Innovation and Integration from Hexagon Global Network at HxGNLive

Well, the dust is now settling on this year’s third annual HxGNLive event – think Hexagon AB Global Network). A number of themes and crucial take-aways are worthy a quick mention when recapping this record-setting event. Like many tech conferences, common themes and hot buzz topics that emerged included: The Cloud, the crowd, mobile, big data, and sensors.

There’s no question though, after more than 3 years now, the Hexagon family has matured and the results of the many acquisitions and mergers that have formed the Hexagon Group of families (think Leica, Intergraph, ERDAS) are now bearing fruit! If you go back a couple of years regarding the acquisition of Intergraph the big question at the time, we were reminded by LiDARNews’ Gene Roe, was could Hexagon pull off the promised integration. Based on this year’s HxGNLive keynotes the answer is an emphatic “you bet.” The senior management team provided numerous examples, like the integration of scanning into the marine ship building workflows and evidence that this is now happening in a very strategic way across all divisions including metrology. CEO Ola Rollen was extremely proud of the synergies from the group and indicated that Hexagon’s ability to provide The complete solution is really the BIG differentiator!

HOT Products! On the product innovation front the two big Leica GeoSystems stories are the Pegasus:One and the Nova MS50 – the first “multistation” survey instrument. This product introduction included a toast including the entire crowd in the audience – that was pretty awesome. More on the Pegasus One to come soon…

HexagonAB CEO, Ola Rollen

In addition to myself being on location, Gene Roe, my colleague from LiDARNews was also on location. He shared the following from the event…

Hexagon and Leica GeoSystems are delivering on both the innovation and integration fronts at this year’s HxGN LIVE conference.

On the innovation front let’s start with the keynotes. The format, which was very conversational included a guest host who interviewed some of the division Presidents, great video and digital bracelets that created lighting effects. It was unlike any other conference opening I have attended. Kudos to the Hexagon corporate marketing team for creating an entirely new experience. It was fun, professional and highly informational.

On the product innovation front the two big Leica GeoSystems stories are the Pegasus:One which I highlighted recently and the Nova MS50 – the first “multistation” survey instrument. This product introduction included a toast including all of us in the audience – unreal.

The MS50 is a total station with intelligent scanning capabilities – finally. It also has GNSS connectivity and “imagery assistance”. Using a throwback to the old days one might call it the Swiss Army knife of survey instruments because it can literally do it all. It’s a truly impressive concept and implementation – kudos to all involved with what must have been an incredible engineering effort. Now we will see what the surveyors think.

On the integration front if you think back a couple of years to the acquisition of Intergraph the big question at the time was could Hexagon pull off the promised integration. Based on the event’s keynotes the answer is an emphatic “you bet.” The senior management team provided numerous examples, like the integration of scanning into the marine ship building workflows and evidence that this is now happening in a very strategic way across all divisions including metrology.

It appears to me that Ola Rollen and his team have Hexagon well positioned for the future. One can only imagine what they are working on for next year.

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A number of news announcements were released at the show:

See more commentary from HxGNLive on Gene’s blog

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