Top managers and technologists from organizations from around the world—including The Wendy’s Company; JLL; and Miele, Inc.—will meet at the Esri Business Summit to discuss how they apply location analytics and GIS to their business challenges.
Wendy’s Chooses Location Analytics
John Crouse, director of real estate services for The Wendy’s Company, will be one of the summit’s 23 featured speakers. He will discuss how the second-largest (by sales volume) quick-service hamburger chain in the United States is gaining better insight from its data and improving collaboration among departments by folding location analytics into many different areas of the organization.
There are more than 6,500 franchise and company-operated Wendy’s restaurants in the United States and in 27 countries and US territories worldwide. The company worked with Esri partner GISi to integrate Esri Location Analytics into its corporate IT system, streamlining its reporting and market analysis workflow for restaurant development. Now, an intuitive mapping interface provides staff with easy access to Wendy’s proprietary restaurant information and demographic, competitor, and business data for any of the existing chain locations and prospective sites.
“Demographic data and location analytics are critical components when making investment decisions to build new restaurants,” said Dennis Hill, vice president of real estate at Wendy’s. “Now everything we need—including mapping, analytics, and modeling—can be done on one platform that is scalable across our organization.”
With location analytics, Wendy’s can also incorporate its proprietary sales forecasting model into the decision-making process when managers need to figure out where to open new restaurants and where to close or relocate others.
JLL Creates a Global Location Enterprise
Dr. Wayne Gearey, senior vice president financial and professional services firm JLL, which specializes in commercial real estate and investment management, will talk about how his firm uses GIS and location analytics. This technology democratizes information, he says, and improves the accuracy and timeliness of decision making for everyone throughout the organization, no matter the level of management or what questions need to be answered.
JLL solution’s MapIT is based on Esri technology and delivers real-time, accurate location-based data and analytics to support real estate location and investment decisions. Upper management, researchers, and client support staff can drill down into a centralized content library via interactive Esri Story Map apps, embeddable web apps, interactive quarterly reports, and solutions created for individual clients. This ensures all stakeholders get a complete, up-to-date view of the company’s transactions everywhere they do business.
“What we provide is not just a map for the company [but also] data for different business centers from teams that have a common interest to produce something in a timely manner,” said Gearey. “We’ve gone from being a siloed company to being a truly connected company on a global scale, thanks to Esri GIS and location analytics.”
Miele Finds Hidden Opportunities
Matt Kueny, a senior business analyst in sales at Miele, Inc., in the United States will explain how his company helped a dealer increase sales by 70 percent using Esri Location Analytics. The manufacturer of high-end kitchen appliances and vacuum cleaners was able to focus on specific segments of the marketplace, pinpointing customers to help this dealer be more successful.
“Location analytics has been an important tool to help us navigate the American economy in the last few years,” said Kueny. “Just because someone might have the income to spend on one of our products doesn’t necessarily mean they are a realistic target for our brand, based on other lifestyle variables. Using Esri technology, we have been able to better analyze patterns and share this information with our dealer network so we can get the needed item to the customer.”
Location analytics helped Miele better benchmark and gauge how well its network of dealers was performing, along with future market potential. This allowed Miele to offer more products in more places and ensure the company closely matches market segments and opportunities. Esri Business Analyst Online enables Miele to analyze, prepare, and communicate key marketing activities to its network of dealers so they can work together to maximize sales. Sales have risen across the United States—for example, one Orange County, California, Miele dealer achieved 70 percent growth in sales over the previous year.
Kueny will show summit attendees how they, too, can combine business information with location analytics to better understand customers, analyze markets, and take advantage of profitable opportunities that aren’t always evident otherwise.
Going Beyond Business
Managers and directors from both public and private organizations are welcome to attend the Esri Business Summit and share in this unique learning experience.
“The summit is not just for business GIS users—it’s for everyone who is in the business of analytics and applying spatial context to their work and mission,” said Simon Thompson, Esri director of commercial industry and summit emcee.
Gregory Miller from the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) will offer insight into how public and nonprofit organizations can use GIS and location analytics.
Miller, GISP, an American Institute of Certified Planners certified planner (AICP) and GIS analyst at ASPCA, will talk about how his nonprofit was able to use location analytics with small teams to make a big impact.
ASPCA uses Esri software in its effort to decrease the number of animals that get turned in to shelters each year. By understanding where these animals come from and the sociodemographic makeup of local households, ASPCA hopes to create programs that help keep animals safe in those communities.
New this year: Esri is inviting statistical agency managers to the summit. A Statistics track breakout session will feature Paul Cheung, former director of the United Nations Statistics Division, and key executives from other national statistics offices (NSOs). There also will be moderated panel sessions, technical talks, user paper presentations, and a special interest group meeting offered during the summit.
Learn more and register today.
