emapsite's Geospatial Journey - Celebrating 21 Years in Business

Reflecting on the past, focusing on the future

The end of the year is always a great time to look back on the previous 12 months for any organisation. An optimal moment to contemplate strategies and priorities for the year ahead. As we look back on 2021, our 21st birthday year, we’ve decided to go a bit further with our own reflection.

Throughout our 21 years in business at emapsite, we’ve advised and supported organisations of all sizes. From well-known names such as Severn Trent Water, Direct Line and Taylor Wimpey, to other progressive companies across multiple sectors. Helping them to make better business decisions. Aiding them in their digital transformation, accelerating their journey to Net Zero. All through the power of geospatial insight. In return though, each of these companies have also influenced us as a business. Pushing us to constantly advance and continuously improve upon our geospatial offerings.

Our own success has always been directly linked to our customers. Even from our very first steps into the world of location data.

Back when we first began in 2000, ‘geospatial’ was just an abstract idea to many people outside of the industry. Since then, however, the world has started to truly embrace the power of geospatial insight – for operational, commercial and environmental benefits. We are proud of our geospatial heritage of longstanding partnerships and customer driven innovation. We would like to share our story and future plans with you.

Where we’ve been… / Our Story

Our story is one of innovation. Founded at the dawn of a new century, at the height of the ‘dotcom era’. For emapsite, the creative possibilities of geospatial were endless. At this time imaginative problem-solvers were needed to help make sense of budding geospatial potential. It was clear to many that location data was important. However, businesses didn’t quite know how to leverage it efficiently.

The original emapsite concept was to provide a global service. One that aimed to bring disparate mapping data for different countries together into one online portal. This idea very quickly morphed into a specific focus on Great Britain. Primarily, due to an abundant availability of high-quality mapping. And subsequently, the great value to the British B2B market.

One of emapsite’s first big moments came soon after; our partner agreement with Ordnance Survey. This resulted in the first instance of an online map store. The initial value was in being able to access and download clipped out areas of data online – the first in the UK.

This then soon developed into supplying a wider range of mapping products in application ready formats. First, for the somewhat niche Geographic Information System (GIS) market working as part of the traditional architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) sector. Then, for a wider audience across different platforms following the introduction of formats for CAD. This opened our services to the Public Sector, Land & Property organisations, Utilities and Social Housing sectors, and Insurance industries.

Within 10 years emapsite evolved to become not just a destination for mapping. Composed of specialist location data experts with deep cross-sector expertise, we’ve also been able to introduce a wider range of products and services. Soon our customers were able to share plans, get reports for environmental data and underground assets, and deal with mapping licensing headaches via ContractorLink – our hosted location data solution for enterprise partners.