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What are the right steps to start building a useful GIS project?

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Question added by Mohammad Yosry Moussa Alshafe'y , Resident Engineer , Bluehaus Group
Date Posted: 2015/02/22
Jose Ismael Jaspe
by Jose Ismael Jaspe , Senior Geomarketing Strategist , Consultant in Geomarketing and Strategic Business Planning

 

Hello Mohammad,

 

GIS in itself shouldn’t be the project but rather the tool. Organisations use GIS (geomarketing for that matter) to answer common questions such as:

 

  • Where are the hot spots for our product?

  • How big the market is and what kind of growth can we anticipate?

  • Where are the best sites to build a new shopping centre?

  • How can we optimize our retail store distribution network?

  • Shall we open a store or a showroom in a downtown location or at a suburban mall?

  • Which markets warrant the most marketing and sales resources?

    Regardless of the line of business, when a company decides to integrate GIS into their decision-making process, I would recommend to work with an independent geomarketing specialist at:

 

  1. Defining the business objectives and the scope of the project:  what is it that we want to accomplish by adding GIS analytics?

  2. Writing down the roadmap to meet the objectives, including different checks and balances along the way

  3. Selecting and cleaning the data that you want to integrate (i.e. your own customer data, sales projections, customer segmentation) and making sure it is all in a uniform format that can be geocoded.

  4. Purchasing up to date data at a geographic scale that matches the objectives of your analysis and that is still cost-effective (i.e.: country level vs. street level).

  5. Allowing enough time and resources to properly deploy and integrate the use of GIS as part of your business processes and organizational culture.

    I hope this helps,

     

    José      

 

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