Business and Marketing

Spectrum Spatial attempts to make the world a small marketplace for B2B and B2C companies alike.

GIS for the mass marketers

Pitney Bowes today introduced Spectrum Spatial, a platform that applies technology from the company's MapInfo unit to deliver location-based customer intelligence across a wide range of pursuits for both B2B and B2C companies.

Spectrum Spatial is part of a trend known as the “consumerization of GIS” (geographic information systems) that allows non-experts in the technology to create and use location-based applications to better service or sell to customers. Social media companies, for instance, can use the technology to deliver location-tagged content to smartphone users. Banks can not only provide branch location information to customers, but evaluate performance of branches through an analytics capability. B2B sales forces can plan real-time bulletins and promotional campaigns based on regions or localities.

“What makes this different from other location-based data programs out there is that Spectrum Spatial lets you do advanced analytics of locations, even allowing you to do overlays of local demographic data such as the average income of a certain neighborhood,” says James Buckley, SVP and GM of Location Intelligence at Pitney Bowes.

Because Pitney Bowes' geocoding business originated with a governments and telecommunications company, Buckley also claims an accuracy advantage due to the stringent requirements those clients have for up-to-date information.

Spectrum Spatial also allows for integration of location intelligence with their business intelligence systems, geocoding and reverse geocoding, and validation of addresses in 250 countries and territories.

Business Breaking News: Taking Stock of Your Technology: 4 Questions to Ask

What's worse than wasting money? Wasting time. And as a small business, it's easy to fall into one or both of these traps. Technology is supposed to save businesses time, but making the wrong decisions about which solutions to implement could end up costing you in the long run.

This Small Business Week, take some time to reflect back on your business and discover where you can make changes to optimize your operations. Areas such as project management, billing and invoicing, time tracking and other back-end processes can be time-consuming and potentially lead to wasted hours and resources. With today's small business owners becoming increasingly dependent on technology, it's more important than ever to use these solutions the right way.

Mike Salem, CEO of Vorex, a professional services automation (PSA) software provider, shared the following small business "tune-up" checklist to help you maintain and improve your business, reduce wasted company hours, and increase productivity and profit. [7 Small Business Apps for Improving Productivity]

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