With geographic information systems (GIS), organisations can now drill down into the various layers of information, contextualising data on an 'atomic' level, the company says.
According to Cassim Parak, CEO of e.com institute, GIS is increasingly forming part of business intelligence (BI) toolsets. This integration offers an intuitive way of processing and comprehending BI, enhancing an organisation's ability to analyse and identify critical trends and patterns.
This is particularly beneficial to entities such as governmental departments, which require the ability to incorporate regional with geospatial data. Says Parak: "BI is traditionally associated with a flat type of reporting; however, if you add visualisation such as GIS to it, the information undoubtedly becomes easier to understand and interpret."
"With GIS and the resultant visualisation, you are exposing information in presentational way. Essentially, it allows you to look at large volumes of data at a glance - a picture is worth is 1 000 words is a very applicable axiom in this context."
Parak says government is often pressed for time and needs to make quick decisions. By presenting BI in a GIS format, better and quicker decisions can be made as the information is visualised.
Says Parak: "We believe the latest BI versions will embed GIS, which will grow in maturity. However, users will find there are still instances where BI and GIS don't integrate completely, but the newer releases will remedy this."
Standalone GIS solutions offer limited data capability, while other GIS vendors do integrate some BI functionality. According to Parak, this is attractive to the lower end of the marketplace, as it is more affordable. "These packages, however, really adhere to the immediate needs of the organisation and not future reporting and planning," Parak concludes.
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