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location analysis

Location analysis for service delivery planning in the public sector – 12th Nov

In Archived Events0 Comments1,660 Views

Date: Tuesday 12th November
Time: 10.00 for 10.30 to 1.30
Venue: Chamberlain Room, Birmingham City Council, Council House, Victoria Square, Birmingham, B1 1BB

How to find the venue:

Attendees should approach the Council House building via the front entrance middle set of doors – you can’t miss them as they have stone pillars around the doors. Enter the building, up the initial staircase to the security guard, who will point you to the room, which is on the first floor.

Official start time is 10am. If people arrive very early, there is a Starbucks next to the building.

Please download the
Council House Map and Directions here.

A very huge thanks to everyone who made this event a really interesting and worthwhile debate. A lot of hard work and planning went into getting this regional event organised and we hope to do more events like this in the future. We know that you, our members, really value regional events but we will need all your help in future to help us attract more delegates to regional sessions. Not least because it’s a shame when members miss out on such valuable and interesting learning and debate.

Special thanks to our hosts, Birmingham City Council for welcoming us to the beautiful Council Buildings and even organising the Christmas market to be set up right outside.

Thanks to our brilliant speakers who all spoke from the heart about very different subjects and approaches, but it was encouraging to see that there were also many similarities to the challenges faced.

We would also like to thank Bob Barr for standing in at very short notice to present on behalf of Blair Freebairn and Sarah Hitchcock of GeoLytix. Bob gave us his spin in Open Data, the innovations GeoLytics are using to bring you free open data for many, many fascinating data sets and how the future might look.

Finally thank you to those who attended. We were a little thin on the ground with far fewer than we normally expect to our events but it was a lovely cosy atmosphere with some good debates, questions and networking.

Download presentations here:

We are pleased to provide copies of all the event’s presentations here:

“Adapting retail location planning techniques for the public sector – Steve Scholey, Customer Intelligence, Hampshire County Council”

“Location planning for delivery of public services in Birmingham –
Zoë Wright, Data Analyst, Birmingham City Council”

“Defining priority areas for Police and Partnership working – Andrew Brumwell, Geo-spatial Research and Intelligence, West Midlands Police”

“Bob Barr of Manchest Geomatics presenting for Blair Freebairn and Sarah Hitchcock of GeoLytix”

Feedback and comments from speakers and delegates

This event received the BEST EVER feedback on the quality of speakers and relevance of subjects. 100% of attendees said the speakers were good or very good and every speaker got 100% score for their presentation. This is the best score we’ve ever had for any event.

As with every session we organise, there is always room for improvement on the event planning and the only regret is that so few managed to attend on the day. We really do want to run regional events for members but would like to see more attendees in the future. We also appreciate how much life and work get in the way, but those who attended on the 12th November had a real treat. Those who didn’t make it really missed out.

“A big thank you to all for hosting a really interesting event. I look forward to the next one.” Andy Brumwell, West Midlands Police

“This is the first SLA event I’ve ever attended and I found it very useful and look forward to attending more in the future.”

“I found it very interesting and the cosy feel really helps with the getting to speak to people. It would be good to attract more people and this does dissapoint a little but we must be mindful of the scale of change in the public sector at present. This will have had a big effect. Many thanks also to the presenters very interesting topics and we can all say we learned something new too. Also thanks to Susan who did a stirling job organising things here at the council.”

“Thanks for organising what was a good, if slightly sparsely attended, event. I thought the other speakers were great!” Bob Barr, Manchester Geomatics.

Agenda

Chair: Steve Scholey, Hampshire County Council

  • 10.00 – Refreshments and networking
  • 10.30 – Welcome and introduction
  • 10.40 – Adapting retail location planning techniques for the public sector – Steve Scholey, Customer Intelligence, Hampshire County Council
  • 11.10 – Location planning for delivery of public services in Birmingham –
    Zoë Wright, Data Analyst and Susan Keung, Strategic Research, Birmingham City Council
  • 11.40 Refreshments
  • 12.00 – Defining priority areas for Police and Partnership working – Andrew Brumwell, Geo-spatial Research and Intelligence, West Midlands Police
  • 12.30 – Bob Barr, ODUG
  • 13.00 – Discussions and close
  • 13.30 Lunch and networking

Speaker synopsis

Adapting retail location planning techniques for the public sector

Steve Scholey, Customer Intelligence, Hampshire County Council

Various case studies and examples. The intention is to focus on methodologies that others might wish to apply in their areas of work.

Location planning for delivery of public services in Birmingham

Zoe Wright, Analyst at Birmingham City Council

Using Birmingham City Council as an example, how the public sector can and does use sophisticated geodemographic (GDIS) tools and localised data to help profile citizens and local businesses, who does and doesn’t use Council services, and the most effective ways to communicate with users, residents and businesses.

Speaker biographies

Steve Scholey, Development, support and promotion of Customer Insight (CI) at Hampshire Customer Insight Partnership

Steve Scholey of Hampshire Customer Insight Partnership
Steve Scholey of Hampshire Customer Insight Partnership
Steve Scholey has been applying location analytics and customer insight across the retail, public and other sectors for 15 years. He has been a member of the SLA since its inception 10 years ago and has been on the committee since April 2010.

Within the public sector, Steve has contributed to DCLG-led projects on provision of customer-facing and waste collection services and to Hampshire projects on usage of libraries, cultural and recreation services, smoking cessation, demand for early years and special educational needs places and assessments of troubled families, children in need and school catchments.


Zoe Wright, Analyst at Birmingham City Council

Zoe Wright, Analyst at Birmingham City Council
Zoe Wright, Analyst at Birmingham City Council

Zoë Wright is an analyst for Birmingham City Council’s Customer Knowledge team, a centralised Customer Insight function.

Her background is in local government, starting in policy support, and now providing geodemographic and data analysis.

She has experience of working on customer segmentation, location profiles, and business data.

She graduated with a MA psychology degree from a Scottish university and moved to Birmingham for work a few years later, and has been here ever since.

Andy Brumwell, Geo-Spatial Intelligence Analyst at West Midlands Police
Andy Brumwell is geo-spatial intelligence analyst at West Midlands Police, UK’s second largest Police Force covering a population of approximately 2.7 million residents. He has responsibility for supporting the Force in the analysis of spatial data for strategic and tactical purposes.

He is responsible for supporting and training analysts and Police officers in the use of crime mapping and geo-spatial intelligence analysis techniques. He is also very interested in the use of multi-agency partnership data.

Andy is vice-chair of the International Crime and Intelligence Analysis Conference steering group. He has contributed to a number of crime mapping and analysis publications including the POP Centre Guide “Crime Analysis for Problem Solvers – 60 Steps” and the UK NPIA guide for crime analysts “Analysis of Geographic Information – Workbook”

He has a BSc (Hons) Geography Degree (Uni of Birmingham, UK) and a Post-graduate Certificate in Crime Prevention and Community Safety at the Jill Dando Institute for Crime Science, University College London (UCL), UK. He is an accredited geographic profiling analyst.

To reserve your place to attend this free event please email info@thesla.org

Location Planning Analyst, Boots, Nottingham

In Jobs0 Comments3,309 Views

Why there’s more to being a Location Planning Analyst for Boots than you might think.

Boots Feel Good logo

The importance of your role

This is your chance to be part of something a bit different.

You’ll be part of helping our customers feel good, every day.

With big plans for the future, we want to be the best Pharmacy led health and beauty retailer in the UK, and your attention to detail will help us achieve this – and we think that’s a great opportunity.

Location is everything to our customers, it affects how they shop and how good we make them feel. It’s not just about expanding as a business but reaching our customers and offering them a variety of fantastic services, and considering how they access them. With over 2,500 stores all over the UK, we’re always striving to do more for our customers – and that’s where you come in.

What you’ll be doing day to day

Joining our Location Planning team you’ll help choose where our new stores should be, demonstrating the benefits of the location, and how it will make our customers feel good. Presenting your own sales forecasts, it will be easy to see why a new site will really add to the business.

Working alongside lots of different departments you’ll help shape our portfolio plan as a business. Considering brand new locations, you’ll assess our sales expectations for pharmacy and retail, inspiring the team with your marketing and analytical expertise.

How will you do it?

Work closely with our Senior Location Planning Analysts you’ll work on different projects, which will add to our impressive, and diverse portfolio, even more.

Getting to know our fantastic Geographical Information System (GIS), you’ll thoughtfully analyse our locational data and insights along with our Advantage Card customer data. Managing the system, you’ll consider the best way our customer data can be looked at and applied to securing brand new sites.

What you’ll need to have

We’re looking for really great people, with a friendly personality. It’s all about working together as one great team – after all it’s our people that are at the heart of our business. It’s a fantastic opportunity to add to your own development within our community of analysts, and a chance to learn more about us as a business. You’ll need lots of great experience in marketing and in analysing data. But it isn’t just about experience and qualifications, we’re interested in seeing a bit more, the real you – and that makes us all feel good.

Click here to apply for the role of Location Planning Analyst

The Southern Co-operative, Store Location Analyst, Portsmouth

In Jobs0 Comments2,586 Views

We are looking for a Store Location Analyst reporting to the Store Location Planning Manager.

The job will be based at our Central Support offices in Portsmouth however the successful candidate will be expected to occasionally travel across our trading area.

The role is to provide a professional site assessment service to support growth strategies for the food retail business.

Key Accountabilities:

  • Research and analyse store location potential using a variety of data sources including proprietary censusbased GIS software, society store performance data, and the internet.
  • Generate preliminary sales forecasts – “Stage 1 desktop analysis” – to inform site selection and investment decisions for new stores, refits and store extensions.
  • Carry out detailed site location analysis – “Stage 2 fieldwork analysis” – on designated development projects.
  • Monitor competitor acquisition activity through local authority websites and other on-line sources (eg Planning Portals, premises licence applications, press coverage), identify and escalate potential threats and opportunities.
  • Undertake ad-hoc research and analysis (deskwork and fieldwork) to support retail development activity, including producing documentation for Board submissions or other presentation or reporting purposes.
  • Provide location analysis to support marketing planning for specific stores – eg tactical promotional mailing.
  • Provide admin and project support to the Head of Retail Business Development and development team as required.

Applicants should possess the following skills and attributes:

  • Competent in the use of geo-demographic market analysis software eg MicroMarketer, InSite.
  • Able to apply a variety of modelling and forecasting techniques to explain and predict store performance including “bottom-up” analysis.
  • A pragmatic approach to combining data outputs with observation and experience to produce sound commercial judgments on site potential.
  • A broad understanding of the retail property market and convenience grocery sector including competitor formats and market trends.
  • Degree level or equivalent qualification in geography, town planning, economics or business studies.
  • Ability to communicate with colleagues from different disciplines and work cross functionally.
  • Good numeracy and computer-literacy, competent in the use of spreadsheets.
  • Good geographical knowledge of the UK retail landscape generally and The Southern Co-operative’s target trading territory in particular.
  • Full UK driving licence, prepared to travel across the south of England on an occasional basis, including overnight stops.

If you have the skills and abilities we are looking for we’d like to hear from you.

Candidates are unable to apply online however can visit www.tscjobs.co.uk and download an application form and send it to Michaela Griffiths, HR Administrator, The Southern Co-operative, 1000 Lakeside, Western Road, PORTSMOUTH PO6 3FE.

Please email your CV and covering letter advising your salary expectations to careers@southerncoops.co.uk

Location Planning Analyst, Morrisons C-Stores, West London / Bradford

In Jobs0 Comments2,439 Views

Morrison LogoWe are currently recruiting for the role of Location Planning Analyst to join our Location Planning Team, as we accelerate our expansion into the convenience market.

Over the past 18 months we have developed the M-Local concept and have now opened 12 convenience stores.

We are now building a team to step change our rate of store openings in 2013 as well as develop the infrastructure and processes suitable for a scaled convenience business.

What will I do?

  • Provide strategic insight to help define the Morrisons network strategy at both a macro and micro level, making recommendations for both new site requirements and existing store developments.
  • Produce detailed analysis in order to formulate sales and impact forecasts and conduct thorough investigation into factors that may affect any recommendations.
  • Work cross functionally to provide key recommendations in the form of Board reports for capital investment decisions.

What skills and qualifications do I need?

The person who gets the job will ideally:

  • be highly analytical and have a good understanding of the key driving factors in location planning and a thorough understanding of the UK retail (preferably food) market, geography and demography
  • have the ability to communicate well, explaining complex issues in a straightforward manner to a variety of audiences
  • be able to cope with a demanding (and often pressured) workload
  • have recent experience of data and spatial analysis in a retail environment and will have a proven track record in sales forecasting
  • have some experience in using spatial tools such as GIS systems and geo-databases such as Alteryx

How do I apply?

Morrisons Local logo

Please send an up-to-date CV to:

Neal Stevenson
Head of Location Planning
neal.stevenson@morrisonsplc.co.uk

Head of Location Analysis at Sainsbury’s, Coventry

In Jobs0 Comments5,831 Views

Sainsbury's logoAs Head of Location Analysis for Sainsbury’s, you will lead the team in delivering strategic analysis and technical process improvements. Playing a vital role in supporting on expansion and investment plans, you will ensure that space development strategies are fact-based, analytically robust and customer-focused. A proven track record of initiating and implementing change in the retail sector is essential, adding value through every aspect of the new space pipeline.

We operate in a dynamic, competitive market and we’re looking for an individual who can develop a clear picture of how new space growth will change the market. Able to challenge, engage and influence, you will lead and inspire a team of technical developers and data analysts to deliver high quality insight into competitor investment, cannibalisation and growth opportunities. You must have experience of project managing new system delivery/databases, with the expertise needed to manage complex 3rd party demographic and retail performance data.

Sainsbury’s is an established retailer with ambitious plans for the future. While we already have more than 1,000 stores, we are still expanding and growing our product ranges in areas such as General Merchandise, Electrical, Entertainment, Energy and Clothing, as well as food. By 2020, 20% of our sales will come from beyond our ‘core supermarket’ business, creating remarkable scope for you to both accelerate and diversify your career development.

We’re the perfect location for career development.

To find out more and apply online, visit sainsburys.jobs or go direct to the Head of Location Analysis vacancy.

http://sainsburys.jobs/vacancy/search?location=&searchString=head+of+location+analysis&careerGroup=&northEast.Latitude=&northEast.Longitude=&southWest.Latitude=&southWest.Longitude=

Location Planning Managers at Sainsbury’s in Coventry

In Jobs0 Comments5,255 Views

Sainsbury's logoAs Location Planning Manager for Sainsbury’s, you will evaluate new site locations, providing sales forecasts and competitor analysis to support our expansion and investment plans. Using the full range of tools and techniques, you will produce robust, timely analysis to support key stakeholders across the business. Excellent analytical skills are essential, with the commercial awareness to bring a clear customer focus to every capital investment decision.

Degree educated, preferably in Geography, Economics or Town Planning, you will have in-depth knowledge of GIS functionality and systems capability, with the ability to challenge, stretch and develop existing methodologies. This is a complex, fast-paced and wide-ranging business, so you’ll also need the vision to integrate data qualitative and quantitative data from different sources, for example: bespoke customer analysis, sensitivities, customer research, financial appraisals and retail feedback.

Sainsbury’s is an established retailer with ambitious plans for the future. While we already have more than 1,000 stores, we are still expanding and growing our product ranges in areas such as General Merchandise, Electrical, Entertainment, Energy and Clothing, as well as food. By 2020, 20% of our sales will come from beyond our ‘core supermarket’ business, creating remarkable scope for you to both accelerate and diversify your career development.

Sainsbury’s is the place to be.
To find out more and apply, visit sainsburys.jobs

Click here to apply for this job online and find out more about Location Planning Manager roles at Sainsbury’s.

Open Data views from our Chair Peter Sleight

In News1 Comment4,067 Views

Those of you who were at the excellent SLA event on 11th September (‘The Locational Data Market’) will have seen Prof. Bob Barr perform; and once seen, never forgotten! Given Bob’s encyclopaedic knowledge of locational data, I think we can see his hand in The Case for an Open National Address Dataset (see Sarah Hitchcock’s blog – ‘The Open Data Group – an inside view’).

Read more

Interesting Innovations in Location Analysis, SLA Forum, London, 23rd Oct

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Date: Tuesday 23rd October
Time: 9.30am registration, 10am start, 4.30pm finish
Venue: CBRE, Henrietta House, Henrietta Place, London W1G 0NB
Nearest tube: Bond Street

This year’s theme, ‘Interesting innovations in location analysis’ has sparked much interest amongst the suppliers in the industry. Below is the line-up for the day. To reserve your place please email info@thesla.org

Agenda

9.30 Registration / coffee
10.00 Peter Sleight – intro.
10.10 Paul Thompson, Pitney Bowes Software – Waypoint
10.40 Mark Thurstain-Goodwin, Geofutures – The Knowledge Garden

11.10 Coffee break

11.40 Ian Abbott, MapMechanics – GeoXploit
12.10 Blair Freebairn, GeoLytics – Innovations in Analytical Data
12.40 Crawford Davidson, MD and Nigel Dodd, Retail Consultant, Telefónica Dynamic Insights – Smartsteps

13.10 Lunch

14.10 Mark Stileman and Sarah Gibbons, Ordnance Survey
14.40 Q&A

15.00 Tea break

15.30 Expert Panel
15.45 Jon Walker Award presentation.
16.00 Networking
16.30 Peter Sleight – close.

Download speaker’s presentations

Download Ian Abbott’s presentation “Advanced drive time analysis with GeoXploit” or read it online: http://prezi.com/mopztiu7eo3h/geoxploit-for-sla-forum/

Download Ordnance Survey’s presentation “Enriching our geospatial data for analytic applications”

Download Blair Freebairn from GeoLytix presentation “Innovations in Analytical Data”

We hope to have the rest available shortly…

Speakers’ synopsis

Geofutures – The Knowledge Garden: where insight grows

Mark Thurstain Goodwin, GeoFutures

Geofutures is an independent technology company specialising in spatial insight and mapping. Spun out from UCL, its achievements include designing and creating the CLG Town Centres statistical series, The Local Data Company’s Town Centre Intelligence application, a series of analyses for the British Council of Shopping Centres, and property valuation models for clients including Transport for London, Grosvenor Estates and the Rent Service.

Over ten years we’ve seen constant change in the data, software, mapping and online delivery we can offer our clients. The temptation is to be led by the technology – throwing every innovation into complex analysis tools and expecting everyone to be grateful.

What we’ve learned is that experts making multi-million pound development decisions tend not to want oceans of data to analyse. They want straightforward, easy accessed outputs of sound analysis, to allow them to apply their knowledge and expertise to its interpretation. They want to share and build insights with colleagues and reach rapid, robust conclusions together.

We learned it, so we built it. The Knowledge Garden is an easy to use online insight application based on a wealth of data but requiring no GIS, statistics or database skills to use. Supplied as a fully supported subscription service, it offers instant access to economic, demographic and social data, pre-processed and ready to map and chart. Interactive map tools allow every user to zoom into areas of interest, understand multiple phenomena at a range of spatial scales and query underlying information at the click of a mouse. Even better, it offers seamless community insight tools within every screen, enabling researchers to save and share unique viewpoints with commentary, pointers, discussion threads, images and documents within defined project spaces.

Yes, it’s supported by the very latest mapping, query engine and fast data tabulation innovations out there, but The Knowledge Garden is designed for real users, not geeks. We keep data constantly and seamlessly updated, but our research professionals need hardly be aware of that. It offers access to unique derived datasets including urban and retail statistics, but the focus is on making these insights commercially usable.

For more information about The Knowledge Garden and to request a demo, please visit www.geofutures.com.

Advanced drive time analysis with GeoXploit

Ian Abbot, MapMechanics

Using drive times for optimising site location analysis has come a long way in the last few years. With the introduction of the new GeoXploit 4 and updated real-world road speed data, drive-time analysis has become faster, more accurate and more reliable than ever before.

Learn how retailers and property professionals can benefit from intelligent site location analysis and optimised drive time catchments by utilising the latest in Geographic Information Systems in conjunction with detailed road speed data.

Title to be confirmed

Blair Freebairn, GeoLytix

Location analysts and their managers rely on precise, accurate, and up to date data. Some of these data are general across the GIS industry (boundary files, road networks, postcodes etc) and some are highly specialist and need to be custom build (demand surfaces, massive drivetime matrices, relevant POI databases). Location Analytic data has historically been bought ‘salad bar’ style from many vendor’s at a high price and with complex licensing, the more niche ‘products’ have often been internally built at a large ‘time cost’ within larger departments.

The rapid growth in the Open Data movement has led to many of the raw materials required to produce the analytical datasets needed by Location Analysts available under fantastically open license terms. Over the last six months GeoLytix have been steadily building a diverse and comprehensive catalogue of both the generalist and specialist datasets used by location analysts, and these data are today being used by several of our early adopter clients. Over 200 layers of powerful data comprising many thousands of attributes have been created, quality assured, documented and are now ready to go to work for the location analyst community. For each layer the best-in-breed source data has been selected, processed, styled, consolidated, documented and cleaned. Then all layers have been reconciled to be internally consistent and had a global set of standards and styles applied. The data is a one-stop-shop and is ready to be installed today. With very few exceptions the data is extremely high resolution, richly attributed and UK wide in coverage.

We will look at the full range of the data repository and reveal how SLA members can either acquire the data at a great price with simple shrink-wrap licenses or exploit it simply by using GeoLytix’s services. Amongst the analytical data assets we will look at are postal boundaries, admin boundaries, named carriage-way level road centrelines, bus stops with volumes, building outlines, category level consumer demand surfaces, traffic counts and speeds, core physical geography (rivers, lakes, foreshore, woodland), rail lines and stations with volumes, cartograms, online and worker spends, geo-demographics, retailing hubs with scores and profiles, house price paid data, schools with pupil counts, road networks for routing, base demographics, population updates, generic POI data, Companies house data and 1:10K Raster backgrounds will all be shown working together

Smart Steps Benefits Summary

Crawford Davidson, Managing Director and Nigel Dodd, Retail Consultant, Telefónica Dynamic Insights


Locality’s economic opportunity
We provide an objective view of a locality’s economic opportunity:

• How many customers visit by time, gender, age and wealth?
• Viewed Hourly, daily, weekly
• Ability to make comparisons between areas

If you sought to open or close a store or were about to under-go a rent review, then the trend in locality footfall is critical insight which you rarely have access to. Especially as you can get this trend for the age, gender and wealth types that define your ideal customers.

Understanding Catchment;

Smart Steps can show you the areas your audience live in to give businesses greater decision making powers around

– the efficiency/likely ROI of advertising campaigns
– the scale and geographic targeting of couponing/door drop activity
– investments to attract new customers such as local taxi or bus deal

Audience Demographic

Footfall is good, but footfall of the right demography allows you to tailor your shop windows and your range to suit the audience. Smart Steps will deliver Audience Footfall breakdown by

• Gender
• Age
• Wealth
• Family type
• Brand behaviour propensity

This will assist with greater precision of ranging, and local marketing communications.

Store Performance measurement, Area comparison and Competitor Store monitoring

Best of all we can compare area vs. area, so performance can be triangulated, store area vs. store area, own area vs. competitor area. Giving insight into the physical space around key locations allows businesses to see not only the Footfall around their own premises, but around their competitors too.

Origination, Destination and Dwell time

A complete view of your customers activities (where they were before this visit, how long they spend here and where they go next) enables much greater decision making capability across a business:

– Origination helps you work out where to place outdoor advertising, leafleting, or street sign walkers to attract footfall to your destination
– Dwell time allows you to work out how attractive your area is, and where there is potential to improve this by, for example, changing your range, or adding wifi in seated areas.
– Destination traffic can highlight where customer needs are not being met highlighting where custom is being lost to a competitor. And by location, which competitor.

Staffing level demands

Many stores risk under trading as lost custom is not easily measurable. Smart Steps measures missed opportunity often perceived by the store manager but hard to evidence:

– How many people drive past at key times when service is perceived to take too long?
– How many more people are driving past in the 30 minutes either side of current opening times?

Quantitative information can inform when and where staffing levels could be optimised to meet customer demand.

Waypoint – Overview

PBS (Pitney Bowes Software), a location intelligence, data management and customer communication management company, has developed a new innovative SaaS (Software as a Service) solution that gives organisations the ability to see and interact with spatial and customer data in real-time through a web browser.

Advances in location technology are changing the way that we consume data and run analysis. Waypoint™ is an easy-to-use, online application for spatial data mapping and catchment reporting that supports customised forecasting models. It is designed for analysts and non-analysts alike who visualise and analyse spatial data dynamically while in the office on a traditional workstation and/or out in the field on smart device/ipad to support location based business decisions.

WayPoint: Sales Forecasting

Waypoint™ is built using PBS’ latest enterprise platform Spectrum Spatial™ which enables location data integration with business/customer data and the ability to run complex “what-if” scenarios on sales forecasting, market planning, thematic mapping and catchment area reviews. This means that anyone, anytime, anywhere, can access and utilise spatial visualisation of data, which was once accessible only by the GIS department. Key features are listed below:

  • EASY TO NAVIGATE Empowers all levels of decision-makers, from entry-level users to executives.
  • FULLY HOSTED SOLUTION No hardware to buy and no software updates to manually install.
  • Software updates will automatically install through the web environment.
  • SECURITY PBS OnDemand co-location facilities are fully secure and open for business 24x7x365.
  • INTEGRATED WITH BING AND GOOGLE Allows for users to choose their mapping platform of choice.
  • DATA UPLOAD User can upload data directly into the online system i.e. customer data
  • SUPPORTS MARKET SCANNING AND HOT-SPOT ANALYSIS Functionality can be further extended to feature advanced
    forecasting modelling.
  • FLEXIBLE The solution can be customised by the PBS services team to fit client exact specific needs i.e. lock-down certain features/data for non-analysts

PBS Analytical Data Suite is integrated into the solution to provide the user with powerful insight on site selection. Example datasets include Destinations (identifies areas of retail activity), PitchPoint (retail pitch), Demographics, Consumer Expenditure, Valuation Office and Business Points along with an array of OpenData from Traffic Counts to Crime data.

Waypoint™ has been rolled out to multi-territories including UK, US, Canada and France for such clients
as Home Depot, Dennys, Qdoba and Vitamin Shoppe.

Speakers’ Biographies

Paul Thompson, Director Analytical Services – EMEA, Pitney Bowes Software
Paul has accumulated over 17 years of experience helping businesses harness the power of predictive analytics to grow their business. Working with some of the largest businesses in the world such as Home Depot, Pep Boys, IKEA, T-Mobile, and TJX, Dennys, Hooters, Rogers Communication, BBC, Japan Tobacco, Paul has developed and implemented state of the art real estate market optimisation systems and customer behavioural models that bridge the gaps between real estate and marketing. Paul has recently relocated from Toronto, Canada to head up the predictive analytics practice across EMEA.

Mark Thurstain-Goodwin is the founder and MD of Geofutures Ltd, an independent data, analysis and mapping software business, originally spun out of UCL in 2002. Having built Geofutures’ reputation delivering large-scale GIS projects such as the CLG Town Centres boundaries, property value models for Transport for London and Grosvenor Estates and the CPI spatial sampling model for ONS, Mark led the design of web-delivered mapping and data applications, enabling any organisation to access spatial data insight without software or training investment. The company’s latest innovation, The Knowledge Garden, takes the next step in meeting research and strategic needs by enabling teams to interact with maps, graphics and data and build insight together.

Mark was among the earliest MSc graduates in GIS from UCL’s Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis, which he undertook following an early career in commercial property analysis. He also holds a Cambridge BA (Hons) in Geography, and remains an honorary fellow at CASA. Contact Mark at mtg@geofutures.com.

Nigel Dodd joined the Telefónica Dynamic Insights team earlier this year after nearly 25 years experience in food retailing with Tesco and Morrisons.

Following a degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics, he joined the Tesco graduate training programme, performing a number of roles across Property, Marketing and Tesco.com including Director of Insight, Director of Tesco.com Marketing as well as heading up UK Site Research. Nigel joined Morrisons in 2007 as Insight Director, creating Morrisons first Insight department and supporting Marketing as Morrisons successfully made the transition from regional to national brand.

Crawford Davidson, MD in the UK at Telefónica Dynamic Insights , has extensive experience within the industry and has previously driven principal consumer data programmes as Marketing Director at Tesco.com, Tesco Direct and Clubcard in addition to Boots Advantage card.

Gary Powell is the UK Sales Director at Telefónica Dynamic Insights. With years of sales and marketing experience in data analytics companies including Acxiom, Experian, Equifax and Dun & Bradstreet, Gary heads up our sales team looking after our customers.

Ian Abbott, Business Development Manager, MapMechanics
Ian Abbott is a business development manager in the emerging markets team at MapMechanics. He previously worked for MapInfo and Pitney Bowes software for 14 years in a number of roles from support, consulting and presales. He has specialised in the retail and property sectors and has worked closely with many leading organisations ensuring that they have the best software and data for their needs and are able to use them to their full potential. He has a BSc in Geographical Information Systems from Kingston University.

About Blair Freebairn
o Founder and Principal Geolytix – 2011 present
o Global head of analytical data and routing at PB MapInfo – 2011
o Manager of the MapInfo UK predictive analytics (PA) business 2009-2011
o Principal architect and methodologist for EMEA PA 2005-2009
o Modeller working in UK retail 2001-2005
o Head of Site Research at UK largest leisure retailer 1997-2001
o Operational management for leisure retailer 1991-1997
o Over the last ten years have served the site research teams at the majority of the top 25 UK retailers

About GeoLytix
o Founded by Blair Freebairn in 2011 to deliver vendor neutral spatial analytical consulting, development and deployment services
o Sarah Hitchcock joined in Oct 2012 from managing the Network Planning team at J Sainsbury’s bringing additional business consulting, project management and training skills
o Recent projects have included bespoke store forecasting models, training, custom data development, system development and consulting projects
o Can be found via www.geolytix.co.uk or by email to blair.freebairn@geolytix.co.uk

Mark Stileman is a Propositions Manager at Ordnance Survey, responsible for developing new product and service concepts. Mark has played a leading role in developing new products enabled with the third dimension. He has a background in Geography, GIS and Marketing, and has previously worked for Halcrow and the Government of Bermuda.

Sarah Gibbons is the OS MasterMap Topography Layer Product Manager. Her background is predominantly in OS large-scales data Product Management including Product Manager for Land-Line (OS MasterMap Topography Layer’s predecessor) but also having spent some time within the OS Sales team as a Partner Account Manager.

Royal Mail set to shake up the locational data market, 11th Sep, London

In Archived Events0 Comments2,290 Views

Date: Tuesday 11th September 2012
Venue: CBRE, Henrietta House, Henrietta Place, London W1G 0NB
Nearest tube: Bond Street

Time: Registration from 6pm, Start of seminar at 6.30pm

It’s very rare for a brand new locational dataset to enter the UK market – Royal Mail Pinpoint has started datacapture, with the aim of national coverage by end-July 2013.

RM is capturing the geo-positional details of every residential and business delivery address in the UK, and will be providing these data at prices considerably lower than Ordnance Survey’s AddressPoint (to commercial users – public sector users get a much better deal from OS via the Public Sector Mapping Agreement).

40 delegates attended this evening seminar and enjoyed hearing from Royal Mail, plus informed views from experts in the business, including the location analysis view.

The feedback was very positive with comments such as:

  • A lively session, enjoyable stuff
  • The most fun I’ve had at an SLA event ever. Laughed out loud.
  • Hats off to Gill for her willingness to engage with the debate that emerged, which touched on sensitive stuff well above pay grades.
  • It was a rip-roaring success!
  • Carnage was not avoided but pleasantly enjoyed by all – well done to Jonathan for some skilful chairmanship.
  • BIG thanks to Mark and CBRE for the venue and refreshments.
  • Very entertaining
  • Bob’s passionate presentation was inspirational and the debate between him and Gill was a joy to watch!

Download speaker’s presentations

Download Jonathan’s presentation “The locational data market”

Download Bob’s presentation “Royal Mail Pinpoint – a welcome extension to Britain’s National Spatial Address Infrastructure, or the declaration of Address War 3?”

Download Gill’s presentation “Royal Mail Pinpoint – Changing the market”

Speakers included:

  • Jonathan Reynolds of OXIRM, who will give an SLA view (Jonathan will also chair the event)
  • Gill Moore and Nick Staddon from Royal Mail, who will present Pinpoint
  • Prof. Bob Barr OBE, Manchester Geomatics and Liverpool University, who will put Pinpoint into the context of the Addressing market, and will make some observations
  • Andy Thompson, Head of Network Planning & Property Insight at Sainsbury’s, Andy will comment on the likely usefulness of Pinpoint to Location Analysts.

Agenda

Introduction and The Society for Location Analysis view
Dr Jonathan Reynolds, Academic Director of the Oxford Institute of Retail Management and Associate Dean at the University of Oxford’s Said Business School

Deputising for SLA Chair Peter Sleight, for one night only, Jonathan will provide an introduction to the meeting and briefly review the SLA’s stance towards developments in the spatially referenced address information market. Jonathan will also chair the panel session following our three keynote presentations.

Royal Mail Pinpoint – a welcome extension to Britain’s National Spatial Address Infrastructure, or the declaration of Address War 3?
Prof. Bob Barr OBE, Manchester Geomatics and Liverpool University

Royal Mail’s development of a fine grained postcode system during the 1960s and 1970s has provided Great Britain with one of the most useful postcode systems in the world. Because postcodes cover such a small number of households, on average, they have proved to be valuable for a range of locational analyses, for survey sampling and for in-vehicle navigation. This functionality has been enabled first by the approximate Postzon coordinates designed originally for transport survey purposes and later enhanced, first by the Pinpoint PAC initiative in the 1980’s and later by Ordnance Survey’s AddressPoint in the 1990s.

Unfortunately the whole field of spatially referenced address information in the UK has been marred by high prices, contentious licence conditions and conflict between Local Government, Ordnance Survey and Royal Mail which has been characterised as the ‘Address Wars’. So should we consider Royal Mail’s latest Pinpoint initiative as a welcome enhancement of an already valuable postcode system to make it fit for use in the rapidly burgeoning development of location based services? Or, is it the first shot in the third Address War where Royal Mail tries to take commercial advantage of its de-facto monopoly in the supply of postal address information?

Speaker biographies

Professor Robert Barr OBE, Manchester Geomatics and Liverpool University

Bob Barr is an urban and social geographer who has spent much of his career working on the development of geographical information systems, assessing data quality and commenting on spatial data policy issues. He worked at the University of Manchester for 30 years where he was Director of the Regional Research Laboratory, later spun out as Manchester Geomatics. He served on the Social Exclusion Unit’s Policy Action Team 18 where he chaired the spatial referencing sub-group and which led to the setting up of the ONS Neighbourhood Statistics Service. Manchester Geomatics worked with ONS and Local Authorities to identify flaws in the 2001 Census and to establish a reliable National Address Register for the conduct of the 2011 Census. Since retiring from Manchester, he has remained as Chairman of Manchester Geomatics, has been elected to Warrington Borough Council where he served for four years on the Executive Board. He is currently a member of the National Archives’ Advisory Panel on Public Sector Information, the Cabinet Office Open Data Users Group and the Council of the Association for Geographic Information. He also chairs the AGI Address Geography Special Interest Group. He is a visiting professor at Liverpool University. Bob was awarded an OBE in the 2008 New Year Honours for services to geography.

Gill Moore, Head of Data Capture, Royal Mail

Gill Moore is Head of Data Capture at Royal Mail, she has worked for Royal Mail for over 15 years, in that time she worked in a number of marketing and data related roles. Gill worked in the Address Management Unit for over 4 years where she was responsible for PAF licensing and pricing. For the last 3 yrs Gil has worked in Data Services where she leads the development of Pinpoint for Royal Mail. An addressing expert Gill has done consultancy work in both Europe and Asia, she is also a member of the UPU Address committee.

Nick Staddon, Business Development Manager, Royal Mail

Nick Staddon is a Business Development Manager at the Royal Mail; he has worked for Royal Mail for over 30 years in many different departments and roles. Nick spent 19 of these years working in the National Postcode Centre/Address Management Unit where he carried out management roles in data quality, GIS, postcode area recoding, training and commercial relationships. For the last two years Nick has worked in Data Services where he has been responsible for National Change of Address (NCOA) data sales and more recently the business development of the new Pinpoint dataset for Royal Mail.

Dr Jonathan Reynolds, Academic Director of the Oxford Institute of Retail Management and Associate Dean at the University of Oxford’s Said Business School

Jonathan Reynolds is Academic Director of the Oxford Institute of Retail Management and Associate Dean at the University of Oxford’s Said Business School. A geographer and planner by background, he now works with students of marketing and retailing of all ages and leads applied research projects on the sector internationally. He is the current director of the longstanding Oxford Retail Location Analysis workshop (which next runs between 8-10 April, 2013).

Andy Thompson, Head of Network Planning & Property Insight at Sainsbury’s

Andy began his career in GIS and Location Planning at Laser Scan and then Small World Systems some twenty years ago. He then moved to Rank Group as Market Intelligence Manager, where he met future business partners Jon Walker and Steve Halsall. His next venture was to set up his own business, GeoBusiness Solutions, alongside his two former work colleagues, Jon and Steve. GeoBusiness Solutions was an independent location analysis company which grew in success with many customers across retail, property and leisure using their consultancy and modelling skills until its takeover by MapInfo, now Pitney Bowes Business Insight. Andy enjoyed being his own boss and running his own business so he then set another new company, The Wendover Group for three years before moving on to a completely new venture at Anytime Fitness, where as MD Andy helped to establish this successful brand, with clubs across the US, Australia and Europe in the UK. Anytime Fitness now has six clubs open in the UK with plans to double this by the end of 2012. He is currently working at Sainsbury’s heading up their Network Planning and Property Insight team.

We urge you to attend this event, which promises to be both very interesting, and quite lively!