| GIS - Frequently Asked Questions |
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| Questions and Answers | ||
| What is GIS? |
Originally Geographic Information Systems (GIS) was a science created by
engineers to identify where geographic objects sit in the world. Enterprising
businesses took these scientific methods and tools, and adapted them to meet
their market analysis needs. Today, GIS for business is the science of
analyzing vast amounts of data to make a nearly limitless number of strategic
business decisions -- better and more efficiently. With GIS, businesses can
analyze data to, for example, help them scout new store locations, improve
delivery routes, identify new markets, choose sites, conduct advertising
campaigns, plan distribution networks, and allocate resources. What's more,
within the world of GIS for business there is desktop mapping, which
capitalizes on the planning and decision-making aspects of GIS. Desktop
mapping software and data products give businesses the power to easily achieve
an enhanced level of information from their desktop computers. Overall, GIS is
an exciting technology, with benefits well worth the effort to get to know.
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| What is desktop mapping? |
Essentially, desktop mapping brings geographic and business data to life.
Mapping is a powerful way to link information with a geographic location and,
therefore, literally see data in its context -- from areas as small as your
business's local neighborhood, to areas as large as the entire United States.
Further, mapping is a highly-flexible analysis tool that presents data in a
variety of visual presentation styles such as different shades of color, as
symbols of different sizes, as dot patterns of varying density, or all of
these at once in multiple layers. So, instead of making your analyses based on
data listed in dry tabular formats, such as business revenues and customer
profiles, desktop mapping places the data into a vivid map of your trade area
-- allowing you to see information from a whole new perspective. The maps can
show you where things are and where they are not -- for example, where your
target audience lives, the geographic boundaries surrounding your units, and
your competitors' locations. As a result, you will not only have the specific
numeric information you need, but you will now also see geographic
relationships in your data that you may not have otherwise been able to see,
such as buying patterns and overlapping markets.
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| Who uses desktop mapping? |
Today, mapping is helping to shape more strategic business decisions than ever
before. It's being used by progressive businesses in a wide range of
industries, including retail, restaurant, grocery, banking, and real estate,
to solve a variety of problems quickly and efficiently. In fact, businesses
that have already recognized the dynamic potential of GIS are enjoying the
competitive edge in their markets.
The use of desktop mapping has grown dramatically since 1991, when new developments in GIS made the process affordable to more businesses. Innovative and competitive businesses were the first to take advantage of desktop mapping's powerful and unique analytical capabilities to help them visualize their market situations, analyze data, and build realistic models that predict how changes in strategy might affect them. Over the past decade, many more businesses have added mapping to their decision-making tools to help them, for example, select new locations, research their competition, and compare markets. According to industry predictions, the number of companies using desktop mapping will continue to increase. In fact, the use of GIS for business is expected to grow from a $250 million business in 1997 to $5 billion in 2000. Fueling this growth will be, in part, the businesses who have already begun using desktop mapping and who have seen the extraordinary possibilities it brings to their decision-making processes. These business will expand their use of this dynamic tool to help their companies grow and compete even more effectively in the future.
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| Why does my business need desktop mapping? |
If you're interested in increasing your business's productivity, market share,
advertising effectiveness, or sales, desktop mapping can help. In every
situation, it can optimize your opportunities and help you avoid costly
mistakes. In many cases businesses that have gotten along without mapping
don't realize the power and potential it can offer. However, if you have not
yet applied desktop mapping to your business, it probably means that you're
not succeeding as well as you could be. The more you know about your location,
your sales, your customers, and your competitors, the more successful your
business will be. Desktop mapping can ensure you know all there is to know.
Many growing businesses have considered mapping, but they've fail to recognize the point at which it can make a dynamic difference in their businesses' growth potential. There are, in fact, several points at which mapping can become a strategy for success, including expanding into new locations or expanding your product lines, because when most businesses expand they are typically expanding outside their area of knowledge. You may have succeeded in your hometown market because you know the area well, but when you decide to expand into a new market it's likely you know very little about the area. In cases like this, mapping answers questions you cannot answer yourself. If you rely on guesswork to make decisions in new markets, it could significantly limit your opportunity and result in thousands of dollars in mistakes. In addition to helping you expand more effectively, desktop mapping can be an insightful tool to track changes that impact your business over time. Just like anything else, data changes. One example of this occurred with a national fast food restaurant chain when it analyzed its sales data in one of its trade areas over time and discovered that its market share was shrinking. Further analysis showed that the neighborhood's demographics had changed over time. The restaurant changed its menu to reflect the new population and regained its market share -- all thanks to the power of desktop mapping.
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| Which departments in my business can use desktop mapping? |
Nearly every department can benefit from desktop mapping. Here are just a few
examples:
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| Where does desktop mapping fit in the business cycle? |
Whether you recognize it or not, mapping is already part of your decision-making
process. By bringing it to your desktop, you'll reap tremendous
rewards. Mapping plays a major role at every step of the business cycle
including selecting a location, advertising that location, and selecting new
products and services in the future. Here are three examples of how mapping
can dynamically impact a business throughout the traditional business cycle:
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| What does desktop mapping cost? |
The cost of mapping ranges widely depending on your company's needs, including
how many markets you're located in and how detailed your analyses needs to be.
The cost to do mapping could vary from a low of under $2,000 to a high of
nearly $1,000,000 per year. However, to determine the true cost of mapping,
you must consider how much money it will save you and how much money it can
make for you. For example, if you do not choose ideal locations that maximum
your sales, your loses could add up to hundreds of thousands in just a few
short months. On the other hand, if you chose an ideal location, your
increased profits could be dramatic.
In two real-world examples, one STI client, a commercial broker, bought data for one market for $500 and GIS software for $1,200, for a total investment of $1,700. Today the broker is using the mapping analysis from that investment to sell real estate worth millions of dollars. Another STI client, a grocery chain, looks at mapping from a strictly valuation (return on investment) point-of-view. The chain is currently investing about $800,000 each year in mapping, because it knows that at a minimum it will make $4 million per year from the answers mapping will provide. Executives at the grocery chain have calculated that it will receive a 300% annual return on its desktop mapping investment.
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| Why did STI base its GIS software and data products on MapInfoŽ? |
After an extensive evaluation of various desktop mapping software programs,
STI selected MapInfoŽ, the leader in desktop mapping, as the program with which
to make its software and data compatible. Along with being powerful, MapInfoŽ
offers an extensive variety of desktop mapping functions. This has helped us
to make STI's Vortex software program and its vast selection of data products
among the most powerful available today.
Our
innovative and cost-effective software and data products, gives
business the best of all possible desktop mapping solutions.
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