Location intelligence

Location Intelligence is the capacity to organize and understand complex phenomena through the use of geographic relationships inherent in all information. Applied in a business context, the outcomes are meaningful, actionable and can provide a sustainable competitive advantage.

Similar to competitive Intelligence, the use of location explicit information has been seen as an optional practice. Now popularized by business to consumer (B2C) applications, location Intelligence is experiencing rapid acceptance as there is confirmation that the value of location intelligence may be regulated by established laws and ethics depending on the specific geographic entities and scale under which they are scrutinized.

The term location Intelligence is often used to describe tools and data employed to geographically “map” information. An over-emphasis on technology and data limits the capacity to fully generate meaningful intelligence. The creation of location intelligence is directed by domain knowledge, formal frameworks, and a focus on decision support.

Location Intelligence is also used to describe the integration of a geographical component into Business Intelligence processes and tools, often incorporating Spatial Database and spatial OLAP tools.