Distribution Partner Portrait - Nordic Geo Center Ltd.
Nordic Geo Center Ltd. was founded in 2005 by Hannu Heinonen, a geodetic engineer with a backround in sales of land surveying equipment and software development since 1973. The first 14 years of his career, - he worked in the sales of Wild surveying and mapping systems in Finland and created the first field application software package for Wild instruments. During the same time, he trained 3 years at the photogrammetric school organized by manufacturers Kern, Wild and the canton of St. Gallen in Switzerland.
In 1986, he started his own business in Finland by beginning the importation of Nikon surveying instruments. For this production, he created a very powerful 3D field application software package, the first “Object Oriented Real Time Control 3D Application, GT-Field” for field computers. This software package was a great success in Finland, as well as in the other Scandinavian markets, where 3D CAD planning of infrastructure had been started during the 1980's and was used as far as Egypt by the City of Cairo. Later in the late 1980's, he developed the idea to build up customer-programmable total stations and sold this to Nikon. Together with the Nikon Research and Development team, the Nikon DTM 700 Field Station was created, the first free programmable total station in the world. During the development process, Nikon decided to acquire the GT-Field software package from Mr. Heinonen. He was also involved in the development team of Zeiss, which produced the programmable robotic total station Elta S at the end of the 1990's.
After 25 years working in sales, development and the training of Finnish surveying customers, 3D measuring field and applications had become very familiar to Mr. Heinonen and he started to import 3D laser scanners to Finland in 1999. He worked directly with the manufacturers until the new technology became widespread, in order to create a sustainable business environment in Finland. In 2005, the Finnish market was ready for the professional sales company to carry only 3D laser scanners and for 3D scanning and modelling training.
2008 was a mile-stone for Nordic Geo Center as RIEGL introduced the VZ-400 at Intergeo. From a measurement perspective, it was clear that the wave-form analyzing technology was a great advancement for the market and Hannu Heinonen requested the ability to distribute RIEGL products in Finland. The agreement was signed and soon RIEGL became the main product line of Nordic Geo Center Ltd.
Even though the European economy started to declin in 2008, the sales of RIEGL instruments has increased in the Finnish markets and 2013 was the best year so far! The RIEGL trademark and product lines are very well known today in Finland after several years of active marketing and demonstrations. In the end of 2013, Nordic Geo Center Ltd sold the first mobile laser scanning system to Finland and in February 2014, the RIEGL VMX-450 Mobile Laser Scanning System was delivered to the customer. VZ-series laser scanner sales have also increased.
The core business of Nordic Geo Center Ltd. are the sales of 3D laser scanners and modeling software, including extended on-site user support . With wide experience of field work in many different industries, such as paper mills & manufacturing plants, roads, mining, defense and cultural heritage, the problems of the practical surveyor are very familiar to us, even though the measuring instruments and software change.
Nordic Scan Center Ltd.'s RIEGL VMX-450
Nordic Scan Center Ltd's new mobile scanning system, the RIEGL VMX-450, was delivered on February 21, 2014 in Horn, Austria. The instrument is the first of its kind in the Nordic countries.
The first big audience for the Nordic Scan Center Ltd scanner vehicle was provided by the Finnish National Surveying Days in Seinäjoki, Finland in March. The car & scanner can be seen either at the office in Helsinki or somewhere around the Nordic countries doing its job: scanning the roads. The first demonstration data sets have been produced and the real work for clients has begun!
Contact Details:
Nordic Geo Center Ltd
Kulosaarentie 8, 00570 Helsinki, Finland
Telephone: +358 40 750 4712
E-Mail: nordic@geocenter.fi
Website: www.geocenter.fi
Blog: www.geocenter.fi/blogi/
Important Contacts:
Hannu Heinonen, Technical Manager
Nina Heiska, Product Manager in Laser Scanning & General Dogsbody