Have you ever wondered what goes into the production of a MAP? Have you ever wondered what is needed for the production of a map? What resources are used, etc? Well, since working here at Intergraph Corporation in the Infrastructure Division, I have learned that a great deal goes into the makings of a map and most importantly, those same concepts can also be applied to the analyzation of streets, roads, terrain, buildings, and other businesses, almost anything. Imagine this:

	Data in various databases around the world.
	Data in various formats by various data providers.
	Data of streets in database A
	Data of interstate highways in database B
	Data of buildings in database C
	All of the data consists of various formats, styles, etc.
	You need to be able to see the data right now, together.

What would you do? How would you do it? Could you do it if you knew what you would do and How you would do it?

Last year Intergraph announced the release of its new product, GeoMedia to the world. This new product is the latest GIS product for Intergraph built on the principles of Jupiter technology. Briefly, Jupiter technology is simply object technology, developing a product on the foundation of specialized components on the premise that those components can be reused to further the development of other products and additional functionality.

GeoMedia, Intergraph’s GIS product, is built for Microsoft Windows and designed to work with other office automation tools such as Microsoft Word, Access, Excel, Visual Basic, Powerbuilder, ProSoft, etc. GeoMedia is second to non in that its foundation is non-proprietary and that it is capable of reading, analyzing, and integrating data in other corporate formats from varying companies such as ESRI, Bentley, AutoDesk, as well as data historic to Intergraph, MGE and FRAMME. This is all done without conversion. A milestone in the GIS industry.

Intergraph released another product last year, GeoMedia Web Map. GeoMedia Web Map allows users to share and access GIS information across the World Wide Web, internet and Intranet. Internet is communicating outside of an organizational firewall. Intranet is communication within an organizational firewall. With GeoMedia Web Map, whatever the information is that you wish to publish, whether it be within your company or organization or outside of your company and organization to others, GeoMedia Web Map is for you. Web Map enables you to combine and distribute GIS information from multiple sources over the web.

GeoMedia is a fully customizable GIS product which has led to the development of two other GIS products this year alone. GeoMedia Network and GeoMedia Professional. GeoMedia Network is Intergraph’s GIS product for Network analysis. With GeoMedia Network, the analyzation of transportation and logistics networks is possible. A user can create custom solutions for network - related problems. Designed for transportation and logistics professionals, planners, engineers, and independent software developers, GeoMedia Network provides solutions for transportation applications such as

	public transit
	Emergency responses
	vehicle location processing
	route planning (personal trips, trucks, oversized vehicles, sales, military convoys).

GeoMedia Professional takes GIS to another level by extending GeoMedia with data capture, maintenance, and management capability. With GeoMedia Professional, you can blend new and legacy data, combine GIS data with text and spreadsheets to prepare reports, annotate drawings, and create powerful presentations. GeoMedia Professional is a result of more than 20 years of GIS technology development with advanced data capture, automation, maintenance, enterprise data management, spatial analysis, map production, industry-standard development environment for non-proprietary customization.

I have given you a brief look into the makeup of the GeoMedia product line. The GeoMedia product line includes products that are

	easy to use out of the box, Product Wizards and managers to step you through
	allow for inexpensive in GIS data analyzation, distribution, and integration
	increases your overall productivity
	non-proprietary in nature, meaning that you can work with other Windows applications as well with your GeoMedia product offerings as well as open customization outside of the initial product capability. This is possible with the object technology foundation that GeoMedia is built upon.

But, does it work? Have the products worked? Have they been successful?

Intergraph has a program that incorporates the efforts of those that purchased GeoMedia. This program is titled Team GeoMedia. Team GeoMedia is a partnership program between Intergraph Corporation and its members which consists of anyone that wishes to join that have purchased a copy of GeoMedia. With membership into Team GeoMedia, one enjoys the benefits of 1-1 customer support with GeoMedia developers, access to information on a secured Internet website that includes sample applications, commands, and developer news, Team GeoMedia logo usage, beta releases, and a host of other technical and marketing benefits. GeoMedia Network was in fact a result of the efforts of a company, RT-Soft. Team GeoMedia works!

Intergraph Corporation has come a long way in its aspirations to be the world’s best and largest GIS provider. Intergraph’s mission is to be able to allow others too display their GIS information how they wish it be displayed, made available to those they choose to make it available, and be able to work with however they deem necessary. Those are some strong but really very simple mission statements. With the introduction of GeoMedia, GeoMedia Web Map, GeoMedia Network, GeoMedia Professional, and the Team GeoMedia Partnership program, you can see that Intergraph is well on its way.