Making Business Insight More Actionable with Location Intelligence
You know the saying in the real estate industry, “when it comes to buying a house, the three most important factors are location, location, location?” The same thing can be said when it comes to business analytics. Location is key to providing added value and insight around a company’s data and local market trends and opportunities.
Location intelligence enables companies to visualize spatial data, understand relationships and patterns between specific locations, put data into geo-spatial context and maximize the value of their customer data. It helps organizations make strategic business decisions through the use of geocoding, spatial analysis and mapping.
Let’s take a closer look at each of these areas and how they come together to provide additional layers of intelligence:
Geocoding Geocoding can help businesses translate addresses into specific latitude and longitude coordinates. By associating each address with numeric values, they can analyze address data systematically and gain an immediate understanding of the relationship between two points on a spatial dimension.
Accurate geocodes can provide new insights about each data record including demographics, socioeconomic data, neighborhood profiles, parcel and vector information as well as various land use attributes. This gives companies a more accurate view of customer data and helps them make more informed decisions to derive actionable intelligence for their business.
Spatial Analysis Spatial analysis brings analytical capabilities that make connections across spatial attributes possible. For example, not only can it help in determining who resides in a certain geographic area; the proximity of other buildings, landmarks, or other community assets, but also drive time and distance between various locations of interest. Spatial analysis is crucial in unraveling spatial patterns and correlations to help businesses connect the dots.
Mapping Global mapping systems can then plot data from multiple sources into charts and maps that deliver true spatial analysis and help businesses uncover relationships that otherwise may have gone unnoticed.
One example where location intelligence is being widely used is in the insurance industry. Insurance companies can use location intelligence to identify coverage opportunities based on location and the characteristics of a particular location natural and manmade hazards, establish proximity to emergency services, assign the appropriate tax, and match and normalize customer information against existing customer records. This gives them an accurate 360 view of their customers and the type of coverage that is ideal for their specific situation.
Businesses should not underestimate the impact of location on consumer’s behavior and business performance. While location intelligence alone does not always lead directly to bottom line results, it is a fundamental component of the business intelligence processes that can provide actionable intelligence, greatly enhance a company’s view of its customers and help businesses become more effective in identifying and realizing growth opportunities.
