INDUSTRY INTERVIEW: Overwatch Geospatial Systems
James Dolan
Senior Vice President and General Manager
Overwatch Geospatial Systems
Q: Can you tell us about your company and the products and services it offers to military customers?
A: Overwatch Geospatial Systems is a leading provider of geospatial intelligence [GEOINT] solutions and services to the defense and intelligence communities. For more than 20 years, our software solutions have combined technology innovation with a detailed understanding of the geospatial intelligence needs of military and intelligence users. Our solutions, as a result, enable the geospatial intelligence analyst to provide mission-critical GEOINT to warfighters and decision-makers. Specifically, our software allows analysts to accelerate geospatial intelligence production workflows and provide timely and highly accurate geospatial intelligence information, which is critical to military and homeland security operations.
Q: What unique benefits does your company offer military customers?
A: Simply stated, Overwatch Geospatial Systems solutions and services make it easier for intelligence and military geospatial analysts to do their jobs. We provide a user interface that is designed for the military intelligence analyst’s work environment and does not encumber the intelligence analyst to operate with complex, highly technical terminology. Our solutions are preferred by the military since they consistently enable the analyst to produce geospatial intelligence in Department of Defense and NATO standard formats. We’re helping analysts provide the military with GEOINT that is timely, relevant and accurate.
Q: What are some examples of the benefits experienced by military customers?
A: Military geospatial analysts who have limited access to formal classroom training can gain proficiency quickly with our solutions and build geospatial intelligence products that meet mission requirements associated with precision targeting, situational awareness and three-dimensional, animated mission rehearsals, for example.
Q: What areas are you working on for the future in meeting military needs?
A: With the proliferation of traditional and emerging types and formats of geospatial data, a number of challenges and opportunities are presented for geospatial intelligence software providers. Full-motion video, LIDAR [Light Detection and Ranging], Advanced Geospatial Intelligence and other emerging formats can potentially inundate and overwhelm military geospatial intelligence analysts. Our software makes it easier for the geospatial intelligence analyst to retrieve, process and analyze a wide variety of geospatial data and quickly produce highly accurate geospatial data products with a variety of formats. We also are developing integrated tool sets that enable the user to simultaneously analyze traditional overhead data sources and full-motion video data. This means the analyst can quickly gain situational understanding of the dynamic environments in which the military operates.
Q: What is Overwatch Geospatial Systems’ approach to developing these solutions?
A: We spend a lot of time with our users in their operational environments and hear their concerns that they are often being overwhelmed by technology. Many users describe situations in which they are provided highly complex technical solutions that actually make it harder for them to do their jobs. We observed situations that actually made the analysts become “prisoners” of the technology that was supposed to be helping them. Understanding the needs of the user and the urgency of their missions drove us toward a paradigm of providing integrated technical solutions with a “military operator friendly” user interface. Based on the feedback we are receiving from users on our software solutions and services, I believe we are moving in the right direction.
Q: Do you have anything further you would like to add?
A: Enhancing the geospatial analyst’s access to geospatial data sets is critical. The volume, variety and complexity of raw and refined geospatial intelligence data is expanding at an exponential rate, and operational users are seeking easy and reliable ways to access the data they need, when they need it. We have had positive responses to our cataloging technologies and are fielding new desktop and enterprise-level products that will make it easier for geospatial intelligence analysts and production organizations to use multi-source geospatial intelligence data.
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