New book
Business Intelligence for Location-Based Data
Turning Geographic Data into Strategic Business Decisions
William L Hughes, Founder, CDX Technologies
A practical guide to geographic data analytics, geocoding, routing and location intelligence, written for the people who make business decisions rather than GIS specialists.
Available in Kindle, paperback and hardcover editions.
Every business operates in physical space, yet most business analysis ignores location entirely. Customer lists hold addresses that are never geocoded, and territories are drawn without drive-time analysis. This book is a practical guide to closing that gap.
It is a broad overview of the location intelligence landscape, not a product manual. Drawing on decades of work at Hughes Financial Services and CDX Technologies, it explains the concepts, compares the tools and shows how geographic data drives real decisions. CDX products serve as detailed case studies because they span spreadsheets, web platforms and APIs, but the methods apply whichever tools you use, from Excel and Google to ArcGIS and QGIS.
What's inside
- Part I: Foundations
- Location-based business intelligence, geocoding fundamentals, routing and distance analysis, geographic access analysis, and the demographic and Census data that give an address its context.
- Part II: Tools and platforms
- The tool landscape by deployment model: desktop GIS with ArcGIS and QGIS, Google Maps Platform and web mapping APIs, spreadsheet-based analysis, web platforms, developer APIs, and how to choose an architecture.
- Part III: Applications
- Marketing and campaign targeting, retail site selection and trade area analysis, supply chain and logistics optimization, and healthcare and service access analysis.
- Part IV: Advanced topics
- Building location-aware applications with APIs, integrating location intelligence into everyday workflows, best practices and future trends, common pitfalls, and the strategic role of location intelligence in modern organizations.
Appendices include a glossary of location intelligence terms, example implementation workflows, an industry use case summary and suggested reading.
Who it's for
No GIS background or computer science degree is needed. The book is written for:
- Business analysts, especially those working in Excel
- Marketing professionals targeting campaigns by geography
- Compliance teams demonstrating access to services
- Operations and logistics leaders
- Developers integrating geocoding, routing and demographics
- Executives weighing an investment in location intelligence
- Data scientists adding geographic features to models
- Consultants advising on site selection and market analysis
About the author
William Hughes has worked at the intersection of enterprise software and business analytics for nearly four decades. He founded Hughes Financial Services in 1987, building data management and analytics systems for major investment firms and Fortune 500 companies, and went on to found CDX Technologies on a simple principle: analytical tools should meet professionals where they already work. He holds a degree in Electrical Engineering from Cornell University. See About HFS.