Business Areas of GIS

Public Utilities

The availability and efficiency of public utility systems are of prime importance to society today. A GIS system can make life easier by providing an efficient administrating system, to keep track of demand, supply and availability and to plan delivery systems. Each of these systems depend primarily on geographic factors and what better than a GIS system to handle these tasks for you.

GIS in Telecommunication

Geography is an essential component of the telecom industry. The geographic component is apparent in the following parameters of telecom industry customer addresses, area codes, signal coverage, antenna locations, ZIP Codes, satellite orbits, outlets, VARs, corporate accounts and Internet servers just to name a few. What better system than the one that is truly geographically enabled, GIS to harness the data potentials of this important industry. GIS can organize, analyze and provide solutions to any of your problems.

Transportation and Navigation:

Some of the most frequent questions asked in daily life are How far….?, Where’s the nearest…..?, Where are my customers?, which is the best way…? and so on. Maps provide the most obvious answers and a technology that incorporates maps and data together is the need of the hour, GIS is here. We can help you develop decision support systems, fleet management systems, logistic/routing solutions and dispatch and delivery systems.

The various techniques and technologies include:

• Global Positioning Systems (GPS)
• Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL)
• Computer Aided Design (CAD)
• Routing and Distribution Electronic maps
• In vehicle navigation
• other data sets

GIS can change the way you operate reflecting in reduced costs, improved margins, better control and to identify and retain customers.

Government/Infrastructure

GIS in Natural resources

Any type of industry which is dependent on the earth for its produce will profit from a GIS package. The whole scenario can be mapped into the following

• Exploration Land usage
• Production Analysis
• Transmission/distribution network
• Facilities management Business/retail Areas
• Environmental Issues

These issues can effectively handled by GIS. The ability to put things pictorially has a dramatic effect. One begins to see connections and possibilities previously unseen and unexplored.

In the area of oceanography the possibilities of GIS are enormous. Navigation is an area that is entirely dependent on maps. If these maps are automated with attributes such as ocean currents, wind movements, weather information and accurate knowledge of location the work of a ships captain becomes easier. This can also be useful for any shipping company whence they will be able to know where every ship of theirs is , what speed it is moving, the projected route and destination date.

With the advent of oil tankers the problem of oil spillage is not far behind. The analysis, planning and response can be achieved with a great degree of ease and sophistication.

Agriculture

GIS is essential in the planning and improvement of crop productivity. It encompasses the primary components like weather forecasting, land management, contour mapping, and disaster management. With this help, analysis of the data pictorially proves to be a tremendous asset. The marketing section can benefit from accurate marketing projections and sales analysis. Agricultural insurance companies can use the productivity data and frame favorable policies.

The primary areas of interest are

• Production trends
• Evaluation of crop insurance policies
• Management of flow of goods(via trucks, trains and planes)
• Marketing, operations and distribution
• Management of equipment
• Warehouse management (Inventory)

The usage of GIS increase productivity and reduce costs

Forestry

GIS can provide comprehensive solutions in the area of forestry chiefly

• Conservation of flora and fauna.
• Disaster management.
• Strategic and road planning.

Conservation of flora and fauna

The need for accurate information is essential for the protection of rare plants and endangered species. A GIS application can pinpoint the areas of interest and put it in perspective. It will help determine conservation priorities for species and rare plants. We can determine the areas of common interest and take the necessary steps on protecting them. Presently there is no visual representation of these data the impact and understanding of this visual representation is enormous.
GIS is a real boon to both our ability to manage the data in the sense of seeing what's happening on the landscape, to understand what's going on with the plants and animals, and also in our ability to convey that information and that understanding to the required authorities.

Disaster management

One can never be relaxed under the ever present threat of fires. A forest fire knows no boundaries or areas, it just rips through. The knowledge the direction, location, rate of spread, intensity, and burned areas of the forest fire is of paramount importance for long-term fire management planning and effective counter measures. Even the direction of the resulting smoke can be devastating for smoke sensitive area. GIS technology can help forest authorities to control the fire and prepare counter measure well in advance.

Strategic and road planning

Forest authorities can with the available data of soil type, landscape models, type of vegetation, rain forecast, geographic location of the area in question and related points can see how the forest will look like 5 years, 10 years and even 50 years in time.
The knowledge of the above parameters can also help in the planning of roads with emphasis on the contours and vegetation of the region. GIS provides the ideal solution for the above two.

Business Applications

The world as we know it today is much ‘smaller’ than it was a decade ago. Geopolitical barriers are falling by the day, and as far as your business is concerned it is a global market out there. Market shapes are here to stay and change dynamically. The only way to make it into the future is with a technology that can let you keep track of these changes.

GIS is a technology that can revolutionize the way you do business. GIS technology allows you to interpret your business information in a whole new dimension, through maps, and discover relationships you didn't know existed.

GIS can answer questions such as:

How can I better serve my customer?
Where are the best markets?
Is the competition growing?
Where should we allocate advertising money?
Which sales territories are under-performing?
What are the best fields for expansion?
Where to locate new sites?

GIS technology can be used by any business or industry, including:

• Banking/Finance
• Consumer Goods
• Direct Marketing
• Health Care Insurance
• Real Estate/Facility Acquisition
• Restaurant/Fast Food
• Retail
• Automotive
• Business Associations
• Business Services
• Database Services
• Food/Beverage
• Manufacturing
• Small Business
• Travel/Tourism

A GIS is a tool for managing business information of any kind according to where it's located. GIS can help you

• keep track of where customers are located
• site businesses
• target marketing campaigns
• optimize sales territories
• model retail spending patterns

A GIS gives you that extra advantage to make you and your company more competitive and successful.
A GIS enables you to better understand and analyze your data by creating graphic displays using information stored in your database. Not just better, even easier.
With a GIS, you can change the display of your geographic data by changing the symbols, colors, or values in the database tables.
GIS lets you visualize and analyze information in new ways, revealing previously hidden relationships, patterns, and trends.

Finance Industry

A financial service organization’s primary function is to deliver financial services and products to the financial customer. Financial institutions today are certainly market driven and market responsive. The success of such an institution depends on its approach to data management, geographic modeling and long range planning. The geographic implications of the products, services and customers of a financial institution are enormous. It dictates the use of a complex data handling and analysis system. GIS is the answer.

Areas a financial institution are involved in can be:

• Products and services including credit cards, trust, mortgages, brokerage, demand deposits, time deposits, savings and non traditional services/mutual funds.
• Delivery and distribution systems including commercial service centers, retail support centers, full service branch offices, ATM’s and self service branches.
• Departments including branch administration, marketing, facility managed branch operations, commercial lending, trust and treasury mortgage lending.
• Financial data that determines the profitability of products, services and the delivery and distribution systems.

Each of the above basically means data built upon customer data resulting in a complex data system We can help you in the collection and organization of this data and in the creation of a spatial decision support system.

Insurance Industry

The insurance industry is perhaps the best prospect for corporate wide implementation of GIS systems. GIS can aid the insurance industry by integrating various types of demographic information such as crime rate, natural hazard, epidemiological and property data for applications in target marketing, sales territory planning, sales history performance, risk analysis and risk potential.

Many professionals within the insurance industry can benefit from the integration of spatial data powered by GIS. Using geocoding methods, just having a basic idea of the location of customers can aid marketing managers in determining the concentration of certain policy types and to seek a market for additional ones.

The advantages of using GIS are not just in finding new customers and servicing the existing ones but also in cost containment. From planning to operations, marketing and sales to risk assessment, GIS technology allows users to make informed decisions.

Commercial Real Estate Industry

The real estate industry is in need of an analytical tool that can handle enormous amounts of data which is not only from disparate sources but also location specific. The key elements of GIS technology is not only in its visual capabilities but more importantly in its data integration capabilities. Hence it can perhaps answer the needs of the real estate industry better than any other technology today. GIS can be used effectively not only for external marketing but also internal decision making.

The potential GIS applications in this field are numerous including

• Brokerage Appraisal
• Mortgage underwriting
• Market ranking
• Development
• Corporate real estate
• Property inventory
• Asset management and others.

The computer revolution has made its inroads into the real estate industry too. Spread sheet modules, database management systems, business graphics packages, word processing programs and other types of software is widely used in the real estate industry. GIS technology today have real time two way communication capabilities with these software tools and databases. Further as a stand alone technology, GIS integrates the function of these tools to come up with comprehensive and efficient solutions to meet the demands for a data intensive location specific analytical tool.

Health Care

Geography plays a crucial role in the health care industry. The health care industry is inherently geographic sensitive. The location of facilities, providers, prospective patients, concentrations of high risk groups and so on and so forth dynamically affect the community and the efficiency and economics of this industry. GIS has the potential to improve efficiency and profitability as well as the community’s well being. GIS can not only help planning containment strategies but also developing awareness programs and carrying out prevention policies. GIS can determine areas of need and help improve the quality and availability of health care service. GIS applications in this area include

• Locating facilities
• Utilization, market share and service area analysis
• Tracking infectious diseases
• Developing containment strategies
• Emergency health care delivery systems
• Identifying locations of high risk factors and groups
• GIS is the solution to those seeking to provide and improve the delivery of health services.