GIS Mapping

What is Geographic Information System (GIS)  Mapping?

A geographic information system (GIS) stores geographic data, typically with map creation as the key end goal. Geographic data points stored in the system can be used alone or paired with customer or organizational data to analyze and interpret the information in a useful way.

Can your business benefit from a GIS mapping solution? The probability is high given the usefulness of geographic data across a number of functional areas, including – just to name a few – business operations, logistics and sales processes.

How Does GIS Mapping Work?

There are numerous ways your business or organization can use geographic and related demographic data. Additionally, our mapping tools feature options for map customizations.

There are four key components to mapping with geographic data:

• Data
• Analytics
• Maps
• Display

Data is the driving force behind creating your own custom maps. The first step is to locate your sources for data collection; depending on your purpose for using GIS software, you may pull data from CRM software, public records or a range of other sources. This data is analyzed and captured by the system and the maps are created from the analysis of the data.

In addition, there are different types of maps that you can make, each of which has a unique purpose. The most notable map types include:

• Quantity map
• Category map
• Heat map
• Cluster map
• Bubble map

Some businesses may only need to utilize a certain type of map, whereas others may need to create multiple types of functional maps to improve their overall business operations.

What Can GIS Mapping Be Used For?

At Geographic Enterprises, we understand the need for organizations to be able to personalize their GIS mapping software. We allow you to create your own GIS maps based on your organization’s needs and preferences. For example, our clients use map functionality to perform market analyses, identify environmental changes, create seasonal sales routes, and discover franchise opportunities. These are just a few examples of how to utilize intelligence garnered from visual mapping tools. Get creative with your data and mapping functionality and get a jump on your competitors.

Performing Market Analyses With GIS Mapping

Every business should have an in-depth understanding of their industry and their individual market within their industry. With our mapping tools  you can create maps that highlight market data based on location.

Our mapping software allows you to create a quantitative map (also called a choropleth map), which color codes areas based on how many sales are made in a certain area. For instance, the darker areas on the map could indicate an area where more sales are taking place, thus allowing you to focus your marketing and sales efforts more heavily inside that specific territory.

Additionally, you can use our mapping tools to highlight and analyze market data, sales information, and more. Rather than reading market information on paper and attempting to discern meaning, you are able to visualize it, allowing you to process the data more accurately and efficiently, enabling you to make the most informed and responsible business decisions possible for your organization.

Identifying Environmental Changes With Strategic Mapping

Certain business types must be able to identify environmental changes. This helps in site selection, logistical planning (determining optimal routes), resource management, climate change analysis, deforestation analysis, infrastructure changes and more. Examples of industries that may find this particularly useful include:

• Franchise
• Healthcare
• Manufacturing
• Real Estate
• Technology
• Transportation

We are transitioning into a future in which businesses are required to consider the environmental impact of their business operations. This means the importance of identifying environmental changes and making business decisions accordingly will continue to increase, and it is essential for some industries (and all businesses in certain states) to be able to make wise decisions that factor in environmental changes to avoid fines. This is, of course, in addition to the ability to make more profitable decisions and decisions based on efficiency through our GIS mapping software at Geographic Enterprises.

Use Mapping to Create Seasonal Sales Routes

The most notable benefit of sales route optimization is the ability to create sales opportunities with prospects in the most efficient manner possible. However, sales route optimization also ensures your sales representatives understand the most ideal sales opportunities that are available to them and where attention should be focused.

Geographic Enterprises helps you take route optimization a step further by enabling the creation of seasonal sales routes. This allows you to break down your sales routes and understand how sales patterns vary based on the season. This is integral to changing sales trends throughout the year due to alternating weather and other seasonal considerations.

Use Mapping to Discovering Franchise Opportunities

If you are planning for business expansion by adding additional locations, then GIS mapping should be your first step. Find the necessary data about sales information, zip code demographics, population density, market analyses, competitor data, logistics and more. Being able to interpret this data by viewing it visually ensures you select the most appropriate location.

Often, a successful expansion opportunity is reliant upon the ideal location. The best marketing efforts and the most qualified employees may not be enough to overcome a poorly planned geographic location for your expanded business. Geographic Enterprises strongly recommends GIS mapping for franchises and companies who wish to expand into new territory in the future.

What Are The Benefits Of GIS Software?

With mapping tools from Geographic Enterprises, receive up-to-date map data, lower energy and fuel costs, encourage cross-departmental collaboration, and improve company-wide decision making. The exact ways in which your organization will benefit from strategic mapping depends on the specific purpose of the mapping software. This review provides a general overview of the benefits our clients often report when using our software to improve their business processes, sales strategy, logistical planning, franchise expansion and more. You can also contact us directly by phone or message to learn more about the specific ways our mapping software and tools can benefit your business.

Receive Up-To-Date Map Data

One main purpose of GIS mapping is to capture changes in sales data, the environment and demographics. With mapping solutions from Geographic Enterprises, your organization receives up to date map data which can be analyzed for your organization’s benefit, keeping you ahead of the competition and making informed decisions about your business operations.

If there are demographic changes from one year to the next, the geographic information system picks up these changes and implements them into the mapping display. This lets your company avoid making decisions based on outdated or misleading data, which could lead to sales and business process choices that are ineffective for your business.

Lower Energy And Fuel Costs With GIS Mapping

With our mapping suite of tools, learn new ways to optimize your logistics. In addition to improved customer service and ensuring deliveries are made on time, you can also lower energy and fuel costs. Optimized delivery routes reduce the number of miles your organization makes during deliveries, cutting the cost of fuel.

This also improves employee morale by making everyone’s job easier, especially for transportation managers and delivery professionals. When choosing GIS mapping with Geographic Enterprises, employees and members of your organization can access the maps anywhere and at any time, which means they are not required to come into the office if they work from home. This can cut down energy costs at your company as well as improve the morale among your employees.

Encourage Cross-Departmental Collaboration

All of your departments will have easy access to mapping display tools and information, and company employees can access the information wherever they are. This allows your organization to collaborate across departments, allowing for smooth and efficient business processes.

This collaborative process may also help with employee relations, ensuring your employees across different departments are able to effectively work together, reducing the risk of internal disputes among employees. Most notably, however, is the ability to formulate detailed and data-driven processes and sales strategies based on the information displayed in the GIS map. Virtual or in-person meetings can be arranged to discuss the mapping strategy and the data it displays to determine how to optimize sales efforts and to plan routes and logistics.

Improve Company-Wide Decision Making With GIS Mapping

When making business decisions, organizations should do so based on relevant market data and sales analysis. GIS mapping enables your company to make informed decisions that affect your entire organization. This is particularly useful for franchises or companies that have multiple branches.

Whether you are looking for ways to improve communication and transport across business locations, create customer segments and marketing plans based on geographic data or selecting your next franchise location, being able to access mapping data and visualize in a manner that is easy to understand is integral to long-term business success. The fact remains that all areas are different and understanding the road systems, landscapes, environmental changes, demographics and other key information allows your business to operate efficiently and with an advantage over the competition.

Speak With The GIS Mapping Software Experts At Geographic Enterprises

At Geographic Enterprises, we understand that IS mapping may require further explanation, given the broad definition and various means of application. If you have any questions about GIS mapping, we are glad to answer them for you.

You can reach our GIS mapping professionals at Geographic Enterprises by calling (888) 848-4436 or contacting us online. We take pride in helping our clients grow and thrive as a business through GIS and other business and sales territory software and services. If you are ready to take your business to the next level through the utilization of GIS mapping, contact our professionals today to get the process started. Interested in another kind of mapping software? We can help you do business mapping, GIS mapping, set up a mapping API, online mapping, and sales territory mapping among other things.