Tag Archives: bao-only
A Different View of Your Neighborhood
by Jim HerriesI’m trying to convince a friend of mine that it’s time to sell the house and move to an area closer to work. To compare the potential new neighborhoods, I sent her this map available from ESRI’s new Mapping for Everyone site.
This map is like a satellite image of factors at work in the local economy. Want to know how your neighborhood stacks up to the surrounding areas in terms of median home value for 2009? What is the unemployment story around your neighborhood? This is a glimpse at just a few bits of demographic and consumer data that ESRI has available.
Each year ESRI publishes selected demographic maps in ArcGIS Online, to make them available so people out in the real world can think about how to use this data. My friend saw this map and the light went on: “I’ve been thinking about that area.” Seeing the spatial patterns helped move the conversation forward.
While business users of GIS have found this type of visual presentation useful for years, a lot of interest is building in other areas, such as public safety and emergency response. It makes sense – if you want to plan ahead about how best to serve the public, it really helps to have current information on where the people, housing and businesses are.
Esri Data – Going Green
Green is the new black. From reusable bags at the supermarket and energy efficient appliances to hybrid cars and recycling, we are all trying to do our part. Esri Data can be used to identify some interesting trends in our efforts to be green.
The U.S. city with the highest likelihood to buy foods labeled as natural or organic is Telluride, Colorado. That city boasts a Market Potential Index (MPI) of 217. An MPI compares the demand for a specific product or service in an area to the national demand for that product or service. The index is tabulated to represent a value of 100 as the overall demand for the United States. Therefore, the MPI of 217 in Telluride means the demand for food labeled as natural or organic is 117% higher than in the U.S. The city of Mount Healthy,Ohio has a much lower index at 64, falling below the national average.
Telluride, Colorado also ranks very high in the likelihood to participate in an environmental group with an MPI of 284. However, the number one spot is held by Bonanza, Colorado with an MPI of 297. Helper, Utah has an MPI of 84, meaning demand to participate in environmental groups is 16% lower than in the U.S. as a whole.
Finally, Warm River, ID lays claim to the highest MPI for recycling products in the last year at 192. Green, Ohio has an index of 119, making them 19% more likely to recycle than the U.S. Both Sodaville, Oregon and Glassport, Pennsylvania have an index of 90 for recycling products in the last year.
To perform the above analysis, I took the Market Potential data in comma delimited format and imported it into Excel to perform sorts and searches. Esri Data can be utilized in this manner, or the data can be analyzed in reports or thematic maps on both Business Analyst Online and Business Analyst Desktop. For more information about Esri Market Potential data please visit http://www.esri.com/data/esri_data/market-potential.html
Stay tuned for more examples of how Esri Data can reveal trends in going green. And until then…keep reducing, reusing, and recycling!
Esri Data featured in Forbes study: America's Most Stressful Cities
by Catherine Spisszak
Chicago may have Wrigley Field and deep dish pizza; but, according to a recent study by Forbes magazine, the Chicago metro area is the most stressful city to live in the U.S. Los Angeles, California; New York, New York; Cleveland, Ohio; and Providence, Rhode Island round out the top five.
To conduct the study, Forbes examined unemployment figures, cost of living, median home prices, weather and population in the forty largest metro areas in the country. The population density figures used in the study were provided by Esri.
To read the article or view the full list of cities, visit America’s Most Stressful Cities.
I hope your city isn’t too high on the list!
What's New in Business Analyst Online
by Brenda Wolfe
The latest update of Business Analyst Online released this week contains some much-anticipated features. You can check out the full list of new features on the Business Analyst Online Resource Center, but here are a few highlights…
Comparison Reporting
New comparison reporting helps you to directly compare the market characteristics of multiple locations. In addition to pre-supplied reports, you can also create and save custom comparison reports with variables of your choosing. All reports are easily exported to Excel for further analysis. View the how-to video to learn more.
With Comparison Reporting, you can:
- Compare multiple trade areas.
- Compare sites to the geographies where they are located.
- Benchmark a successful site to see how other sites compare.
- Use average or median values for site comparison.
- View comparison charts and tables of popular income, population and housing variables.
- Create your own comparison report by choosing from hundreds of variables, then save your report for future comparisons.
- Export comparison reports to Excel.
Normalized (Percentage) Variables in Color-Coded Maps
You can choose to view variables as a percentage of the population in addition to the actual values. This allows you to see where relatively large concentrations of a variable are present. You can easily toggle between variable values and percentages–even after the map has been created.
Points over Color-Coded Maps
You can see how locations relate to demographics, consumer spending, and business data by importing them over color-coded maps. This is a great way to uncover trends and patterns. You can own custom symbols to represent the locations in ways meaningful to you. For example, you could use different map symbols for different types of businesses in the market.
All-In-One PDF
You can access all of the reports in an order via an all-in-one PDF. This makes viewing and sharing multiple reports easier.
Dates for Satellite Imagery
The Satellite imagery in Business Analyst Online is updated on a quarterly basis. However, each image that comprises the satellite layer has a specific date for which the photo was taken. Turning on the Image Dates toggle, under the Satellite map, will display the date for the imagery at the center of the map. You can query any location on the map to determine the date of the imagery.
More Reports Added
The Dominant Tapestry Site Map, Site Details Map, Site Maps on Satellite Imagery and a Traffic Map – Close Up are now available. The Dominant Tapestry Segment Map provides a color-coding of the dominant consumer segments in the marketplace.
Stay tuned for more Business Analyst Online updates as they develop.
Cheers!
Esri Data – Fantasy Football Time!
by Catherine Spisszak
Football fans…your wait is over.
The start of the 2009 football season is upon us. But more importantly, so is the start of the 2009 fantasy football leagues. Our 2009 Market Potential database includes data for Participation in a fantasy sports league in the last 12 months, so I thought it would be interesting to analyze the indexes across the country.
Counties shaded dark red indicate high demand, with indexes of 121-159. Counties shaded dark blue have very low indexes, ranging from 36 to 57, well below the U.S. average. To create this map, I simply loaded a comma delimited file into Business Analyst.
Residents of Radford city, Virginia have the highest likelihood to participate in fantasy sports leagues with an index of 159, 59% higher than the U.S. average. Forsyth County, Georgia comes in second with an index of 155, followed by Sherburne County, MN; Elbert County, CO; and Loudoun County, VA.
My county (Lehigh County, PA) has an index of 108. I am doing my part by participating, and was even lucky enough to draft Adrian Peterson (…so let’s just hope that he doesn’t get hurt, because I don’t have much of a team without him).
Esri has added more than 200 new products to its 2009 Market Potential variable list. To see which items were added and learn more about this database, please visit http://www.esri.com/data/esri_data/market-potential.html
Comparison Reports Are On The Way in Business Analyst Online
by Brenda Wolfe
Dear ArcGIS Business Analyst Online customers, if you have been waiting for comparison reports, your dreams will soon come true. The next release of Business Analyst Online in early September will offer robust comparison reporting capabilities.
With Business Analyst Online’s comparison reporting, you will be able to…
- Compare multiple sites to see which are better than others
- Compare sites to the geographies in which they are located
- Compare sites to a benchmark site, geography or summary statistic
- View comparison charts and tables of popular variables on the fly
- Create your own comparison report by choosing from hundreds of variables, then save your custom report for future use
- And export comparison reports to Excel
I will leave you with this juicy bit of information for now. Look for additional detailed blogs to come.
Brenda
ESRI Data featured in Crain's New York City Facts
by Catherine Spisszak
Esri Data is showcased in a recent edition of Crain’s New York City Facts.
This online article provides very interesting facts about New York City, including which neighborhoods are expected to grow the fastest over the next five years due to good schools, rehabbed housing and new shopping.
Click here to check out the entire article: crainsnewyork.com
Supply & Demand: The knowledge you need in the Retail MarketPlace Profile Report
by James Killick
In these trying economic times it’s especially important to understand the local characteristics of the marketplace before you make a decision on where to invest in a business. In many cases I wonder if people perform even the most basic market research.
Take Redlands, CA for example: a town of some 69,790 people according to our 2009 data update. There are some eight Sushi restaurants (as well as eight Thai restaurants) in this one, relatively small city. This is on top of the many, many other restaurants in town: over 100 in the case of Redlands.
Could there really be a market for this many restaurants?
Out of curiosity I decided to take a look using the new version of ESRI Business Analyst Online. Using Business Analyst Online I was quickly able to select the city and run a Retail MarketPlace Profile report. This is an extremely valuable report in that it gives you a picture of the supply and demand for specific goods and services within your area of interest.
Using this report I was quickly able to get a picture of what was going on: there is a great deal more supply for eateries than the citizens of Redlands demand. In this case: $42,000,000 per year more supply than demand. Now in the case of Redlands this may not be a bad thing. It means that this little historic city can (and is) attracting people from outside the city to come eat at its restaurants, bringing more tax dollars to the city.
However, when I look at the other details of the report one particular line item catches my eye: a dirth of supply for electronics and appliance stores. And it’s true: I’ve lived in this city for almost 5 years now, and every time I’ve gone out to purchase an appliance or a piece of electronics I’ve had to go out of my way to other cities.
So check out the Retail MarketPlace report – it’s one quick way to understand your market.
Note to any prospective restaurant owners though: we’re well covered for raw fish in this town!
-James
Thematic Mapping of Normalized Variables in Esri Business Analyst Online
by Brenda Wolfe
With the next release of Esri Business Analyst Online at the end of this month, a new thematic mapping feature will be available within Color-Coded Maps. Users have been asking for the ability to map normalized variables, and now they will get their wish. Users will be able to map variables as regular values or as percentages.
For example, below is a map of 2009 Family Population. As expected, New York, California and Texas are highlighted as having high Family Population. In fact, for just about any available variable, New York, California, and Texas are the highest simply because they have the largest populations.
However, if we plot 2009 Family Population as a percentage of the Total Population, you can see some shifts. New York is now in the second to lowest category and Utah and Idaho have moved into the top category.
ESRI Business Analyst Online users will soon be able to select normalized versions of variables from the variable selection menu within the Color-Coded Maps tab. A percentage-number toggle indicates witch variables have both types of values for mapping.
Once a variable is mapped, it is easy to toggle back and forth and watch the map dance by using the same toggle switch on the legend.
Look for this feature at the end of August. It really makes the data come alive.
Cheers!
Esri Business Analyst at the 2009 Esri User Conference
by James Killick
I just wanted to say a big “Thank You!” to everyone who dropped by to see us at the recent ESRI User Conference in San Diego! This year we had more technical workshops, more demos (& more meetings) than ever.We were obviously very excited to talk about the all our new products, including the new ESRI Business Analyst Online and the 9.3.1 release of ESRI Business Analyst Desktop.
Speaking of which – Business Analyst Desktop 9.3.1 is shipping – so start to look out for the boxes arriving on your doorstep sometime next week or early the following week.The new 2009 ESRI Data update that’s included with the product should be reason enough to look at upgrading as it captures the unprecedented economic changes that happened in 2008 and continue in 2009.
We’re also hard at work on updates for ESRI Business Analyst Server 9.3.1 and releasing some significant new features in Business Analyst Online. Some of you may have been lucky enough to get a sneak peek at the User Conference. In addition we’re putting the finishing touches on the new API for Business Analyst Online and hope to have it generally available in the next few weeks.
The 9.3.1 update to our Address Coder product is also shipping. For those of you that don’t know, ESRI Address Coder is a super useful and high performance tool for enriching your customer lists with demographic data and Tapestry segmentation, giving you whole new ways to slice and dice your data in your favorite BI software.
If you didn’t get the a chance to catch up with us at the show, or ask that question you meant to ask, just let us know!
-James.
