Geography matters in business intelligence

Geography is a major part of business intelligence. As the folks at Environmental Systems Research Institute put it, "Geography Matters". In our work, "where" is often the first question. Who, what, why, how, and how much quickly follow, but "where" is usually central, along with the corollary, "how far?". For example,

• where to put the next store?
• where are the best customers or prospects?
• where are the competitors, and how far are they from your best performing stores?
• how far can the new sales territory boundaries be from the nearest distribution center?
• where are the high-value neighborhoods being under-served by your retail network
  

Check out this Wikipedia entry for a bunch of resources explaining how government, science, and business sees and uses geography, and how demographics relates to geography: where. The still curious will find a useful glossary of geography terms

Of course, who and how many are just as important. To get a start on these questions, visit www.DemographicsNow.com or check out the US Bureau of the Census population estimates page for a look at the Bureau's view of current population characteristics of the US and its geographic and political subdivisions.