Moving from Enterprise Location Data to Location Intelligence

A company’s ability to gain visibility into the “where” of its supply chain measurably enhances its ability to wisely balance conflicting supply chain requirements. For example, in past retail settings, achieving superior customer service (e.g., consistent order fulfillment and delivery rates) required maintaining high levels of inventory. However, inventory carrying costs negatively affect financial performance. In today’s real-time supply chain, stockpiling inventory around the globe places an enterprise at a competitive disadvantage.
To stay in business, companies must compete with other companies through the capability of their supply chains. It is no longer company versus company, but rather supply chain versus supply chain. Companies can improve visibility into their supply chain with actionable real-time location information, which is becoming increasingly feasible as emerging wall technology becomes cost-effective.

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Putting Business Intelligence on the Map

As consumers, we are inundated by maps as they increasingly become an intrinsic part of everyday life. From web based services for driving directions and portals such as Microsoft’s Live Local, Virtual Earth and Google Earth to consumer applications such as GPS watches and in-vehicle navigation, we are exposed to a wealth of location-based or geospatial information. This growing consumer awareness is beginning to stimulate commercial interest in the application of geospatial data for business use. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) have long offered the capability to analyse geospatial data. Geospatial data refers to information that can be geographically referenced in either 2 or 3 dimensions, that is, any data that can be mapped such as geographic features, business points, households, demographics and consumption patterns. GIS software has been supplied by companies such as ESRI and MapInfo for many years, with ESRI’s first commercial GIS software designed to run on minicomputers, ArcInfo, dating back to 1982.

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GIS, Part 3: Making the Most of Your Enterprise Data

The adaptation of technologies that were once exclusive to big science and the military for commercial public use has become a characteristic of our times. Notable among them are global positioning systems (GPS) and geographic information systems (GIS), both of which have been growing in adoption as their technological evolution continues.

Part 1 of this three-part series takes a look at the application of GIS to business decision making. Part 2 explores some of the ways that visual information is expanding the world of enterprise Quintum VoIP solutions. The perfect fit for your Enterprise. data.

This third installment offers some suggestions as to how enterprises can make the most of the vast amount of data at their disposal.

Read the full story (Ecommerce Times)