Enterprise Location Intelligence Solutions

Pitney Bowes provides an array of solutions for clients looking for geographic information system (GIS) and Location Intelligence (LI) solutions. Its solutions support the analysis of geographic data and the relationships that exist between conventional and geographic data, thereby enabling users to create and share information-rich maps together with spatial insights. Pitney Bowes believes that its desktop solutions offer a complete set of capabilities for GIS analysts. In addition, their server solutions provide an equally capable set of features for knowledge workers, such as business analysts, and for integration with third party applications, including most business intelligence (BI) tools.

Pitney Bowes’ solutions go beyond “pretty maps.” You can not only drill-down from an individual map but also use a map (or a detail therein) as the basis for further exploration of the data. For example, suppose some planning regulations were to require new housing developments to be on a slope of no more than 10^o. A GIS analyst could simply filter a Pitney Bowes contour map to reveal areas of land that meet this slope criteria. This type of analytical operation is not what you would expect to be able to do with Google Maps.

Pitney Bowes also includes global geocoding for 249 countries and territories – 122 with point and street-level accuracy, which is used in the support of both analytical and time-sensitive operational use cases. The company also offers an extensive global data catalogue of 350+ geographic, demographic and industry-specific datasets that its customers use to augment or improve its analyses.

Pitney Bowes primarily employs a direct sales model based on locations in almost 100 countries worldwide. Its Location Intelligence and GIS solutions are applicable across many industries. The company’s go-to-market approach is augmented through strategic alliances and an extensive partner network.

Pitney Bowes has more than 1.5 million clients in more than 100 countries, including 90 percent of the Fortune 500. More than 1 billion people around the world today use Pitney Bowes Location Intelligence and GIS solutions when they “check-in” or use location-sharing features on major social media platforms.

Pitney Bowes GIS clients include 24 of the top 25 insurers in the United States, 40 of the top 50 wireless telecommunications carriers worldwide and many government agencies around the globe. The product is used by clients in 125 countries across 16 languages.

Master Location Data (MLD) is an enterprise product that is currently only available in the United States, although the company plans to extend coverage internationally. With 170+ million records, MLD provides the most complete coverage of addresses across the United States and (theoretically) the highest possible number of matches with source business data. The idea here is that you can associate details such as the materials used to construct a particular building with that address, or the services provided to that address, via a unique identifier that Pitney Bowes attaches to every record. If the building represents office premises, for example, then you could associate it with suitable business information from Dun & Bradstreet. This process facilitates data enrichment and analysis for faster, more informed decision making. Needless to say, Pitney Bowes supports “addressing” of virtually all mailable and non-mailable US addresses.

Other notable features include industry-specific modules, a software development kit (SDK) for creation of repetitive operations and integration, and geo-specific APIs (application program interfaces). Pitney Bowes customers routinely augment their use of the desktop technology with Spectrum Spatial Analyst, the company’s browser-based mapping application that allows maps and spatial information to be shared with executives, business users, partners, customers and citizens via any Web browser or mobile device.

The Pitney Bowes Location Intelligence (LI) Suite is comprised of modular, server-based solutions that can be integrated with other Pitney Bowes and third-party solutions. In the case of its own software, this particularly includes its Spectrum Technology Platform as well as its Customer Engagement Solutions. With respect to third party integration, the product has been integrated with Actuate, BIRT, SAP Business Objects, Oracle OBIEE, QlikView, Tableau, MicroStrategy and Excel. It also supports integration with any home-grown or third-party application that supports industry standard Web services or APIs. There is also a module that runs on Hadoop (MapReduce is generated), and there are five Geo-specific APIs (GeoLife, GeoEnhance, GeoSearch, GeoTax and Geo911) that allow developers to embed location intelligence into applications. More information about these APIS can be found here.

Location Intelligence has three primary functions: enrichment, analysis and visualisation. The first of these is based on the company’s geocoding and global data catalogue and can also leverage the company’s Spectrum platform for cleansing and enriching data, though third party data management tools may also be used. Analysis, in addition to geo-processing and BI integration, also provides facilities such as optimised travel routing and directions by time and distance.

Finally, visualisation supports both MRR (multi-resolution raster) and vector-based data. The former, which has been added to the product only recently, as mentioned in the desktop technology section, supports the visualisation and analysis of topographic, satellite and other raster data types with no degradation of spatial resolution. The company’s interactive visualisation can be deployed on-premises or in the cloud as the customer requires, and it supports any browser or mobile (touch-based devices).

Pitney Bowes provides a range of consulting, implementation services, analytics, maintenance, training, and managed services. It offers full lifecycle support around the globe, including on-site, on-call, on-line and machine to machine. Pitney Bowes consultants have deep knowledge of Pitney Bowes products along with industry experience helping clients mitigate project risks and keep critical system performing well at all times. There is also an active online community that offers opportunities to ask questions and get tips and tricks from users across the globe.