Location Analytics + Maps: 10 Eureka Moments
Multiple data sources combined with geographic information (GIS) technology can provide a new level of business insight. Ask smart questions and see where the data takes you.
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Maps tell stories beyond location. When combined with data from a growing array of sources, and added to visualizations in a variety of formats, geographic information systems (GIS) can yield insights about who is doing what where, and what is happening when, why, and how.
A digital map can be like a thick deli sandwich: the bottom slice of bread represents the geographic coordinates of an area, and each layer added to it is another data set spread over those coordinates. Weather. Sales trends. Highway layouts and transportation networks. Building configurations. Office locations. Natural resources identified and targeted for exploration. Infrastructure and utilities underground. Those are the things that stay in one place. Add assets in motion such as trucks and goods shipments. Note the movements of customers. Mix in trends over time, such as demographic data on who lives and works in various locations. Then start asking smart questions and see where the data takes you.
A question such as, "Where should I put my next store?" depends just as much on what the data says about your prospective customers as the real estate you're evaluating. What are their median incomes and education levels? Do they tend to drive or walk to shop? Is it advantageous to be near certain other attractions? And although many enterprises hold customer data in their corporate systems, the opportunity to marry those systems -- such as business intelligence, ERP, and CRM -- with GIS data is becoming more popular thanks to the consumerization of IT and the popularity of smartphone-based maps.
As a result, there were more than government geographers and city planners among the 16,000 attendees roaming the halls at the July 2014 Esri International User Conference in San Diego. The event, with people flying in from more than 190 countries, also attracts a rising group of strategists and corporate location professionals from a range of industries. This slideshow provides a window into some of those discussions.
Take the smartwatch prototype pictured above. Black Eyed Peas founder Will.i.am, who has struck up a friendship with Esri founder Jack Dangermond to promote science and math education to high school students in his Los Angeles neighborhood, told attendees that he is investing in a smartwatch to further his involvement in technology.
"I'm wearing my maps," said Will.i.am, who appeared from Australia via Skype hookup. "So if I'm on the run, I can look and say, give me the safest route home, give me the quickest route home, give me the scenic route home. Those types of tasks, and the gathering of all this GIS information, to the person wearing the maps, make them aware. We're changing our viewpoint on what a wearable is."
Dig into our slideshow for examples of how businesses put location analytics to creative uses. Then share your feedback in our comments section below.
The great indoors opens up a new frontier for companies in location analytics, and Here, a unit of Nokia, has been logging data points about thousands of locations of interest, ranging from airport gates and taxi stands to lobbies and play areas, to help users find a parking spot close to a particular store at the mall, for example, or to know when a bank branch is open at a nearby address.
The illustration above shows an experiment by Esri and GISi Indoors at a convention center. In one panel, at center, red dots show the location of anonymized smartphone users tracked by WiFi signals. The "heat map" panel on the right shows the foot traffic of smartphone owners who opted in to a pilot test. Analyses like these can help retailers plan floor displays. Wolfgang Hall, a logistics expert at Esri, said other emerging uses include analyzing office building layouts and giving users directions inside a large complex.
(Source: Esri)
Managers at Con-way Freight, a unit of the freight transportation and logistics services firm, have been using location analytics to identify sources and causes of waste in their trucking routes. By analyzing the location and movement of its vehicles and location-based data such as traffic congestion, travel routes, and customer shipping information, the company can pinpoint where it wastes time (such as when a customer's shipping dock is closed or busy) and money (such as idling in a high-traffic area at the wrong time). The company now can put data behind the anecdotal observations its drivers have been making for years, says Jeff Rivera, VP of national sales at Con-way Freight. The ability to address sources of waste leads to improved business results -- and better morale among the truckers.
The South Cumberland Marketplace, a shopping center in Cumberland, Md., is located in a rural and economically strained area of western Maryland, and its owner had experienced significant vacancies. Matt Felton, president of Datastory Consulting, said his firm analyzed demographics and economic data in the area to find similar areas and businesses that were succeeding. The correlations led to identifying Planet Fitness as a prospective tenant. The fitness gym moved into South Cumberland Marketplace and as a result the shopping center has seen its business grow.
(Source: Datastory Consulting)
Using government census and economic data, along with mapping software from Esri and the Google Places API, analysts working for the San Joaquin Valley's air-pollution control agency identified the best locations -- above in dark blue -- of cities along Route 99 in California to place "fast chargers" that work in 30 minutes to charge electric cars. Unlike the existing charging stations (flagged number 1 and 3 on the map) the blue areas are located where people spend time shopping, attending events, or going to doctor's appointments. That way, people can charge their cars while they are busy on errands and other activities.
(Source: California Center for Sustainable Energy)
Starbucks Coffee uses location analytics not only to select sites for new stores in promising demographic areas, but to map changing conditions near existing outlets. Above, a Starbucks dashboard shows upcoming events in San Diego including the LGBT Pride Parade and related events scheduled for July 18-20. Logging data about the event and its estimated 150,000 attendees helped Starbucks plan in advance for staffing and supplies for its dozens of nearby stores.
(Source: Starbucks, via Esri International User Conference)
Smart policing initiatives have, for years, plotted crime hotspots on maps and helped police analyze that data over time. The map pictured above shows four years of violent crime statistics for Chicago. The panel on the right lets analysts view the crime stats for one block to visualize how crime has changed over time -- red signifies a hotspot and blue indicates a lack of activity. This temporal hotspot analysis is a feature due out in a new version of Esri's ArcGIS platform later this year.
In Minneapolis, GIS developers created a city-wide map analyzing the electricity-generating potential of buildings if their owners chose to install rooftop solar panels. The view above shows the neighborhood near the Target Field baseball stadium. Clicking on a building shows the analysis for a building on Second Avenue that could host an estimated 103,000 solar panels producing about $164,000 worth of electricity.
(Source: City of Minneapolis Department of Business Information Services)
Above, Simon Wellington of Canberra, Australia, enjoys a 3D view of a simulated cityscape seen from the top of a skyscraper, showcased at the July 2014 Esri International User Conference. The simulation uses Esri's CityEngine software to create a three-dimensional world viewed through the Oculus Rift headset and an Xbox game controller. The models could be useful for simulating public safety events, such as the evacuation of a building or training firefighters in the contours of specific locations. It could also be used by real estate developers and city planners to simulate the landscape around a new structure.
(Source: Michael S. Goldberg)
At the Esri International User Conference, Esri unveiled a new version of the Urban Observatory, an exhibit that juxtaposes data about cities around the globe on a range of themes, from housing density and open space to transportation and leading occupations. The project was launched in 2013 by Esri, TED founder Richard Saul Wurman, and designers at Radical Media and has expanded to include 36 cities from Abu Dhabi to Washington, D.C.
An exhibit that showcases these side-by-side views on big-TV screens is scheduled for the Smithsonian in 2015. Aside from the interesting comparisons for observers are notable lessons for data visualization designers: First, make sure you can collect data in formats that are comparable (not all cities have all the data available for all categories). Second, make sure you present data in views for users to make sensible comparisons. For example, when a user adjusts the view of London's commercial district, as in the image above, the design of this display automatically adjusts the scale of New York and Tokyo in adjacent panels.
We're accustomed to trekking to the hardware store to stock up on batteries when there's a big storm in the weather forecast. But correlating weather forecasts with location yields other trends as well, and can help retailers anticipate demand for certain products, guiding merchandise stocking decisions and staffing plans.
For example, Rosemary Radich, a senior research analyst at AccuWeather Enterprise Solutions, says her firm's research shows there's a strong correlation between beer sales and "cooling degree days" -- a measure of how often the outside air temperature is above 65 degrees -- across much of the United States, as shown on the map above. Warmer weather also leads to higher sales of shaving products in certain parts of the country.
(Source: AccuWeather Enterprise Solutions Inc., via Esri)
We're accustomed to trekking to the hardware store to stock up on batteries when there's a big storm in the weather forecast. But correlating weather forecasts with location yields other trends as well, and can help retailers anticipate demand for certain products, guiding merchandise stocking decisions and staffing plans.
For example, Rosemary Radich, a senior research analyst at AccuWeather Enterprise Solutions, says her firm's research shows there's a strong correlation between beer sales and "cooling degree days" -- a measure of how often the outside air temperature is above 65 degrees -- across much of the United States, as shown on the map above. Warmer weather also leads to higher sales of shaving products in certain parts of the country.
(Source: AccuWeather Enterprise Solutions Inc., via Esri)
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