Every day, all of us use location intelligence simply by making our way to work.  Location intelligence is not a new capability of functionality or even a technology, but rather a term that encapsulates the use of a geographical context in decision making.

Location intelligence (LI) offers a huge opportunity for all of us to get our work used everyday as mainstream decision making tools. We all have been working hard to get our analysis and work to executives, years ago our only options was as hardcopy maps, more recently as web maps and today its mashups, (the bringing together of multiple sources of data and application capability into a single view), are expanding the reach of geographic knowledge and science and LI is the result of all that hard work.

What's the difference between GIS and location intelligence?
By using the science that underpins Geographic Information System (GIS) technology, location intelligence can deliver new insights into business information whether that is the business of government or a fast food chain.

All the elements of a GIS, and the key here is system, form the engine behind location intelligence. It is people, services, GIS application technology, data, training and hardware that all work together to make location intelligence possible. For location intelligence to really deliver positive business outcomes, it has to offer more than dots on a map.

To do more than dots on a map, location intelligence needs to leverage all four elements of GIS application technology: visualisation, spatial analysis, data management and dissemination/integration. The real benefit is having LI appear seamless throughout the work flow. Most people don't know what GIS is and don't know how to spell it - they just want the results.  By making it seamless, an organisation will have multiple flow-on benefits for all parts of the business process.

How can business intelligence and location intelligence work together?
Business intelligence (BI) can be significantly enhanced through the incorporation of LI. In fact it is happening all over the place already. With 80% of all information containing a geographical element, the term LI is starting to be transferable with BI.

If a picture can tell a thousand words then LI is worth a thousand data tables. The ability to integrate huge volumes of data and present it in an effective map that communicates complex relationships easily will transform BI and allow organisations to reach their full ROI in both BI and LI.

Enhancing Business Intelligence with Location

Business intelligence and location intelligence have the same premise; to enable organisations to make the most out of business information. With 80 percent of data held within organisations containing a location element, by utilising location intelligence, organisations can take business intelligence to the next level and truly analyse business information in an easy to view format.

Learn more about how linking location can help your organisation to derive greater value from your business intelligence solutions.

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