Maps are useful for a lot more than just finding your way from your office to that of a new client. Geographic data can show the best route for a new roadway and the exact property lines that counties use to collect taxes, to name just two examples.
geographIT, based in Lancaster, specializes in consulting on geographic information systems and developing software enabling clients to use this data for their own purposes. Most of its customers are state, county and local governments. The company's 13 employees don't scout the locations it maps, but they do collect that information from clients or contractors and convert it to an electronic format.
The firm maintains a website that shows each place in Pennsylvania where drilling for natural gas is permitted. Dauphin County has hired geographIT to automate its property-tax maps, and Philadelphia contracted it to develop a mobile application to keep track of code violations.
Another client is the city of Baltimore, which contracted geographIT as part of its project to map the locations of all of its water and sewer pipes. With this information, company President Ashis Pal says, the city will save time and money on finding the source of a loose manhole cover, for example.
The variety of ways to use geographic data helps explain why geographIT has consistently been on Inc. magazine's list of America's 5,000 fastest-growing companies. Pal says its plans for the future include developing more applications that clients can access virtually.
Source: Ashis Pal, geographIT
Writer: Rebecca VanderMeulen