GIS-Software systems overview’ (chapter 7.4), ‘developing process of the criteria catalogue’ (chapter 7.5), ‘Discussion about the results of the primary research phase’ (chapter 7.6) and ‘Analyzed reference Prof. GIS-Desktop Systems’ (chapter 7.7). The final chapter ‘Conclusion and views forward’(chapter 8) sums up the main parts of this work and shows cognition results of the primary re-search phase as well as other modelling and design possibilities of the intro-duced criteria catalogue.

5.1 Hypothesis and definition of the aims of the bachelor thesis

This work lights up the basic questions with the concept, planning and produc-tion of a criterion catalogue in view of the problem formulation of this Bachelor′s work is the Hypothesis as follows:
“Which qualitative criteria are important for a Prof. GIS-Desktop system in the b2c and b2b sector to saturate the GIS- business/business model for their cus-tomers/company′s?”
The question shall demonstrate in particular how possible criteria in the re-search sphere‚ ‘professional desktop software - geographic information sys-tems’ can be pulled up for the evaluation. The idea of this work is the production of a criterion catalogue for B2B&B2C firms/students/science staff for the qualita-tive evaluation of the market segment “professional GIS-Desktop SW systems” is pulled up and should demonstrate therefore a critical overview about this market segment in the range of GIS-Desktop SW. Beside, the finished criterion catalogue should be customizable specifically for the requirements of the re-spective company by separated weighting (quantifier) from primary & secondary research phases to resultant criteria. In particular, the criterion catalogue should be integrated actively into the call for tender’s process by new acquisition of new GIS-Desktop SW of system.

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