8.3 Selecting Location Intelligence for Your Business

At this point in the course, you are ready to organize and establish criteria for selecting the optimal location intelligence system for your organization. I want you to choose an organization you represent (in real life or choose a business), read the following Lesson 8.3 references, and create a matrix of features and benefits of current Location Intelligence products.

8.3 Activity:

You are a geospatial analyst recommending to your boss a process and visualization for selecting the best location intelligence product/platform/service for your organization’s needs. Some considerations are:

1. What features are critical/important/useful in a location intelligence system?
2. What priority do you set on the criteria? Organize in a visually effective format that supports professional decision-making.
3. What are the top 5 – 10 location intelligence platforms you recommend to your boss? Create a matrix-like visualization comparing the products and what they offer for your organization.
4. Do not consider cost as a decision criteria for this assignment. (While cost may be the most important factor for many business leaders, your comparative analysis is highly valuable for selecting a location intelligence system.)

Read the course references on available Location Intelligence companies and platforms, conduct any additional research you feel is necessary.

1. Your goal is to research existing location intelligence companies/platforms as well as the range of possible design choices.
2. Select a strategy for selecting or creating a location intelligence solution.
3. Identify a litmus test of location intelligence platforms to transform location data into business outcomes.
4. Spatial analysis is a location intelligence tool. What are the other location intelligence tools and techniques?

Discuss decision making:

1. Design a decision matrix from research + white papers. What factors should be considered?
2. Recommend one solution to your boss and justify with features and benefits of that location intelligence product.

What Software Tool Should Be Employed?

Open-source software is free and has many features; but may not scale as well, or be as maintainable, as the commercial tools over time.

Commercial software is often expensive, designed primarily for specific purposes, or offering extensions for projects at additional costs; but has known quality, is more maintainable, and is more readily accepted by IT managers than open-source tools. Using open source tools, when possible, frees up project budget to develop models that will deliver the desired value.

What business questions would assist in your approach?