Faced with an increase in consumer usage of web maps by media companies, governments, and businesses, the demand for analytics for web maps is increasing dramatically. As internal stakeholders within an organization increasingly request for better insights into the millions of geospatial datapoints they are collecting, this creates a complex challenge because making the necessary changes to adapt have technological obstacles, organizational processes to work through and involve people.  

Very few organizations dependant on geospatial data believe they have a useful way to conceptualize and properly express that data in a meaningful way. But that doesn’t mean finding success with analytics can only be accomplished by few companies with abundant resources. There is, in fact, a clear path to becoming analytically driven that any committed organization can follow. 

Properly integrating data and building useful insights from said data into your organization starts with the right technology. The tools you choose should work with one another and should be accessible to everyone in the organization, not just your geospatial specialists. By empowering your team, everyone can act quickly. 

Identify stakeholders across the organization.

Implementing analytics into your organization that aren’t traditionally found will require identifying stakeholders that would benefit most from the metrics provided. Seek out data architects, governors, geospatial analysts, developers and business leaders to build an analytics team who can glean insights from data and act upon them. To make data a top priority, you should integrate your analytics team within every part of the business. 

Promote an analytics-informed culture.

To successfully adapt, organizations typically need to change their internal culture-and it starts at the top. Leaders should broadcast the decisions they’ve made based on informed data-driven insights, so that employees at every level understand how the use of analytics can serve the organization’s goals. Access to analytics should be encouraged, and collaboration should be promoted across departments and include talent across IT, geospatial, marketing and technology groups. 

Let data inform your decision making.

An advantage to having analytics for your web maps is the ability to quickly and accurately measure how your visitors and users engage with them. Digitally sophisticated organizations are intimately familiar with the most important metrics for their applications, which create most value, and how to manage them intelligently. They’re able to identify specific audience segments, and combine different types of data to create a holistic view of the user journey. They can discover valuable insights to align their data strategy and their geospatial strategy. 

Achieving this is attainable if organizations are willing to make necessary changes to their people, processes and tools. If your company hasn’t already embarked on this journey, now is the time to take the first steps. Check out our interactive dashboard to understand how web map analytics can help your organization become more data centric. The dashboard displays the top metrics organizations use to track web map visitor interactions and web map performance.