News
 Connecting
the Dots: Why Geocoding is Critical for Businesses
By Bud Walker and Abby Garcia
Telleria, Melissa Data Corp.
Many companies have found
geo-location or geo-targeting technology to be of
value in Internet advertising. Pay-per-click search
engines like Google and Yahoo offer the ability for
advertisers to deliver targeted advertising banners
based on the location of the website visitor's IP
address.
For marketers, geocoding is critical in targeting
specific demographics. Appending demographic census
data to latitude and longitude coordinates helps
marketers target the right demographics - those who
would be most likely to respond to their offer or
marketing message.
Insurance companies are relying increasingly on
geocoding techniques to help set premiums and make
underwriting decisions based on the physical
location of the insured property. Take Hurricane
Katrina and storm-surge damage, for example. Most
insurance carriers have their own set of rules and
criteria when it comes to underwriting, such as
property elevation and determining the distance of
the property from/to the coast. Such an imprecise
standard may leave carriers insuring properties that
may not be situated in a flood zone, but are
actually in a storm-surge zone - where the flood
exclusions in their policies would not apply.
"With mapping applications in such widespread use,
companies have a need to translate existing address
data to their respective lat/long coordinates," says
Bud Walker, product manager for Melissa Data, a data
quality and geocoding service provider.
"The benefits of high-accuracy address geocoding are
manifold and serve a diverse set of applications
such as market segmentation, demographics, spatial,
dispatched services, nearest location queries, sales
districting and zoning, tax jurisdictions,
elections, etc.," says Walker.
A Web Shoe-In: Geocoding as a Store Locator
One of the most widespread uses of geocoding
technology is in store/dealer locators. Businesses
use geocoded data to ascertain proximity to
potential customers, distance to suppliers and
competitors, service areas and delivery routes.
You've probably experienced a locator lookup
yourself - maybe to find a restaurant, pet shop or
the Sprint Nextel store nearest your home or
business.
However, to adequately serve its 52 million
customers, Sprint Nextel often has multiple stores
located within the same ZIP Code™. So which
neighborhood store is closest to a particular
customer's home? Using a geocoding solution to power
the Store Locator on its website allows Sprint to
turn the street addresses of its stores into usable
locational information - so customers can actually
determine which store is closest in relation to
their home address.
But what if the address is wrong? Without accurate
addresses, it would be difficult to obtain accurate
geocoding. For instance, a geocoding application
might not recognize the difference between 123 Elm
St. and 123 S. Elm St., which could be two totally
different addresses located miles apart. A bad
address diminishes the accuracy of a store locator -
it's the biggest reason why some store locators get
it wrong.
That's why businesses are more proactive about
integrating routines for address verification with
their geocoding initiatives.
Dansko - the footwear manufacturer and distributor
known for its popular "stapled clogs" - successfully
integrates address verification technology as part
of its geocoding solution.
Dansko distributes its footwear to more than 3,500
retail locations. The company sells its products
through specialty retailers and online shoe venues.
Dansko uses an address verification API to validate
and standardize its retailers' contact data, which
include each store's address, city, state, phone
number and ZIP Code. The footwear manufacturer wants
to ensure that its retailers' information is uniform
and correct before it geocodes the data. Once the
addresses are verified and corrected, Dansko uses a
geocoding solution to append latitude and longitude
coordinates - allowing the company to zero in on the
exact location of each retailer's store.
The company's website - Dansko.com - features a
"Find a Store" lookup function, which enables
shoppers to locate Dansko retailers by entering a
ZIP Code or city. After typing in the ZIP Code or
city, the "Find a Store" function will do a radial
search from 10 to 50 miles and display a listing of
local retailers that sell the Dansko brand - right
down to the shoe style and color level. To do this,
Dansko checks its shipping history to see if a set
minimum quantity of a particular shoe/color was
shipped. This would mean that the retailer carries
the shoe in its inventory.
By integrating address verification and geocoding
technology into its website, Dansko creates a more
enhanced and personalized experience for online
visitors and drives foot traffic to its retailers'
stores.
It's all in the Delivery: Geocoding as a Routing
Tool
The use of geocoding applications as a
delivery/routing tool has proven to be a necessary
component for businesses that rely on having their
products delivered on time and to the right
location. Geocoding also enables companies to
perform route sequencing technology, which
calculates the most time-efficient, optimal way to
deliver or visit multiple locations.
For snack foods giant Frito-Lay, the use of
geocoding technology is vital. Frito-Lay utilizes
geocoding techniques to ensure efficient delivery of
its consumables and manage and control the flow of
goods.
Frito-Lay uses geocoding technology with its routing
application to zero in on the precise location of
its vendors' addresses - and doing so has helped
increase the rate of accurate deliveries by 80
percent.
Obtaining precise geographic information is also a
must-have for the same-day delivery industry. Just
ask CXT Software. The Phoenix, Arizona-based courier
software and mobile resource management technology
firm wanted to increase dispatch efficiencies by
determining the exact location of its delivery
personnel.
CXT Software integrated a geocoding solution into X
Dispatch, its flagship product. X Dispatch is an
enterprise-level software application that allows a
dispatcher to see the active orders and drivers on
the same screen. The software applies advanced
algorithms to the geocoded location of each order
and driver, which allows the dispatcher to select
the best driver for each job.
"Geocoding allows the quick plotting of the address
on a map," said Lyndon Edmonson, chief financial
officer for CXT Software. "Distance, whether it is
from a map or some other algorithm, is more quickly
ascertained with latitude and longitude than other
methods. Precisely knowing where a pickup or
delivery is, and where the driver is, increases his
proficiency and aids in his ability to make good
dispatching decisions."
Based on a recent analysis report, the company's use
of geocoding technology improved a customer's
overall operations; revenues jumped 7 percent,
online orders increased 25 percent - while costs
dipped by 4 percent.
Wherever You Are, There You'll Be: Geocoding as a
Local Search Tool
Other businesses use geocoding technology to deliver
more relevant content to online visitors, to create
better relationships with Web visitors and to
improve customer satisfaction and retention rates.
By offering more relevant content to the site
visitor, retailers can prevent - or at least
decrease - website and transaction abandonment.
HelloMetro - a global network of city search guides
- provides website visitors with the ability to
identify local restaurants, hotels, businesses and
attractions in targeted ZIP codes and neighborhoods
in all major cities in the U.S. This is the power
that geocoding provides. HelloMetro's "hyperlocal"
searches are powered by Maponics, a custom mapping
and GIS data company.
The "hyperlocal" search functionality gives users
more relevant information about a specific
neighborhood or ZIP Code - right down to a map,
local reviews and contact information.
Businesses require the highest level of accurate
locational information available. Using geocoding
technology can help a business answer fundamental
questions, such as: What is the geographic area we
serve? Are our sales territories and client clusters
properly aligned? What are missed or overlooked
areas where potential clients might exist? By
geocoding client data you can see patterns emerge
and create new opportunities for businesses.
Utilizing a geocoding solution can help businesses
strengthen customer relationships, improve
profitability and increase effectiveness - all of
which are critical in expanding business in a down
economy.
---Source: Melissa Data (www.melissadata.com). This
article was originally written for and appeared on
the Directions Magazine website.
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Market
smarter by adding the
latitude/longitude coordinates
to a street address
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are powered by Tele Atlas –
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of freshness and accuracy for
the location data you need to
develop a store locator lookup,
pinpoint customer clusters, or
define sales territories.
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