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MIDRAND – March 11, 2010 – While location should be a key part of business planning, it is often overlooked as organisations do not consider geographical trends or analyse geographical relationships as part of their business intelligence (BI) solutions.
So says Mark Kindler, product implementation manager at location intelligence and mobility solution provider, ST Group, who explains that BI tools are ideal for analysing dimensions of “whom”, “what” and “when”, but fall short of being able to answer questions in relation to “where”, such as the relation of where customers live to where they make their purchases.
“Location intelligence (LI) adds insight into the geographical relationships inherent to the information gathered and analysed by BI solutions. Its spatial analytical capability pulls together business and geographic data, providing meaningful map-based information that can reveal customer buying patterns, indicate site facilities, locate resources near customers and give businesses a clearer understanding of both customer demographics and business operations,” he states.
“When integrating LI with BI, companies can reach their target markets better, plan where to open or close branches by being able to perform trade area analysis, track resources such as sales representatives, analyse customer sales per territory and manage customer service according to specific areas to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage.”
According to Kindler, many enterprises lack a 360 degree view of organisational data – accessible within a single application. They typically have many disparate data sources, located in silos, scattered throughout the organisations with management often unaware of the information that is available to them. They also have limited or no spatial analytical mechanisms and face data integrity, sharing and data ownership challenges.
“It is vitally important for these businesses to centralise both business and spatially contextualised data sets such as streets and suburbs, demographic data, crime data and points of interest, where it can be captured and reviewed in a consistent, practical format,” he stresses.
Corporate organisations, however, are not the only ones that can benefit from LI working in sync with BI, but it can also play a huge role in the public safety sector in reducing crime and protecting communities by identifying hotspots and assigning services such as extra police patrols to those areas or planning interventions. “By relating data to the environment, it can assist authorities to intelligently manage risks and deploy resources such as people, assets and fleet,” Kindler says.
“By marrying BI and LI, organisations will be presented with accurate, location-enriched information that enables enhanced user analysis, better decision making, more effective planning as well as better resource utilisation and ultimately improved performance.”
About ST Group
Founded in 1994, Spatial Technologies is above all a solutions company, focused on the delivery of location-based business intelligence value to clients. The company’s technology harnesses the power of location to deliver a competitive advantage to their clients in the shortest time and as cost-effectively as possible by using Pitney Bowes world-class software and technology.
Today Spatial Technologies is part of the expanded ST Group, which also comprises UConnect (focused on mobility solutions and resource management) and Connected World Solutions (development support and training). ST Group strives to be the group of choice for providing location intelligence and mobility solutions across the enterprise. The group places a high value on developing long-term relationships with all stakeholders. Clients come from, among others, the banking, retail, logistics, finance and telecommunications sectors.
CONTACTS:
ST Group, Lisa de Kock, tel: +27 11 314 0788, e-mail: lisad@stgroup.co.za
icomm, Nicola Read, 083 269 2227, nicola@pr.co.za
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