Location Analytics In 2017: What We Know So Far

Location analytics in 2017: what we know so far

Location analytics is becoming an increasingly integral resource for companies across all industries, according to Dresner’s authoritative new ‘2017 Location Intelligence Market Study Report‘.
The study looks at the impact of location analytics on the market as a whole, specific industries and corporate roles.

How important is location analytics?

In terms of overarching business operations, 43% of respondents surveyed cited location intelligence as ‘very important’, with a further 20% stating the practice was critical.

According to the results, major companies across all industries are deploying location analytics towards a whole myriad of ends, including:

  • Expansion planning
  • Property performance oversight
  • Resource optimisation
  • Logistics
  • Supply chain planning
  • Management
  • Warehouse management
  • Transportation network management

The survey concludes that the growth of location intelligence is – in part – being driven by the widespread uptake of complementary technologies that provide extensive location-related data points.

This includes better-known tools, such as Big Data and the Internet of Things (IoT). However, location analytics was ranked comfortably higher than both in terms of overall importance.

Who relies on location planning the most?

Location analytics is a highly adaptable technique that can be deployed across a wide range industries and departments.

These are the industries and departmental subdivisions found to rely most heavily on location analytics in 2017:

Industries

The energy and transportation industries were found to be the industries that place the greatest emphasis on location intelligence.

Dresner’s report surmises that this is because both industries have the following things in common:

  • Large-scale assets
  • Complex distribution networks
  • Service level agreements (SLAs)

This is also true of other industries, such as financial services, telecommunications and healthcare.

Location intelligence is being used regularly for retail-oriented operations, and the scope for application and industry improvement is immensely broad. However, this study has shown that there is still ample room to gain competitive advantage by deploying location analytics in retail.

Staff

The staff types found to place the most importance on location intelligence across all its potential functions were:

  • Executive management
  • Research & development

Executive management are now using location intelligence to increase operational efficiency and plan new areas for expansion, making it integral for business planning and decision-making.

Marketing and sales staff were also found to be frequent users, especially when it comes to transposing large datasets onto map-based visualisations. Marketers and sales staff can use location intelligence to stretch promotional resources further and target potential customers with bespoke marketing communications.

Here’s Dresner’s overview of how location intelligence is being deployed by various staff types:

USE
Dresner’s study confirms just how integral location intelligence has become for businesses in 2017. But, such potent performance from location intelligence is hardly a surprise given its vast array of potential applications.

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