Why Aren’t Small and Medium Businesses Using Geography to Make Money?
May 7, 2007 2:51 pmFiled in Business Thought, GIS
By now nearly everyone with a TV or a computer knows about Google Earth. It has brought a previously unknown technology—geographic information systems (GIS)—to the mainstream. It is helping fuel a geographic awakening in society where it is becoming easier to find things by their location in the world. So why aren’t small and medium businesses using geography to make better decisions and more money?
The technology and knowledge exist to help the local lawn care company or pest control outfit route it’s 5 or 10 or 15 car fleet. FedEx and UPS do it every day. The problem is that all of the tools are designed for FedEx and UPS and none are designed for Joe’s Lawn Care, Inc. But Joe could cut his fleet costs by 10%-15% if he used a routing tool.
Why doesn’t Joe have access to a simple tool that he can use to find the largest properties in town so he can target them for his next promotion? Or a map of medium to high-income family homes that he can use to plan where he should do business (because doing business all over town means a big gas bill)?
Even in today’s global and virtual economy, location is critically important to the operational success of 99% of all businesses. So, why aren’t small and medium businesses using geography to make money?
IT’S TOO HARD!
The problem is that the big guys in GIS technology—ESRI, Microsoft, Google and MapInfo—have built enterprise class systems (and great ones at that). But what small business need are focused, task specific tools that are dead simple to use and inexpensive (read no new computer or software to buy, install and maintain). Over the next 60 days we’ll be rolling out simple tools to help the Joe’s and Jane’s running the world’s small businesses leverage geography. We’d love to hear how you think location affects your business. Please leave us a comment below.
May 18th, 2007 at 4:50 pm
Hi Steve, I enjoyed your presentation at the Conference at the Cape.
A huge problem with small businesses getting involved in any technological issue is capital. My husband Michael and I map underwater cave systems for the state of Florida and other non-profit agencies. Purchasing mapping tools such as ESRI’s excellent products don’t make sense to a niche “business” while there are still free or much cheaper (albeit much less modern)softwares available.
Many small business owners are intimidated by the technological aspects of these products (although I was able to very quickly learn ArcInfo for my “day job” at a County Property Appraiser’s office). They are very excited, but don’t have the faintest idea where to begin.
Your website is a great step in the right direction - thank you.
May 18th, 2007 at 5:30 pm
Sandy,
Thanks. I’m glad you were at the presentation. I had a lot of fun doing it. Your comment is right on the money (pun intended). The commercial GIS tools are too expensive and have too much of a learning curve for small business to adopt them. The benefits of GIS have to be brought to smaller organizations in a different way. SMB owners are smart. They’ll use a new tool if it makes them more competitive. Traditional GIS needs some scale before it really provides a cost benefit to a business.
Thanks much for the comment and stay tuned as we continue our little experiment.
Steve