What is FME?

Safe Software delivers FME (Feature Manipulation Engine), the data integration platform with the best support for spatial data worldwide.

Data Integration

"The world's most valuable resource is no longer oil, but data"

— The Economist, 2017

The creation, manipulation, and analysis of data represent a significant challenge for contemporary organisations. Never before has so much machine-readable data existed, but organisations still struggle to find ways to use this mass of information to aid in decision- making.

What is Data Integration?

Safe Software defines data integration as bringing “together data from disparate sources in a unified view to create a dataset with both valuable and usable information.”

Data integration enables the combination and analysis of data across isolated "data silos" where it would normally be difficult to collaborate. Data silos refer to heterogeneous data sources that store data in specific locations. They have long been an issue due to legacy systems and disjointed departments. In the past, it would make sense for departments to select software and methods for data storage with only their needs in mind. Now it is essential to consider cross-functionality. Consolidating data with FME can help bring proprietary, legacy data into new systems that can easily be accessed by any team member.

Data Integration with FME

FME accomplishes data integration by reading data from multiple sources (in the graphic below, this is shown as sources A and B), using transformer tools to change or restructure the data to fit the users’ needs, and writing it to an output location (C):

FME's data integration capabilities can be used to convert file formats, transform data, or do both simultaneously. FME can also integrate complex spatial data, a category of data most integration tools on the market are unable to utilize. It uses a graphical interface, so no coding is required.