:: Xmarc Fire: Enterprise Suite 6.1

Xmarc ES 6.1 represents years of development and offers one of the most comprehensive multi-format data access, integration and display toolsets available.

It can be used to create a tiny desktop/browser applet that retrieves and displays composite information; or it can enable enterprise wide decision support

Why use ES 6.1?

Now more than ever, organisations everywhere support users whose growing expectations of the Intranet/Internet are to use more than standard text and numerical data.

Once the domain of departmental or desktop applications - engineering, command & control, network assets, routing, all provide needed information that can be accessed using FIRE as the enterprise data integrator.

While many organisations' executive and operational information systems can only access standard text and numerical data, (which represents about 15-20% of their total information assets) the cost of "growing" departmental applications into enterprise delivery systems can be restrictive.

Vital business information such as product photo images, spatial mapping, CAD, and video data generally remains trapped in proprietary databases & applications, and is rendered useless to other departments within the enterprise—all of which makes Formida Fire and web deployment an especially important alternative right now.

Xmarc’s Fire: ES 6.1—an advanced suite of tools for developing applications—and its web deployment option, FIRE for the Web, links complex data (including spatial, image, video, audio, and time series), and distributes the resulting rich applications to clients throughout the enterprise far more quickly and easily than was previously possible.

Restrictions to mainstream uses of complex data are disappearing rapidly:

Object-relational platforms now accommodate complex and all other data types. They support high processing demands, are scaleable to serve increasing numbers of users, and are vendor-interoperable with other open, client/server platforms.

There is much activity underway to integrate and migrate existing databases to fully leverage new solutions utilizing complex data. Xmarc partners globally as an application-enabler with Oracle, IBM, and Informix, for their object-relational databases.

Early adopters of complex database technology also require a means for easily and rapidly deploying these newer, data-rich, graphical applications at a lower cost. Not surprisingly, they look to the Internet which is fast becoming the preferred transport vehicle.

With the same TCP/IP underpinnings as existing company LAN and WAN environments, the Internet combines numerous advancements in bandwidth and high-speed transmission that have gained wide acceptance. These aspects are, in fact, primary requirements for most companies who have decided to incorporate object-relational databases and are evaluating the purchase of application development tools.

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:: Applications and Solutions

:: Spatial Templates for Emergency Preparedness—STEPs

STEPs, Spatial Templates for Emergency Preparedness—a phased approach for any public authority or large facility manager to implement a clearly defined plan to converge unstructured data into a centralised "datamart". This approach improves operational efficiency and information sharing for routine workflows and to address the needs of emergency planning, response, and recovery.

STEPs is a staged practical methodology and deployment approach to converge data from multiple systems while recognizing the value of existing information resources and legacy systems. supporting and staffing the Resilience and Emergency Response teams.

Given the increasing need for a proactive approach to resilience planning the key is to have access to knowledge about, and allocation of resources to, a specific location. Without spatial information or sound knowledge of location, including street networks, buildings, utility and transport infrastructure, floor-plan layouts, assets, and personnel, the resilience plans can be seriously compromised. And, in the event of an emergency, the STEPs methodology will have linked all of the "stack or stovepipe" disparate data environments to provide seamless access when it counts.

STEPS is an integral part of New York City's information environment. Alan Leidner, Assistant Commissioner of the New York City Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications, has commented, "This stuff saves lives!"

As importantly, it recognises the broad range of active participants in emergency planning, response, and recovery. Each STEP yields tangible results that serve as blueprints for action and a record of the existing condition.

• STEP 1 delivers a gap analysis and a deployment plan
• STEP 2 creates an information architecture and application environment
• STEP 3 results in deployment

The underlying methodology provides for "quick wins" where early actions (such as building or sharing data, developing or distributing an existing application more broadly, or expanding dialogue between diverse responders) yield immediate benefits.

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:: GraphicalGeoSearch—GGS

GGS is a Web-based application that offers two methods of searching:

1 - A geographic search tool lets users draw a search perimeter on an index map on the computer screen. This method restricts results to maps within the drawn perimeter (a geographic search can also be initiated by typing in the name of a location).

2 - A non-spatial attribute search allows users to specify values of various non-spatial attributes, such as key word, language, or map scale. Users can use either or both search methods simultaneously. Search results are displayed graphically as labelled polygons on the map and textually in a list at the bottom of the computer screen.

The current release of GGS (version 2.1) incorporates enhanced functionality that, for example, lets users register for automatic e-mail notification when any of their subscribed queries have been updated or modified in the library database.

This version also improves performance across low-bandwidth connections. Users who need to run the same query repeatedly can save the criteria to their GGS database account, thus eliminating the need to re-enter all of the search criteria every time. There is no limit to the number or complexity of queries that can be saved for and by each user.

GGS provides a key advantage for any organisation wanting to integrate spatially related information (from multiple disparate sytems) and provide a cost effective access and delivery mechanism.

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