Location Intelligence

What is location intelligence?

Location Intelligence (LI) is a combination of data, technologies and know-how that enables companies to derive insights from geospatial data and make data-driven decisions. With layering multiple datasets spatially and/or chronologically on the map, it goes beyond simple spatial data visualization. Leaders in the market use location data and location intelligence to better understand where and why things are happening and to make a better, insightful plan on what to do next.

What is the relationship of Location Intelligence (LI) to Business Intelligence (BI) or GIS?

The term Location Intelligence often tends to be compared to or even considered the same as Business Intelligence (BI). However, this interpretation is incorrect. Both of the fields are helping their users to make business decisions, but Business Intelligence focuses more on what happened to a business, whereas Location Intelligence tends to answer the why and where behind that question. To describe it on a real-world use case, BI will tell you that a branch sales decreased by 30 %. Location Intelligence will enable you to see what happened around the branch in a map and possibly give you an idea about how the movement of the people inside the city changed (e. g. when a new shopping mall is opened) and where to look for a better location of the underperforming store. That is something that you won’t be able to spot in a regular BI chart.

Location Intelligence tools and softwares are often described as map-centric - meaning that the map plays a pivotal role in those tools compared to a regular BI software such as Power BI or Tableau. Regarding map visualizations, a regular BI tool usually stops at a simple dot or area visualization, whereas LI platforms enable you to create advanced map visualizations and overlay multiple layers over each other. Visualizing geographic data over the data describing their business, such as revenue, count of customers etc. in combination with advanced filtering options based on external datasets can offer you a competitive advantage when looking into what’s driving your business forward from a spatial point of view. This additional layer of data allows businesses to gain location-based insights and share it with executives in sales, marketing or operations.

As for the comparison with GIS, Location Intelligence experts often use GIS software and tools in their ETLs and pipelines to transform the data and prepare it for visualization in a Location Intelligence tool such as CleverMaps. It is needless to say that datasets usually don’t arrive in the perfect structure, so for developers and data analysts GIS tools come in handy more often than not. Also the presentational capabilities of GIS tools have become much better lately and they allow you to create a nice final output. However, people coming from BI tools or business environment in general may find a transfer to the LI tool with metrics and dashboards easier then adopting a structure of GIS with layers and that’s where Location Intelligence softwares find their spots on the sunlight.

Why is Location Intelligence important, who uses it and how?

The challenges we face in government and business are firmly tied to location. Location Intelligence has several business benefits, including increased efficiency, improved decision-making, and competitive advantage. LI can also improve the customer experience through personalized recommendations and offers based on a customer’s location. Putting that data in the context of location is how we make sense of it and put it to work.

Location Intelligence is nowadays being used accross fields. For example, retailers use it to understand customer demographics, behaviors, and preferences in different areas or locations. This can help them tailor their marketing efforts and product offerings to specific locations and customer segments. Insurance companies can use LI to analyze risks, real estate companies to identify new investment opportunities, understand infrastructural needs and analyze transit behavior. Among other typical use cases belong:

What data is the most used for Location Intelligence applications?

Data is a key part of any location intelligence analysis. As well as using internal data (such as CRM, loyalty card, ecommerce, deliveries, call detail records etc.), organizations also regularly make use of available Open Data to enrich their analysis. The main topics of spatial data streams being used are Demographic data, Human Mobility (also known as Foot Traffic), Road Traffic, Points of Interest, Purchasing Power, Weather or Housing.

Acquiring and maintaining a broad database of data ready to be incorporated into an analysis is one of the biggest challenges of LI. Not only that the quality of data need to be ensured, but sometimes analysts also have issues with integrating data from multiple sources. That’s where the CleverMaps Data Marketplace comes in handy because it offers thousands of datasets prepared for uploading to CleverMaps. We even have something called Data Dimensions - ready to use projects (e. g. with administrative units of a certain country) that allow you to kickstart your analysis. For more information about our Data Marketplace, please click here.

Start making data-driven decisions with Location Intelligence and CleverMaps!

Location Intelligence has become essential for a business's success. It can help your business make better decisions, reach your customers with the right message at the right time, and enable quick action on new opportunities. Putting the business’s internal data together with external data on the map can provide you with insights and answers to business questions that you couldn’t see before.

Whether you need to find a place for your new store, identify the key drivers of your business or target a specific demographic group, location intelligence will help you to make better, more informed decisions. Build your first project today and start using data to your advantage with CleverMaps.