Aerial Self-sufficiency
A large risk-assessment and data-analytics company created its own internal system to collect imagery, write software, and develop processing workflows.
If a private company or public agency is large enough, it may be able to internalize all of the processes for its services rather than having to outsource any. For example, it might self-insure rather than purchase coverage from an insurance company; it may write its own software or build its own hardware rather than purchase commercial off-the-shelf products; or it may even build its own campus rather than buying it or leasing it from another entity.
One such company is Verisk, a risk-assessment and data-analytics services company headquartered in Jersey City, New Jersey, with more than 6,000 full-time employees and a 2014 revenue of $1.75 billion. It offers predictive analytics and decision-support solutions for rating, underwriting, claims, weather-risk and global-risk analytics, natural-resources intelligence, and economic forecasting to customers in insurance, energy, financial services, health care, and other industries. Because of its size, it can write its own software and collect its own aerial imagery.
One of its fully owned businesses, Geomni, has built, maintains, and is constantly expanding an address- and location-based database of property-related analytics. Using remote sensing and machine learning technologies, Geomni gathers, stores, processes, and delivers geographic and spatially-referenced information relating to residential and commercial structures. It is used by property professionals to help determine the scope of damage after a major weather event and to discover hazards, assess risk, and perform valuations.