In 1597 Sir Francis Bacon published his work Meditationes Sacrae & Human Philosophy, in which he stated: “knowledge itself is power”. Today everybody from businessmen to politicians to military strategists knows this saying to hold true.
The Frontline Research Group specializes in gathering information and converting it into useful knowledge.
Steven Johnson, Director Of Strategic Projects And New Business Development at the Frontline Research Group, says, “an incredibly effective tool that we offer our clients, is an overlay of Retail Data onto Census Data and to analyze this, spatially.”
The Frontline Research Group specializes in gathering data on retail outlets, both formal and informal, throughout Africa. For each retail outlet they have, at the very least, the GPS location, amongst a host of other data.
Spatial XL is an advanced mapping platform, that operates from within Microsoft Excel that allows for data to be manipulated quickly and effectively and to be displayed onto maps.
Government Population Census data contains a host of very useful information, particularly with regards to income levels by geographic area.
When this census data and retail outlet data are integrated into Spatial XL, you are able to view the locations of the retail outlets in relation to their surrounding consumer demographics, including income levels.
Steve says, “The information derived from this tool is extremely useful. Opportunities and threats become clear. Users can identify the need for new outlets or outlets that are likely to be unprofitable with the current product mix.”
Spatial XL allows for the data to be manipulated in a host of ways. You can view information on a national, provincial, municipal or local level. If the required information has been included in the retail outlet data, users can drill down into product distribution or distribution center or instore promotion level.
“Knowing the demographics of a local area gives good insights into the products to be placed or distribution channels to be used or instore promotions to be activated” adds Steve
Because Spatial XL is easy to use you can visualize any number of variations in seconds.
Thanks to the Frontline Research Groups ability to reverse geocode a physical address, customers can include their own customer base into the Spatial XL software, however, the more accurate the data provided, the better the results.
Steve concludes, “Knowledge is power and with the use of Spatial XL we give you some very powerful knowledge.”
For more information contact Steve Johnson, Director Of Strategic Projects And New Business Development,on +27 (0)84 2000 111 or
*Spatial XL is a product of Prime Thought Software Solutions