DigitalGlobe’s Smith wants everyone to experience grand views from above

LONGMONT – Since taking the helm at DigitalGlobe, Jill Smith has landed significant government contracts, forged partnerships and made a key acquisition to bolster the future fortunes of the Longmont-based commercial satellite imagery company.

Smith became DigitalGlobe’s chief executive in November 2005. She has spent much of the time since on the road securing deals that put the company in a position to tap into the growing commercial market for high-resolution images of Earth, adding to its revenue stream provided by government contracts.

The latest developments include acquiring GlobeXplorer, a geographic data integration and publishing company based in California. It has Web-based search and delivery applications that will be used to make it easier for consumers to access DigitalGlobe’s satellite images.

Also in January, Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. in Boulder agreed to build the second next-generation satellite for DigitalGlobe to be launched in early 2009. The first, WorldView 1, is scheduled to launch this summer.

Historically, the company has been focused primarily on tasking its satellite to collect images and then distributing them to the government and the marketplace. Smith said the satellite industry has only recently begun to tap into the Internet as a tool for accessing and distributing geospatial information.

“Google and Microsoft have changed user expectations,” Smith said. “Previously, users had to be a GIS expert and have complex software to use the data. Now, the data has to be easy to use, easy to buy and easy to integrate.

“A significant portion of users are using satellite information not as an end product, but to complement other information,” Smith explained.

She cited real estate as one example of how the demand for geographic data has changed. A line map and written information isn’t enough anymore, now you have to have aerial imagery, she said.

When DigitalGlobe partnered with Google to provide the images for GoogleEarth, the company got a glimpse of the market’s potential.

“When we first signed the agreement with Google, we didn’t foresee what would happen with the marketplace,” Smith said. “It’s hard to imagine what it will be five or 10 years out.”

Not only is there an increasing demand for satellite imagery from the consumer market, the United States government also is increasingly dependent on commercial imagery. Smith attributes this to two key factors: It is unclassified so it can be distributed within hours, and it can be obtained much more economically. In emergency situations, such as Hurricane Katrina in 2005, DigitalGlobe was able to provide images to a multitude of sources within hours.

In May 2006, DigitalGlobe teamed up with Getty Images, a reseller of stock photographs, to make images from above even more accessible to the news media.

“It’s not a matter of if it (the marketplace) will grow, but how it will,” Smith said.

Smith is positioning the company to help create that new marketplace and serve it.

With the acquisition of GlobeXplorer and its then-subsidiary AirPhotoUSA, DigitalGlobe gains an extraordinarily rich archive of imagery and a Web-based delivery platform for faster and easier delivery of that information, Smith said. Now, customers can choose to own imagery, access it on a subscription basis or use GlobeXplorer’s applications to integrate it into their applications.

With the launch of WorldView 1 and WorldView 2, Smith said DigitalGlobe will increase its capacity by 10 times what it has now with its current satellite, QuickBird.

Smith said these moves address three key market drivers: completeness and timeliness of imagery, imagery that is easy to access and integrate, and a lower cost of ownership for that imagery.

“We believe we have the critical foundation to build out the business, and create and feed the marketplace,” Smith said.

Smith declined to disclose specific revenue numbers, but said the company grew 60 percent year over year in 2006, and she expects the same growth in 2007. With WorldView 2, DigitalGlobe is the first satellite provider to have funded a next-generation satellite through public means, not relying on a government contract. The company’s investors include Ball Aerospace & Technologies, Corp., Hitachi Ltd., Morgan Stanley and Telespazio S.P.A/Eurimage Investment.

DigitalGlobe products have uses in markets such as exploration and production, city and regional planning, infrastructure mapping, natural resource and environmental monitoring, emergency response planning, intelligence and 3-D visual simulation.

Smith expects DigitalGlobe may go public within the next couple of years. She said the company is taking steps to be ready when the market is ready, but will only go public when the time is right.

Smith has a successful track record. She repositioned and grew eDial, a collaboration software company, that was acquired by Alcatel. She was chief operating officer of Micron Electronics Inc., leading the business to profitability. She also led successful consulting and publishing businesses. Smith came to DigitalGlobe because she saw the opportunity to actually help create an industry.

“Having led as many companies as I have, at some point you find most companies feel the same no matter what industry you are in,” Smith said. “DigitalGlobe is truly an extraordinary company in an extraordinary time in the industry.”

Smith describes DigitalGlobe as a leader in the marketplace because it can provide a variety of up-to-date imagery, including satellite and aerial, and an economical means to distribute it. She intends to keep it that way.
“The keys to the kingdom going forward are you have to know your customers very, very well, and keep providing more products, better products and better economics,” she said. “We will invest in partnerships, acquisitions and innovations to enable DigitalGlobe to be the no-brainer, de facto choice for imagery.”

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