Business intelligence (BI) leverages software and services to transform data into actionable insights that inform an organization’s strategic and tactical business decisions. BI tools access and analyze data sets and present analytical findings in reports, summaries, dashboards, graphs, charts and maps to provide users with detailed intelligence about the state of the business.
These processes include:
- Data mining
- Reporting
- Performance metrics and benchmarking
- Descriptive analytics
- Querying
- Statistical analysis
- Data visualization
- Visual analysis
- Data preparation
Bebefits of GIS/BI
- Monitor key business processes
- Manage an organization’s performance
- BI data gives a cohesive view of an organization’s information needs to identify and prioritize critical initiatives
- Impart operational knowledge instantly
- Data Visualization
- Increase analytical and decision-making capacity
Business Intelligence
The combined use of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and Business Intelligence today is helping businesses operate and improve productivity, and cut costs like never before. Applications that connect GIS and BI allow companies to track employees, assets, and equipment, and to collect and interpret data in real time to make informed decisions.
Laura Tate
BI unlocks the value held in the business’s disparate data depositories by turning it into knowledge and insights, and delivering it to whoever needs it, when they need it, where they need it, and in the format they need it in.
GIS technology’s ability to integrate data from different business units and source Application systems by using this location element as a common denominator. More over, GIS also provides
significant advantages in spatial analysis capability and visualisation of information to show patterns and trends.
From logistics to construction and marketing, the added layer of geospatial data on existing BI helps in these business cases: Insurance, Sales force management, Manufacturing, Real Estate, Product Delivery, Fraud Detection.
Fraud detection: By using geospatial analysis software, credit card issuers can validate transactions by mapping the user’s location. For example, if a payment was made with the card in one country while the user is located in another, GIS can trigger an alarm about a suspicious transaction.
Market share estimation and resultant calculation of internal and external market potential to inform sales targets and estimate up and cross-sell opportunities to existing clients.
Manufacturing supply chain management: Thanks to the graphing and network mapping capabilities, GIS helps to quickie identify problems in product supply and reroute production to another facility to avoid bottlenecks.