Business Models for Geographic Information Systems

Gis to Support Business Decisions

Spatial information can assist in decision making. Decision support systems (DSSs) are in widespread use to guide managers, analysts, and specialists by recommending the optimal decision. A spatial decision support system (SDSS) does all this and includes spatial boundary layers, spatial modeling, and analysis features.

An example of an SDSS is a large insurance firm that insures for property, casualty, and workers’ compensation. It can decide how much insurance exposure is allowable at a single location, conduct risk analysis to analyze properties for property insurance, and make spatial decisions in the event of catastrophes. When Hurricane Katrina struck in 2005, the insurance firm used government and commercial topographic and flood maps to model the depth of water in the affected metropolitan areas and better predict the subsequent extent of damages.

Enterprise Applications of GIS

Large and mediumsized firms often use an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system that integrates into one system the firmwide processing for marketing and sales, customer relationship management (CRM), finance and accounting, human resources, manufacturing, inventory, and supply chain. GIS software can be connected to the ERP system to provide spatial analysis capabilities. Although ERPs embed GIS as a feature, most of them allow connection with GIS through remote function calls (i.e., the ERP invoking functions from the GIS and vice versa), third-party connectors, and/or middleware. Chico's, a medium-sized women's apparel chain, has integrated enterprise CRM with GIS. CRM features enable personalized customer care, which tracks customer shopping patterns spatially and forecast by geographic area, based on historical georeferenced sales information—that is, how customers would respond to a promotion. The advantage of connecting ERP and GIS is that there is a much greater amount of attribute information from the functional areas of the whole corporation available for spatial analysis.

Web and Mobile Spatial Applications for Business

An expanding aspect of GIS in business is Web-based and mobile-based spatial applications. For a Web-based architecture, one or more spatial Web servers combine with application and data servers to provide mapping capabilities to browser-based end users. This has the advantages of a service area worldwide, greater ease of use, and improved access for users. However, this architecture requires that the business either acquire and support the servers and spatial networking architecture internally or make often costly arrangements with an outside provider to provide it. For instance, Lamar Advertising, one of the largest outdoor advertising sign firms in the world, combines its own server information with a commercial spatial Web service to provide 2D (two-dimensional) and 3D maps of prospective sites to its U.S. sales managers, who in turn use these maps in sales presentations to customers and their advertising consultants. It allows Lamar managers to gain easy access to maps and more quickly respond to sales opportunities.

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