Why are organizations using web map analytics?

Organizations and companies are using web map analytics to collect new datasets, and uncover useful insights, that help forecast trends, identify correlations between asynchronous organizational efforts, and understand their users’ preferences in detail.  

The degree to which businesses and organizations can capture and analyze their own data is far beyond what they were able to do even ten years ago. However, geospatial analytics requires a special infrastructure and a respect for the data science process. Conventional business intelligence (BI) tools that are used to analyze structured data, which is numerical data that can be organized into tables like spreadsheets, do not properly translate to analyzing complex geospatial datasets.

It’s becoming more apparent that the benefits of having a structure to analyze geospatial data is incredibly valuable to those who invest in them. It helps companies manage projects, keep track of their success, and increase general accountability and transparency. Moreover, it helps teams make quick, informed decisions and build out geospatial systems that satisfy all stakeholders requirements.

Transparency with geospatial projects

When we chat with organizations that are looking for insights into their geospatial data, there is inevitably some fear. Because data tells us things we may not want to hear. For example, you may have thought that the map you built last quarter would drive X amount of traffic, but the data tells a different story. Or perhaps you thought that a single map containing park trails, garbage collection routes and no parking zones would be intuitive for most users to interact with, but your garbage collection route layer is only activated 1% of the time. 

That’s why it’s important to implement transparency with any project, and take the data to heart. Doing so demonstrates an acknowledgement to change, to act and to react to what  those insights are. 

Companies that invest in geospatial analytics at every level empower their geospatial team to make more informed choices and provide better experiences. 

But this alignment is impossible if only analysts have access to said data. The solution? Ensure that everyone is comfortable with using analytics in their decision-making. When data flows transparently within an organization and everyone understands how to use it, analytics helps inform every decision, strategy and empowers every team member.