Rajit is the Founder & Chief Executive Officer at Data Sutram, a Location Intelligence Enterprise funded by the Indian Angel Network & Sanjay Mehta led 100x.VC. Having started the company during the final year of his engineering degree at Jadavpur University, he raised his first venture capital at 22. Rajit has been featured by Youth For Business (an initiative by US Consulate & Contact Base) as one of the top Young Entrepreneurs from Eastern India. In a conversation with CXO Outlook, Rajit talks about the importance of location intelligence, using data to plan smart territories & plan resources, impact of Big Data on the e-commerce industry, and much more.
How can Location Intelligence help organisations identify appropriate business opportunities?
One of the most significant factors that determine the success of any business is location. That means, even a great company with a great plan can fail if it’s set up in a wrong place. But how does a business decide which location would suit it the best? At present, most companies use heuristics and intuition when it comes to finalizing a site. However, this only brings out 10% of the actual situation. 90% of data about a location lies within a myriad of other sources such as apps, B2C companies, satellites, etc., which companies still don’t bank on. This is where location intelligence (LI) steps into the picture.
LI helps businesses expand by pinpointing new locations. For instance, where next to open stores, branches or warehouses. Similarly, it also helps companies reach out to the right audience with the hyperlocal market. For example, which societies, businesses, or doctors should pharma companies approach to sell their products? Moreover, LI helps companies improve their existing assets – both physical and digital – by assisting them in deciding what products to stock to give the maximum return on investment (ROI). An industry which was only popular for its navigation and mapping aspects is now tapping into new areas with the increasing use of analytics and intelligence.
In fact, in today’s post-pandemic world, it is widely used by governments and organizations to fight the coronavirus by making people aware about the containment zones and the nearby health facilities that they should reach out if having any symptoms or tested positive. For instance, policymakers and authorities used geographic information system (GIS) to map the disease data – such as the area of outbreak, population health and infrastructure available in a particular area to gauge the risk, during the pandemic spells using spatial trends. Likewise, several companies have used LI to visualize and analyse their operations spatially to remain effective and perform consistently during the current crisis.
Read more at: Importance of Location Intelligence in the Post-Pandemic World