The "location, location, location" slogan takes on fresh meaning when Jones Lang LaSalle, a $4 billion global real estate firm, applies big-data analytics to it. For every pair of coordinates on a digital map, there are data sets to explore, including basic economic trends and questions related to business operations.
Where should a multinational build a research center to attract and keep engineers in India? What is the risk of soil deteriorating if there's an earthquake near a client's data center in the Pacific Northwest? How should a global bank revise its ATM network in Singapore to boost performance?
Jones Lang LaSalle finds answers in its cloud-based mapping services hub, called MapIT. Launched this year, the system centralizes the formerly disconnected activities of 5,700 global users of disparate mapping tools, says Wayne Gearey, location intelligence officer.
