$40 million mapping software giveaway
19 June, 2006
Terralink International is giving away 400,000 copies of its FishEye business mapping software package to every small and medium business, school and university in New Zealand. The total value of the giveaway is $40 million.
The 400,000 free DVDs containing the software, the largest-ever production run for a New Zealand company, will be mailed to every urban and rural small and medium sized business, school and university in the country and selected residential addresses over the next month. DVDs will begin arrive in South Island mailboxes this week, and next week in the lower North Island.
Mike Donald, Terralink Managing Director says the giveaway is an investment in raising awareness of geospatial technology in New Zealand.
“By world standards use of geospatial technology by New Zealand’s SME sector is not high. The term for this expertise is geographic IQ. We’re trying to contribute to the transformation of the New Zealand economy by raising the national geographic IQ.”
The Auckland Cancer Society has been using FishEye to plan their 2006 Daffodil Day Appeal. Special Events Manager Phil Briars says FishEye has brought a new level of efficiency to a complex task.
“FishEye has saved us time and given us a new level of control over a complex job. We’re using the maps for planning the delivery of fresh daffodils to participating corporates. We can then print the maps for our volunteer delivery drivers. We’re also using it to plan and plot the location of street collectors. We’re printing those maps for the city and district councils to show them where our people are,” he says.
FishEye gives businesses and educators free access to Geographic IQ technology that, until recently, has largely been confined to large corporates, and Government which have access to expensive GIS (Geographic Information Systems) software.
FishEye contains street maps, topographical maps and property boundary maps; and provides access to online aerial photos and detailed property information. Businesses are able to customise the maps by inputting information such as customer location, which can be then represented on a street map showing the address of each customer.
Any information with a geographic component can be recorded and represented on FishEye maps. FishEye also links directly via the Internet to detailed property information such as title, valuation and sale prices for every property parcel in New Zealand as well as high resolution imagery. FishEye users can access free areal photos of houses and buildings throughout the country.
Mike Donald says FishEye has potential to offer gains for every business in the country.
“There isn’t a business in New Zealand that couldn’t get a tangible advantage from understanding the geographic dimension of their business more effectively. FishEye is the tool to help them do that.”
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