Market research
GIS is particularly useful for getting to know your customers. One company that has found an enormous market in this field has been Loyalty Management Services (LMS), which manages the ubiquitous Nectar card scheme and has partners ranging from Sainsbury's and Dulux to BP and the AA.
LMS uses GIS to analyse catchment areas for its sponsors. In conjunction with traditional marketing tools, such as surveys and leaflets, the technology allows LMS to present information such as customer loyalty and buying habits in "heat map" form. When combined with time-based information such as the opening of a competitor's store in the area or seasonal variations, the result can bring to life who's buying what, where and when.
LMS even puts maps on the letters it sends to Nectar card-holders moving house. The maps detail shops local to the new residence where loyalty points can be earned. Speaking at the annual Association for Geographic Information conference in London in September, LMS's client insights director Koos Berkhout claimed some customers were even using the maps to tell friends where they had moved to.
Mobility and CRM
GIS could also become an integral part of customer relations management (CRM) as work patterns become more flexible, according to Paul Greenberg, the author of CRM At The Speed Of Light.
"The real value proposition comes in with mobility — not just pretty ways of looking at data," says Greenberg. "Businesses understand that people do personal things in business, that they go home and continue their work. That means the acceptance of things such as devices that have specific platforms on them, for example a Blackberry using AppExchange from Salesforce."
Salesforce's latest update lets users create "mashups" — customisations of its analytical tools using custom-built components and those from other companies — and chief executive Marc Benioff recently attributed this development to the "heavy lifting" done by Google and others.
Collaborations between operators and device developers are starting to make a difference in field services, says CRM specialist Greenberg. He describes a scenario where dozens of field workers are deployed around a city with GPS-enabled devices: "You can zoom in and choose one or two and see what they're up to. It's phenomenally well done, in real time. Field services is a place where GIS is already being used and it is maturing."
However, Greenberg also warns that ubiquitous functionality is needed if GIS is to become integral. "Data points associated with maps make life easier," he says. "If I can do this when I need to know geographic information about a business I'm about to go visit, or if I can contact all my technicians, then it makes my life and job easier. GIS becomes important to the population when it satisfies the requirements of the individuals within it. If it's something that you don't think to do then it might be cool but it won't last."
Talkback
Bedfordshire Council uses GIS:
When you phone their call centre to report faulty street lights, they quickly check the ID number of the light against their GIS and confirm the location.
Strangely, when you phone BT about faults on their street equipment, they have no access to maps or GIS. On one occasion I persisted but the BT rep. could only access free internet maps: These lacked the necessary detail.