For decades, Topcon has been a trusted name in precision optics, GNSS receivers, and machine control. Its equipment became a familiar sight on survey crews, construction sites, and agricultural fields across the globe.
Over the past decade, the company leaned heavily into high-growth sectors such as machine control and precision agriculture, expanding its presence in construction and farming. Now, in addition to those strengths, Topcon is charting a path that places geomatics at the center of its next phase—positioning it as a driver of innovation, integration, and long-term growth.
Topcon 2.0, a strategic reset guided by Chief Executive Officer Ivan Di Federico, underscores this commitment. Far from abandoning its roots, Topcon is reasserting geomatics as a foundation for progress. The company’s new framework is not about revisiting the past but about reimagining the role of measurement and modeling in an era defined by mass data capture and connected workflows.
“Topcon has always been about connecting the field to the decision,” Di Federico says. “But in today’s world, connecting means handling multiple data streams, simplifying integration, and reducing the friction between capture and insight.”
Di Federico frames Topcon 2.0 as both a business strategy and a cultural shift. The goal is not to replicate Topcon’s historical footprint but to adapt it for modern realities, where customers demand seamless workflows that span capture, processing, visualization, and decision-making. “Topcon 2.0 is not about what we were,” he explains. “It’s about what our customers need us to be today: an enabler of decisions through connected, accurate, and simple solutions.”
At the center of this strategy is the creation of a new Geomatics Group. By consolidating GNSS, optics, and scanning—alongside advanced software platforms for data integration and automation—Topcon is positioning geomatics not as a silo but as the connective tissue of its entire business.
Building the Bridge
Within this new framework, Neil Vancans has been appointed to Head of the Geomatics Sales Unit. His mandate is clear: restore Topcon’s focus on survey and GIS while extending its reach into new domains of asset management and connected workflows.
“Topcon 2.0 really is a bridge… into a more connected reality,” Vancans says. “It’s all about the connected workplace, the connected site, and moving not just from the site but also back to the field where we’re talking about asset management as well as construction project management.”
That idea of a “bridge” captures both continuity and change. Topcon’s hardware heritage is indisputable, but Vancans sees a fundamental shift underway: “We’re really talking about collecting and managing information more than we are talking about the sort of sensor–software divide. That gives us a lot more space in which to innovate and bring benefits to customers.”
For Vancans, the central theme is workflow simplicity. In the age of mass data capture, customers are inundated with point clouds, imagery, and sensor feeds. The challenge is not collecting data but transforming it into usable insight. “Automated feature extraction from point clouds enables a much simpler workflow for customers,” he says. “We want to facilitate an easy workflow right throughout… clean, accurate imagery, and the ease of interrogation.”
That emphasis on simplicity will soon take tangible form. At InterGeo, Topcon plans to launch a new scanning portfolio, accompanied by a software platform designed to be a long-term companion for customers. “Our immediate goal is to launch our scanning portfolio with a software platform that will enable us to bring the benefits of AI at the common workplace for a multitude of sensors,” Vancans explains.
The principle is flexibility. Not every job requires a scanner delivering millimeter precision. Many tasks can be completed with lower-cost instruments at centimeter accuracy. By integrating sensors across price points and accuracy levels into a common platform, Topcon aims to provide customers with the right tool for the right job—without forcing them into disjointed workflows.
From Vision to Practice
While Di Federico sets the vision and Vancans shapes the geomatics mandate, Ron Oberlander, Senior Vice President of the Geomatics Platform leading the group’s operational build-out, is responsible for turning strategy into action. He frames Topcon 2.0 as both a return and a reinvention.
“We never left geomatics,” Oberlander says. “But Topcon 2.0 gives us a chance to step back into that space with fresh purpose and energy—combining the DNA of our surveying legacy with new tools designed for today’s reality capture ecosystem.”
For Oberlander, the customer journey is the guiding principle: capture, process, model, decide. These four steps define the workflows customers expect, and Topcon’s job is to make them seamless. “Surveyors don’t want to be software integrators,” he explains. “They want to measure, model, and move on. Our role is to eliminate the friction.”
Oberlander points to conversations at the recent Esri User Conference, where GIS adoption is expanding rapidly among municipalities, utilities, and mid-sized enterprises. The software stack may be mature, but workflows remain fragmented. “Surveyors and GIS professionals don’t want six different tools that don’t talk to each other,” he says. “They want a process that’s easy, accurate, and reliable.”
Topcon’s answer is to focus on workflow simplicity, open integration, and mixed fleet compatibility. Customers rarely operate in single-brand environments, and Topcon 2.0 is designed to integrate well with other platforms while still delivering best-in-class instruments and software.
Collage and ClearEdge3D: Foundational Tools for Connected Workflows
Two software platforms illustrate how Topcon 2.0 is transforming latent potential into active advantage: Collage and ClearEdge3D. Both were acquired years ago but had remained peripheral until now. Under Vancans, they have been elevated to center stage.
“This is a jewel in the crown,” Vancans says. “They are the platforms which we will develop onwards to allow automated feature extraction. Having those development tools in-house puts us in the driver’s seat when it comes to developing the AI tools of the next generation.”
Collage provides a unifying environment for diverse datasets, from terrestrial laser scans to drone surveys to mobile mapping runs. Its strength lies in integration: a single pane of glass for visualization, alignment, and processing.
ClearEdge3D adds automation. Its EdgeWise platform detects and models pipes, walls, and structural elements from point clouds, reducing what was once hours of manual work to minutes. “You can capture a refinery with terrestrial LiDAR, run it through ClearEdge, and produce intelligent CAD models in a fraction of the time,” Oberlander notes. “That’s not just productivity—it’s enabling projects that were impractical before.”
Together, Collage and ClearEdge form the backbone of Topcon’s geomatics workflow: unify the data, extract the features, and deliver results seamlessly into GIS, BIM, or CAD environments.
Hardware and Software Convergence
While software drives much of the excitement around Topcon 2.0, hardware innovation remains vital. The difference is that hardware and software are no longer treated as separate domains. Instead, they are increasingly integrated into a single continuum.
“Where we traditionally draw the boundaries between these things is not necessarily where they will be in a year’s time,” Vancans observes.
Oberlander emphasizes that traditional instruments remain important. “Surveyors still want a prism pole, and a robot total station or a scanner. That’s not going away. What’s changing is how those tools integrate with GNSS, scanners, and cloud platforms. Our approach is to deliver both the traditional instruments and the connective tissue that ties them into modern workflows.”
Expanding the User Base
Topcon 2.0 also reflects a broader view of who the “user” actually is. Both Oberlander and Vancans point to the growing role of non-survey specialists in data collection and management.
“In the past, utilities would add maybe a couple of surveyors on board, or they may have contracted the use of a survey consulting firm to do their work,” Vancans explains. “A lot of that work is now done by technicians who are not survey qualified. Our goal is to reach those people and extend the professionalism of survey sales to that market.”
This reframes the so-called “shortage of surveyors.” “There’s a lot more surveyors now, they just don’t call themselves surveyors,” Vancans argues. By designing workflows that are accurate, reliable, and easy to use, Topcon can empower technicians, engineers, and asset managers to perform survey-grade tasks—without requiring them to be licensed surveyors.
Oberlander sees the same trend in GIS. “GIS has become easier to use, but that means more players,” he says. “Our advantage is combining survey-grade accuracy with GIS accessibility.”
The strategy is not just about selling tools but about building communities of practice. “I’d like to see us creating a sensor community for people with common workflows,” Vancans says. “That’s certainly a feature of what we’ll be doing.”
Culture, Execution, and the Road Ahead
Realizing this vision requires more than products. It requires organizational alignment and cultural change, themes Di Federico emphasizes repeatedly. “Topcon 2.0 is not about what we were,” he reiterates. “It’s about what our customers need us to be today: an enabler of decisions through connected, accurate, and simple solutions.”
For Oberlander, that means execution at every level: expanding distribution, strengthening support infrastructure, investing in education and e-learning, and ensuring that products are intuitive and customer-friendly. “To bring Topcon 2.0 to life, we have to reassemble the team, rethink how we go to market, and make it easy to do business with us,” he says.
The company’s October 7 introduction of new capture reality products—including terrestrial and handheld scanners—will mark a milestone, but all three leaders stress that it is only the beginning. Topcon 2.0 is not a single event or product launch. It is a long-term reorientation of the company’s role in its customers’ workflows.
For long-time users, the deepened focus on geomatics may feel like a homecoming. For new entrants, it is an invitation to experience customer-first workflows built on decades of expertise. For Topcon itself, it is both continuity and transformation—a strategy that integrates legacy strengths with future-facing innovation.
The voices of Ivan Di Federico, Neil Vancans, and Ron Oberlander converge on a single message: Topcon 2.0 is reenergizing its role in geomatics, shaping a vision of progress built on accuracy, connectivity, and trust—since precision exists.