Geospatial Standards Organizations
- Standards harmonize technical specifications of products and services; make industry more efficient; optimize operations to improve the bottom line; improve quality; enhance customer satisfaction and increase sales; prevent trade barriers and open up global markets; increase productivity and competitive advantage; and benefit users by reducing costs and enhancing performance.
- The Geospatial Interoperability ROI study sponsored by NASA noted that among the projects it considered, the project that adopted and implemented geospatial interoperability standards had a risk-adjusted ROI of 119.0%. This can be interpreted as for every $1.00 spent on investment, $1.19 is saved on Operations and Maintenance costs. Overall, the project that adopted and implemented geospatial interoperability standards saved 26.2% compared to projects that relied upon proprietary standards. Another way to interpret this result is that for every $4.00 spent on projects based on proprietary platforms, the same value could be achieved with $3.00 if the project were based on open standards. The NASA study provided important evidence that the adoption of standards can improve geospatial information sharing, foster improved decision-making, build business resilience, and lower maintenance and operations costs over time.
- International standards facilitate international trade by ensuring the compatibility and interoperability of components, products and services.
- By integrating international standards into national regulation, the government benefits from expert opinion and ensures that requirements for imports and exports are the same the world over, thereby facilitating the movement of goods, services and technologies from country to country.