LI Empowering Multiple Sectors

Governments are preparing and outlining how we will progress into the Fourth Industrial Revolution. This will be the cross-over of real world and digital environments, and beneath this is a vital component that holds it all together, location.

When we speak of location, most people think “mapping”, “survey” or “GIS”, but when you speak with any of these users, they talk of how the spatial data is underused and underappreciated. Many of these users talk of how they have built systems that combine non-spatial and spatial data together to improve a company’s business or to solve an obvious spatial problem. Without knowing it, they were creating Location Intelligence solutions.

Location Intelligence (LI) is essential in business to understand where things happen. Applying a Business Intelligence solution will only get you so far, as everything happens somewhere and by analyzing those places as a whole, you can gain valuable insights.

In this edition, we pull together interviews with people from different businesses and geographies to know about the value they have gained from implementing Location Intelligence solutions. LI has thrived in businesses like Uber and Deliveroo, where there is a shared economy and a dependence on location. Unlike office-based business where the need for location may not be so obvious, these companies benefit as they gain more insights from the data they use. This edition highlights the growing value and utility of location data in sharing economy, with focus on companies heavily dependent on LI.

Location Intelligence (LI) is essential in business to understand where things happen. Applying a Business Intelligence solution will only get you so far, as everything happens somewhere and by analyzing those places as a whole, you can gain valuable insights

Another area that we don’t immediately relate to Location Intelligence is emergency services. In the current time, where COVID-19 is testing our concept of the first law of geography, the need for spatial intervention and assertion of Location Intelligence is important.

As discussed earlier, capturing all this data and relating it to location for analysis and deeper understanding is a necessary goal, but in doing this, it raises further questions. We have all had our Facebook, Twitter or email accounts hacked or know someone who has, and in that moment, you realize that the wealth of information about you and where you are, been or going, could not only be in someone else’s hands but out there for everyone to obtain. The more data businesses collect, the more fragile it becomes, and so the debate around privacy, and the developments on that front, assume great significance.

I hope you enjoy this Location and Business Intelligence edition of Geospatial World. As I wrote the article about Location Intelligence’s present and future, it reminded me of just how powerful the integration of location into business applications can be, and why it has started to gain so much traction. From farming to accounting and from retail to travel, Location Intelligence is the backbone in digitally enabling and empowering these sectors. I trust that this enthuses you as much as it has me.

Author Bio

Nicholas is a Chartered Geographer specializing in GIS, with decades of experience across many different industries, including offshore, renewables, nuclear, environmental, engineering and even property to name a few. Working with 3D GIS, AR, VR and even some GEOBIM across GIS, CAD and gaming engines to create innovative solutions to real world problems, Nicholas was one of the founders of #GISChat. He has won awards for cartography and thrives on helping others to learn and further their GIS capability.