ArcGIS Business Analyst

ArcGIS Business Analyst, now referred as Esri Business Analyst, is a software extension that provides tools for mapping, analysis and work management. . It is one of Esri’s location analytics solutions. It combines GIS analysis and visualization capabilities with an extensive data package that allows users to gain a better understanding and timely information about the market, customers and competitors. It is a complete system for analyzing data to reveal insights and patterns in a business and is mainly focused as a solution for market planning and site selection. This extension is built to incorporate with ArcGIS and also can be used with ArcView, ArcEditor or ArcInfo.

History
Esri Business Analyst was previously known as ArcGIS Business Analyst. Its first release of Version 8.3 was improved and enhanced through numerous updates and subsequent versions. Esri Business Analyst 10.2 is the latest release and is also available in the form of a mobile application which was designed for both iPhone and iPad.

Features
The question ‘where?’ is common among organizations when it comes to making decisions on locations for new stores, competitors, target customers or even locations for new promotions. Esri Business Analyst helps to combine various data and detailed maps to then analyze the whole picture to answer the ‘where?’ questions. This is done by providing a set of maps and comprehensive reports on what is nearby and the rich facts about a certain area.



Esri Business Analyst has three key purposes


 * It recommends locations for business expansion
 * It shows the most suitable areas to find new customers through customer profiling and market analysis
 * It automatically balances and optimizes the operational teams’ areas to allow increase in productivity

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Usage of Esri Business Analyst =====


 * Evaluate new locations
 * Identify customers
 * Review site performance
 * Measure the impact of a new store or competitor
 * Evaluate store performance by measuring customer proximity and penetration
 * Create simple, drive-time, and threshold areas
 * Identify market “pull” by creating desire lines drawn between customers and their assigned stores.
 * Build and implement marketing programs

The Business Analyst System
Esri Business Analyst comprises five components: Enterprise, Desktop, Web, APIs and Data. Using these components, Esri Business Analyst can be configured for individual use or sharing across the entire network.



ArcGIS Business Analyst Server

 * Allows organizations to manage, share and publish critical location-related information across the business


 * Provides browser-based access to location-based analyses, queries and reports

ArcGIS Business Analyst Desktop

 * Must-have tool for professional analysts who need to understand customers and markets by exploring different scenarios to improve decision making

Business Analyst Online

 * Fast web access to reports, maps and analyses of specific locations


 * Provides the tools and data necessary for accurate and detailed market analyses

ArcGIS Business Analyst Online API

 * Helps in building custom web, desktop and mobile applications for mapping and location analysis

Data

 * Provides demographic, lifestyle segmentation, consumer spending and business data to help you profile customers, analyze markets, evaluate competitors and identify opportunities

Demographics Studying demographics of an area provides detailed information about people, households, populations and lifestyles that shows the changes of the population patterns and trends

Lifestyles Tapestry helps to identify and target the best customers and prospects

Consumers Access patterns on consumer spending, market potentials based on product demands and retail marketplace

Business Best information on trade area and business opportunities

Users
Some of the popular industries which use this software are individual and commercial real estate practitioners, city planners, insurance companies, retail banking and small retail chains. Business professionals get complete solutions for site evaluation, selective customer profiling and trade area market analysis by running simple reports, mapping the results and performing complex probability models.

Minimum system requirements:
Business Analyst Server is supported on the Microsoft Windows Server platform. The following integrated development environments (IDE) are supported:
 * Microsoft Visual Studio
 * Eclipse
 * Any other IDE that supports developing HTML, JavaScript, or applications that take advantage of REST or SOAP services

Business Analyst Desktop's system requirements are based on the product version and platform configuration. For best performance, Business Analyst Desktop 10.2 is recommended to be used with Windows 7 64-bit operating systems.


 * Windows 7, Windows 2003 Server, Windows Vista or Windows XP operating system
 * 1.6 GHz processor
 * 2 GB RAM