Geoscape Geospatial API Platform

GoSource helped PSMA transform from bulk data licensing to a developer-friendly geospatial API platform with rapid market adoption.

Challenge

PSMA Australia provides geospatial location data used by a growing range of consumer applications, business processes and government services. PSMA’s traditional business model was to license large data sets to a small number of customers through an established reseller network. The industry was then disrupted by new players like Google, resulting in a large number of customers demanding small subsets of data on an incremental pricing model. In the rapidly changing geospatial industry, the market was growing but margins were shrinking. PSMA needed to transform into a developer-centric, retail API business. PSMA’s first generation of APIs were repackaged versions of their existing products and were not gaining traction.

Solution

GoSource proposed an experimental suite of developer-friendly REST APIs on a scalable cloud infrastructure, along with a new way of working: provide an initial useful app and use it to learn about the needs of the target market.

A multidisciplinary integrated team drawn from both GoSource and PSMA took end-to-end responsibility for API features. Using best-practice continuous integration, automation and testing, they released enhancements and new features rapidly.

The new API provides pay-as-you-go access to data in a simple system that does not require deep geospatial knowledge to use effectively. By frequently releasing new features in response to evidence of need, the team developed user relationships based on responsiveness, resulting in high-quality APIs that fit market demand with organic growth in line with PSMA’s targets.

Outcomes

• Rapid market traction: Within less than two months, the prototype had seen more traffic than the legacy product had achieved in 18 months
• Business transformation: GoSource’s service mix helped PSMA build its core capabilities to ensure a sustainable future; the entire organisation repositioned into multidisciplinary product teams
• Market leadership: PSMA Australia’s APIs now support the mainstreaming of location data and are the country’s go-to resource for accessing geospatial data
• Expanded scope: The API scope expanded beyond the initial data set as market demand grew organically
• Developer adoption: Simple, developer-friendly APIs removed the barrier of needing deep geospatial knowledge

Technologies & Methods

• RESTful API design (developer-friendly)
• Scalable cloud infrastructure
• Continuous integration and automated testing
• Rapid iterative feature releases
• Multidisciplinary integrated product teams
• Evidence-driven product development
• Pay-as-you-go pricing model implementation

Team Size

Not specified (multidisciplinary integrated team from GoSource and PSMA)