6Simplex: Providing GIS based Data Management & Integration Solutions Date:   Wednesday , January 11, 2017 With the present Indian government actively supporting the digitization drive via Digital India initiative, e-Governance and smart cities have emerged as focus areas for the Government as well as for citizens. Any digital initiative can only be sustained in the long run when its services that serve the data intensive applications citizens demand, are backed by localized and well thought out data management, integration, protection and sharing frameworks. Information, the soul of any digital initiative worth its bytes, is just data, but processed and seen in the right context. Not only is it important to ensure protection and cleanliness of data, it is also important to keep them updated, relevant and worthy of sharing with others. Given the easier access to spatial technology today through Geographical Information Systems (GIS), data no longer remain just raw facts. They are now raw facts with location. The various organizations (Government, Private, NGOs) that implement these digital initiatives and use data on a large scale, now understand and appreciate the importance of data with location. Many have acquired GIS technology and initiated programs to maintain their spatial and non-spatial data by collecting and recollecting data at regular intervals. However, from the standpoint of extracting ROI from that data, they still have a long way to go. Several challenges remain unmet. Collecting data based on the organization\'s domain of work Vs collecting everything, integrating new data with old Vs. keeping both separate and unrelated, visualizing data and making timely decisions Vs. merely spitting out figures in reports, are just a few of them. This is where a Nagpur based company called 6Simplex comes into the picture with its effective GIS based Data Collection, Management, Integration and Analysis solutions. The goal of 6Simplex is to help organizations manage their spatial and non-spatial data better and effectively use it for making decisions. Incorporated in 2013, 6Simplex was founded by Ajit Dharmik, an Esri alumnus. Advising the likes of Maharashtra Remote Sensing and Applications Center (MRSAC, an affiliate of ISRO), providing GIS services to Mumbai\'s MCGM and Chhattisgarh\'s CHiPS, and being a business partner to Esri, this company has forayed deep into the Indian GIS sector and is now well known for its user friendly and well-designed GIS services across the country. GIS based Solutions Being a GIS Cloud Services & Applications Company, 6Simplex provides user friendly GIS Cloud, Web and Mobile applications for Data Integration, Management and Collection, Spatial Analysis & Visualization, and Map Building purposes. They also provide basic GIS services such as Geo-database Design/Implementation and GIS Cloud based SOA Design/Implementation. The company aims to help users, big and small, define their business domain, and view data from the domain\'s perspective, see what is missing, acquire/collect the missing data through field surveys and integrate their data with other data supplied by third parties, and then visualize and analyze the continuously improving spatial and non-spatial data to drive efficient and timely decision making, thereby extracting maximum ROI from all their data management and collection efforts. Along with providing GIS Software services, 6Simplex has also released two GIS solutions as products: Data Collector and MAPPR, with more products in the offering. Data Collector is the GIS data collection, integration and management platform that helps customers understand the data they have by- Building their domain models (business concepts and relationships), Planning acquisition of data based on the domain models, Integrating external or 3rd party data or new data, and Use the data for decision making It also supports data acquisition by providing tools for managing the entire field survey life cycle and helps customers plan a survey, assign resources, collect data, and validate them for use. \"The domain model based approach for data integration and collection maintains the integrity of data through the field data collection cycle, and prevents field surveyors from making inadvertent mistakes during data collection,\" says Ajit. Data Collector is ready for deployment. MAPPR, on the other hand, is a location based event mapping and prediction platform. This is an interactive cloud based application to map events such as accidents, diseases, crimes, and so on, and given the realities of local environment these occur in, predict future occurrences. MAPPR is nearing end of development and is very close to a public release. Some More Insight Predominantly serving the public sector, 6Simplex works with various Government organizations like the MRSAC and CHiPS. It has also developed proprietary GIS based solutions used in most of the municipal corporations in Maharashtra which allow using all the collected data from the government and creating domain models to cater related industry verticals. Its team of GIS Software Architects & Developers and Spatial Data Analysts are experienced and has considerable expertise in developing cloud based GIS applications and managing and analyzing spatial data. With a revenue growth of more than hundred percent last year, 6Simplex now plans to continue developing solutions and products for all sectors and take GIS to the people. Key Management: Ajit Dharmik, Director, 6Simplex Having a Master\'s degree in Applied Computer Science from Illinois State University, Ajit has more than 10 years of experience in the GIS sector. He served as Product Engineer with the Arc GIS Server team at ESRI, Redlands, California for more than 10 years before returning to India and founding 6Simplex in Nagpur, Maharashtra in 2013. Office: Nagpur