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Find your edge
With geospatial analytics, enterprises are integrating a new dimension of insight.
by Scott Gnau
"Who Moved My Cheese?” Dr. Spencer Johnson’s 1998 best-selling book, tells the story of mice that, after doing the same thing over and over, get accustomed to the same result—finding cheese at the end of a maze. One day, however, they follow the prescribed routine only to discover their cheese has been moved, and they don’t know where.
This fable has broad implications and parallels in the business world. First, being surprised by change is not a good thing, and second, the location of your business’s “cheese” is really important. Increasingly, Teradata customers are expanding their use of geospatial data, which shows them where their figurative cheese is and will be, as well as how to reach it.
Another dimension
Many organizations are embracing location and spatial extensions to analytics. Location intelligence (LI) offers new opportunities for enterprises that effectively integrate location and spatial information with their traditional analytic data. In so doing, they add a new, solvable dimension of “where” to their traditional business analyses of “who,” “what,” “when” and “how much.” Two market factors are driving an accelerated adoption of these extensions:
- Fast integration of sensor technologies is creating an unprecedented amount of detailed and real-time data, which now includes locations. Consider cell phone, automotive and PC technology, all with embedded GPS technology for consumers, or expanded radio frequency identification (RFID) deployments in the retail and healthcare industries. Suddenly, various devices are generating discrete and actionable location information. When integrated with traditional types of analytic data, it can provide for higher-order decision making, optimization of distribution and, ultimately, profitable customer experiences.
- Spatial applications are proliferating. Heat mapping to optimize customer flows in retail, for example, has demonstrated great value. Early adopters are looking for the next level of integration with their analytic data—such as the ability to optimize customer flow for high-value market baskets—to create better business decisions. Like most paradigms in the data warehouse industry, integration of these applications with the enterprise data warehouse (EDW) not only yields extended and better decision-making capabilities but also reduces costs by eliminating duplicate data stores and the management of separate, stand-alone marts.
Find the cheese
As always, Teradata leads the way, in this case by enabling its customers to incorporate LI for better decisions. We are helping drive adoption of location data and spatial algebra with the release of Teradata 13. In this release, we added extended functions supporting more spatial analytics. At the same time, we introduced major performance enhancements for all location data and spatial operations. This makes it easier than ever to add the “where” dimension to your EDW.
Analytics and business intelligence (BI) are key tools for enterprise leaders to embrace change. Explore extending your analytic reach by integrating spatial information into your data warehouse. Doing so will empower you to fully answer your “where” questions. So unlike the mice in Johnson’s tale, you won’t be caught off guard. Instead, you’ll know exactly where to find your cheese and where it will be tomorrow.
Scott Gnau is chief development officer of Teradata.
Photography by Robert Houser