FME's XML and GML Capabilities Help Bring Success to INSPIRE Initiatives

Safe Software’s FME technology has a proven track record in enabling organisations to meet INSPIRE requirements

Vancouver, BC, June 22, 2011 – Safe Software announced today that FME, the leading spatial data transformation technology, is enabling European organisations to successfully resolve critical data-preparation and delivery barriers to achieve INSPIRE compliance. With unmatched support for INSPIRE XML and GML, FME is helping stakeholders to solve complex XML-based spatial data transformation challenges and create scalable, spatial-data platforms that deliver enhanced business intelligence.

To meet INSPIRE requirements, organisations need to restructure and integrate their existing spatial data into a complex GML data model, while also meeting the challenges of production efficiency, data validation and flexibility. FME handles the complexities of INSPIRE’s XML data exchange schema, without needing custom software development or complicated data processing, enabling data providers to efficiently harmonise their data to deliver on INSPIRE’s mandated pan-European spatial data infrastructure.

FME greatly eases the burden of preparing and harmonising spatial data through its intuitive graphical user interface (GUI) that provides pre-defined, data transformation tools to seamlessly shift existing data into INSPIRE databases – without requiring a technical knowledge of XML. Through the GUI, stakeholders can create repeatable, automated workflows to maintain and manage data transformation processes. This, along with FME’s scalability and high performance ensures that these data transformations are performed quickly, saving users significant time.

These capabilities, coupled with FME’s industry-leading data and coordinate conversion support – including INSPIRE’s European lat/long ETRS-89 – have garnered Safe Software a proven track record in enabling customers and European partners to develop customised INSPIRE solutions that inspire new business development.  

For example, with the help of FME, ten Lithuanian agencies partnered to successfully create a unified INSPIRE-compliant SDI and in the process decreased duplication and improved efficiency for a cost  saving of nearly $5 million Euro. In just four weeks, a team at the Swedish Transport Agency successfully restructured more than 2 million road links and 20 related feature types into an INSPIRE-compliant VMS at 20 percent of the typical cost.

In partnership with Safe Software, Sweden’s Metria has developed a protected-sites scalable publishing and data distribution prototype that readily harmonises different data sources into the common GML structure, providing a proof-of-concept SDI model that it can offer to other organisations facing data-interoperability and distribution challenges.

German consulting firm con terra has created a customised INSPIRE solution that builds on FME’s existing data fusion and transformation strengths to simplify XML data integration and transformation workflows to create INSPIRE-compliant deliverables. A number of customers have already acquired this solution to help them achieve INSPIRE success.

"FME 2011’s advancements in spatial data transformation are helping our customers to maximise the use of their spatial data by improving data access, quality, availability and distribution – many of the same challenges INSPIRE seeks to resolve," said Don Murray, President and Co-founder of Safe Software. “We are excited to see how many more organisations will use FME to meet INSPIRE’s data harmonisation requirements."

Organisations interested in seeing FME in action are invited to visit the Safe Software booth at the INSPIRE Conference from June 27 to July 1, 2011 in Edinburgh, Scotland. Safe Software will also be demonstrating FME’s capabilities for INSPIRE initiatives in a live webinar: “Harmonise Your Spatial Data for INSPIRE with FME” on July 21, 2011 at 3pm CEST / 9am EDT / 6am PDT. To learn more and to register, visit www.safe.com/INSPIREpr.

About Safe Software and FME
Safe Software Inc. is the maker of FME® and the global leader in spatial data transformation technology. FME makes it possible to transform spatial data to use and share. It solves more spatial data transformation challenges across more formats than any other solution, making it easier for professionals to solve data interoperability headaches and help their organizations meet their business goals and required standards. Today, FME is the dominant technology for spatial data transformation. It powers our FME Desktop and Server software and the solutions of more leading spatial data application vendors than any other technology. It’s used by tens of thousands of customers worldwide across a wide range of industries. Learn more about achieving total spatial data mastery at www.safe.com.