Ordnance Survey (OS) is Britain’s mapping agency and is responsible for the surveying, production, maintenance and marketing of a wide range of geographic information, relied on by government, business and individuals.
Recently, OS became aware of the opportunity to develop products and services in the emerging Geo-Analytics market addressing applications such as environmental monitoring, energy, agriculture, biodiversity, sustainable finance. By combining its traditional, “gold standard” geo-based capabilities with satellite-based earth observation and Artificial Intelligence, OS realised that it could provide customers with new, high quality geo-analytical knowledge and insights.
OS needed to understand in detail the market sectors, sizes and opportunities, in the UK and internationally, and which market sectors it should focus on for early market entry. Following an open tender process, it selected Qi3 to undertake the market assessment due to its extensive market experience in this domain.
Phase 1 of the project addressed key questions, including: market sectors, size / shape of the addressable markets, stage of market development; customer types, value proposition, channels to market; competitive environment; where OS has potential competitive advantage in meeting unmet need; market growth drivers & barriers to entry; and potential first customers.
Qi3’s deliverables from this phase included a comprehensive insight into the market opportunities and 6 Use Cases for further consideration.
Phase 2 of the project focused on the Use Case relating to Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Data Products relevant to business’ climate risks. Following discussions with Key Opinion Leaders and potential customers, a series of commercial strategy recommendations were made for the ESG market, including the OS value proposition, potential service offerings, routes to market, and business model.
Ordnance Survey subsequently appointed Donna Lyndsay as Strategic Market Lead – Environment and Sustainability to drive innovation in OS products and services to help create a more sustainable future.
“Qi3’s extensive knowledge of emerging geo-analytical markets combined with their deep understanding of developments in earth observation and AI enabled us to quickly understand the specific market opportunities for OS. Their ability to uncover key market drivers, create compelling value propositions, and identify where the strongest market traction is located has enabled us to build a focused market entry strategy for the Environment and Sustainability sectors. We believe that bringing in an external organisation with such clarity of thinking has significantly increased our market and competitive strength.