Learn how geospatial intelligence can drive performance improvement for key business KPIs

Last year, the Google Maps Platform team commissioned global market intelligence provider International Data Corporation (IDC) to survey over 1,300 business leaders to understand the impact of geospatial and location intelligence on key aspects of business performance. Spanning eight countries, the survey looked at the impact of investing in location and geospatial technology, data, or capabilities. 

The survey revealed that companies that are using geospatial and location intelligence are reaping benefits including increased revenue and productivity, and reduced costs. Furthermore, the data uncovered that geospatial intelligence is helping businesses to provide more personalized and location-aware experiences for customers. From an operational standpoint, businesses are using geospatial data to optimize logistics, transportation and asset management, leading to greater efficiency. 

Utilizing key highlights from the survey data, the Maps OnAir webinar, titled "Global Location and Geospatial Intelligence Insights" with guest speaker Lynne Schneider from IDC, highlights that in today's data-driven world, geospatial intelligence is becoming an increasingly valuable tool for businesses. Survey respondents reported using geospatial and location data to achieve a variety of goals, including improved business decision making and streamlined operations.

"For me, one of the biggest highlights of this research was the proof that organizations who implement location and geospatial technologies and capabilities are able to improve on metrics that matter to them."

Lynne Schneider

Research Director, Location and Geospatial Intelligence at IDC

Here are a few key takeaways:

Identify the key performance indicators and focus on the end goal 

By identifying the business priorities and how the impact will be measured, companies can correlate their geospatial investment with their business improvements. For those businesses that have already incorporated geospatial and location intelligence, the positive impact is clear: 51% of survey respondents reported that location and geospatial investments led to a significant improvement of 15% or more in KPIs.

Geospatial intelligence can be used for a variety of use cases 

Businesses are continually finding new ways to use geospatial intelligence. Some of the most common use cases identified by survey respondents included managing facilities, analyzing business patterns or trends, and tracking or locating assets. But other newly emerging use cases were also identified such as enabling a mobile workforce and pursuing new markets. For example, organizations that reported using geospatial intelligence to pursue new markets did so to maximize their competitive advantage, and increase revenue and productivity, with 30% reporting very significant (20%+) improvement in their KPIs.

Businesses report using more geospatial data and driving increased productivity

Of respondents that have incorporated geospatial intelligence, 66% are reporting that they are using more internally sourced location data, and 72% are using more externally sourced location data versus one year ago. The apex is being able to analyze and interpret the most salient data to continually improve business operations. While improved productivity was the most common performance improvement KPI selected by business leaders who took the survey, financial metrics such as increased revenue and cost savings were also highly important.

By utilizing geospatial products offered by Google Maps Platform, businesses can make smarter decisions about their locations and customers, while ultimately driving productivity, revenue, and cost savings.