| |December 20139CIOReviewTrimble:Positioning Productivity And Innovation- By Aparajita KayalSteven W Berglund, President and CEO of Trimble, has transformed Trimble from a GPS technology company to building cutting-edge positioning technology products that enhance productivity of field workforce. Trimble's genesis dates back to days when GPS technology was in its nascent stage and the U.S government had launched its first NAVSTAR GPS satellite. Throughout the 80's, they focused on building products that used GPS technology exclusively for military purposes. They developed products like the GPS handheld devices that were used in the Gulf War, which received admirable reviews from the U.S. military and captured the interest of the industry observers. In fact, Trimble's rise to recognition inspired several mainstream companies to step into the GPS market, including Honeywell and Motorola.In pursuit of new markets, Trimble began forays into construction, vertical buildings, agriculture, and transportation and logistics during the 90's. The company focused on a much wider range of technologies beyond GPS to cater to these markets. "The transformation has been to move away from defining ourselves in terms of the technology and re-defining ourselves in terms of our customers and markets. Over a period of time, we have become agnostic relative to the technology," recollects Berglund.In 2000, Trimble acquired Spectra Precision Group for $280 million, adding laser and other optical devices complementary to Trimble's GPS solutions for the construction, surveying and agricultural markets. The acquisition was followed by another, this time of Tripod Data Systems (TDS), a developer of data collection software and hardware. Both of these companies were part of Trimble's strategic mission to bring changes to the way position-centric information was used. By 2003, Trimble went into 3D laser scanning, an added advantage in the construction industry. The technology captures the dimension and spatial relationship of objects digitally by using a line of laser light then the scanner creates a point cloud image that exactly replicates the scanned objects. Basically, it replaced traditional surveying methods to provide more information on building and site modeling. To get up to speed with this new technology, a series of joint ventures took place. The first was with Caterpillar to develop the next generation of advanced electronic guidance and control products for earthmoving machines in the construction, mining and waste industries. The second was with Nikon to broaden its survey and product portfolio in construction. Since then, Trimble has started building its solutions portfolio by internal development and technology acquisition.Trimble had a board plan to have its own building ecosystem and become an efficient player in the Building Information Modeling (BIM) market with a portfolio of
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