May/June 2005

No, the yellow devices being held out by these two people are not oversized handheld terminals - not exactly, anyway. They are Trimble mobile mapping and surveying devices, using familiar Pocket PC software for their rather specialist applications in the surveying and mobile mapping world.

The people are Martyn Palmer of Survey Supplies and Gill Dickson of GGP Systems, two companies that have long been rivals in this market, especially in their work for local authorities. Now they have decided to cooperate in marketing each other's products to local government clients.

Survey Supplies is particularly strong in the data capture side of the business (using an array of GPS and other technologies), while GGP is strong in its geographic information systems (the processing and analysis part that happens after the data has been captured).