its4land business plan

its4land has developed new tools and integrated them into one single platform to make land rights mapping and management faster, cheaper, easier, and more responsible – for creators of land administration data and maps as well as for users of such data and maps.

The creator of cadastral data and maps, and thus the first and foremost stakeholder in any country’s land administration, is the government with its unique responsibility to document and map land rights and issue the respective land titles.

Also often within the government, but not exclusively so, are the potential users of cadastral data, who are considered potential clients for the its4land toolbox too. They include, but are not limited to, revenue authorities responsible to enforce the collection of land-related taxes (tax-mapping), city councils / administrations for urban development and planning, ministries promoting land to investors, industrial parks, agriculture or forestry land, and as cadastral data becomes more available, the private sector, e.g. for targeted supply chain management of inputs to agriculture or home-deliveries of goods (even by drones – with the land title providing the target-coordinates).

The new tools developed during the its4land project and integrated into the Publish and Share platform are offered as the its4land land administration toolbox. Potential clients of the toolbox may be interested in Publish and Share Platform with the entire tools integrated, or just in one or some of the tools, e.g. to integrate them in other workflows and platforms.

Whether a client is interested in just some of the its4land tools, or the entire its4land toolbox, he/she will always be likely to integrate the its4land (toolbox) into her or his organization’s workflows and customize it to best fit the IT-environment. The “sale” of the its4land toolbox thus becomes a sale of a configurable software solution (sale or delivery of a solution) and should not be equated to or confused with a simple product sale (the sale of a software box).

Selling a solution is more complex and usually takes much longer than the sale of a product. Furthermore, in the land administration market solutions are almost always procured through an (international) competitive tendering process.

Targeted customers of the its4land toolbox

Project implementers are considered the main customers for the its4land toolbox.  Implementers / system integrators which are typically large, internationally positioned engi­neering companies with a large pool of staff  with broad expertise, financial means and clout to go for the large (often multi-million USD) land administration projects which are being tendered.

The its4land toolbox should not be confused with a software box that can be procured, opened, installed and directly helps end-users perform their work (such as e.g. MS Word, or the best known desktop GIS: QGIS or ArcGIS).

The real strength of the its4land toolbox lies in the integration of the tools developed and its capability to easily integrate other tools in one open source platform. Implementers and system integrators who are able to unleash this unique strength by integrating the its4land toolbox into their projects and adapting them to the (often complex) land administration workflows, will derive most value from  the offered platform – more value than individual end-users.

Some implementers will be interested in the entire Publish and Share Platform and all the integrated tools: These are the clients the its4land Company will target, since they represent potentially the largest business market for the its4land toolbox.

A land administration project creates a system or records, forms the backbone of any national data infrastructure and is an investment for generations to come. Selling some tools to a few free-lance developers and hoping they will evolve it into a sustainable land administration system, is not a serious business: offering a solid basis such as the its4land toolbox to reputable implementers or professional system integrators is the right approach to follow and doing business responsibly in this market so important for development.

Expoitation strategies to  end of the project (31 January 2020)

From the very beginning of the project, the consortium has been promoting actively its research and developments through scientific papers and presentations at relevant conferences (e.g. the World Bank Land and Poverty Conference in Washington, DC, FIG Weeks), missions and at workshops in the East African countries.

The project partners attend conferences and use the networking opportunities provided there, to further promote its4land and the toolbox (e.g. just recently, Esri Rwanda attended the Africa CEO Forum and the Transform Africa Summit, both in Kigali).

Moving from science and research to commercialization, it is planned to launch the its4land toolbox at two major events: the Geospatial Week in June 2019 at UT – ITC in Enschede and the Africa GIS Conference in November 2019 in Kigali.

Furthermore, the toolbox was showcased in Ethiopia during the Bahir Dar University Land Conference in May 2019 and will be showcased in Kenya at the RCMRD International Conference in Nairobi in August 2019.

By presenting the its4land toolbox at these events, covering the countries involved in this research project, the potential regional market for the its4land Company is prepared.

In addition, an animated video is currently under production which explains the its4land toolbox and its benefits to the land administration communities in developing countries. This video will be hosted on youtube and the its4land.com website.