Don Murray is cofounder of Safe Software and has spent his career helping organizations bring life to data to make better decisions.
How many times a day do you think about the word “where”? It likely happens more often than you may realize.
In our personal lives, location is foundational. We are always somewhere, everything is always somewhere and every event happens somewhere. We want to know where our favorite brand just opened a store, where we’re going out for dinner or where our child is going for their playdate. The “where” is everywhere. However, when it comes to embracing data-driven strategies, businesses are only just starting to leverage the power of “where.” Until now, most spatial data has been a missing piece in data strategies.
Spatial data—also referred to as location data—uncovers new information that empowers businesses to be more efficient, save costs and better serve their customers. In other words, spatial data can help reveal new trends and relationships that can ultimately inform business decisions.
Beyond supporting business success, spatial data is definitely not a missing piece when it comes to facing some of the major challenges we are facing on the planetary level. Societal issues such as lack of housing, food shortages and climate change all have a huge spatial component.
Spatial data has become increasingly available to businesses and government bodies alike, and there is much more that can be done to leverage its power. As we continue to experience the explosive rise of spatial thinking, how can we best take advantage of it? Let’s explore.
What It Means To Embrace Spatial Data
Adding spatial data into your data and analytics strategy can be as easy as embracing some of the information that’s already in your databases. You can start with your customer addresses, for instance. Each address represents a location. There is nothing like seeing your data spatially for the first time. Are your customers clustered? Without looking at the locations, you would likely never know. If they are clustered, then why?
You get the idea. Seeing things spatially results in a whole new set of questions. Now, you’re not just aware of the who, what, when and why—you also get visibility into the where. Visualization is just the beginning of your spatially powered, actionable insight journey.
Spatial Data In Practice
So what do spatially enabled insights look like in practice? Let’s look at a few examples.
Brick-And-Mortar Locations
One common use of spatial data in the retail sector is to inform the location of brick-and-mortar store locations. Retailers can use spatial data, such as customer addresses, to understand where potential customers are clustered or to analyze foot traffic to determine how best to set up a physical store. Similarly, they can use the addresses of online shoppers to determine the most cost-effective location for a warehouse or distribution center.
Detecting Fraudulent Insurance Claims
Insurance companies use spatial data to help detect fraudulent claims. For example, if a flood has taken place in a certain region of a city, they can leverage spatial data to create a boundary for the claims and quickly determine if a claimant’s address falls inside or outside of that boundary. Spatial data is also used to define “flood plains” as living in or out of a flood plain affects insurance premiums.
Improving CRM Lists
Many municipal services benefit from using spatial data. Take Waterford City and County Council in Ireland, for example. Recently, the organization, which is a customer of Safe Software, decided to spatialize its customer relationship management (CRM) list, giving them a much better understanding of where the ticket hotspots were. With this information, they have been able to better allocate their resources and be more proactive, increasing their ticket solve rate by 25%.
Election Information
Waterford City and County Council’s GIS and data transformation team has rolled out an election hub that will support citizens during election season, providing information such as directions to the nearest polling station and the local electoral map.
Other spaces that leverage spatial data include urban development and precision agriculture. In Vancouver, tall buildings strategically cluster near transit hubs, reflecting planned growth. Likewise, spatial data drives efficient, sustainable food production, crucial for addressing food security.
At the Gartner Data and Analytics Summit 2024, EY demonstrated how agrochemical providers used satellite imagery to detect corn rust early, enabling targeted treatment distribution. This ensured efficient resource use, timely access for farmers and minimized food supply chain disruption. Both examples showcase spatial data’s transformative power, improving urban planning and agriculture while enhancing sustainability and efficiency.
Taking Steps To Implement Spatial Data
You may only just be getting started with incorporating spatial data into your business model—but that shouldn’t make it overwhelming. Here are three things you can do in the early stages of your spatial data journey.
First, identify the spatial data that you currently have and explore how to leverage it. Every customer address in your database is a “location” that just needs a geocoder.
Second, follow up with a small focused use case that will deliver value. The first time you see your data on a map, you will likely have an “aha” moment as you uncover relationships and other information that was previously hidden.
Third, look up third-party resources. There is a wealth of free spatial data available, such as OpenStreetMap, USGS, U.S. Census, Natural Resources Canada and more. Many cities and governments also have open data initiatives available. Leverage these resources in ways that make sense to your business. Once you get started and have that initial success, you are well on your way to a spatial data future.
Final Thoughts
The applications for spatial data reach far, wide and deep. Applying spatial data to many of today’s problems can help bring new insights, revealing information that was previously hidden, and the world is just getting started.
Spatial data helps us understand things we wouldn’t have otherwise. In today’s hypercompetitive business landscape, I believe the organizations that are embracing the power of “where” have a great advantage.
Forbes Technology Council is an invitation-only community for world-class CIOs, CTOs and technology executives. Do I qualify?
This post was originally published on here
