You can use ArcGIS Business Analyst Pro to apply spatial analytics and modeling, including customer and competitor analysis, territory design, target marketing, and site evaluation. Understanding the following terms will help you learn about the capabilities of the ArcGIS Business Analyst Pro extension.
Essential terminology
| Term | Description |
|---|---|
Block apportionment | A method in which data is estimated and aggregated for geographic areas in Business Analyst. |
Business Analyst data source | The dataset Business Analyst uses to display and summarize data. You can connect to or install Business Analyst data, or access it through ArcGIS Online. |
Customer | Your business patrons or those who shop at your stores. A store can exist in any industry. For example, in the medical industry, you can use Business Analyst to better understand the relationship of how patients (customers) frequent which hospital (store). |
Drive time | The estimated area in which you can drive to or from a store location. For example, a five-minute drive-time area means that customers from all locations within the outer boundary can reach your store, by car, within a five-minute drive. Drive times are commonly used in site analysis. |
Market | A region around a store that defines your customer distribution or overall economic activity. Markets in Business Analyst are often designated by geographic locations and the households or population within those areas. They can be local, regional, or national scale. |
Store | The physical location where your organization conducts business, regardless of industry. For example, a retail shop, restaurant, home office, or medical facility where you can analyze the distribution of customers, demographics, or market share. |
Trade area | Defines an area of influence around your store or franchise location and allows you to better understand your customer base and define your market. This analysis in Business Analyst is often done through reporting and data aggregation against trade areas. Several traditional trade area methods exist, such as rings, drive time or walk time areas, customer-derived areas, standard geography trade areas, or threshold drive times. |
Variable | A numeric or text attribute used in demographic analysis, reporting, and mapping. Variables in Business Analyst are often housed in the Business Analyst data source or a statistical data collection. Variables can be apportioned to other layers, such as trade areas, using enrichment processes. Some examples of variables include total population, net worth, median age, or a custom calculation such as quarterly sales. |
Industry terminology
Business Analyst tools and data are used by organizations across public and private sectors to inform location strategy and operations with spatial insights.
The language used to describe many of the features often refers to terms like business, customer, or store. The following are a few ways to think about businesses, stores, and customers:
- Business or businesses—Any person, organization, or entity that is providing a good or service to people, places, or organizations across the public, private, and government sectors.
- Stores—A point, or set of points, where your good or service originates or reaches the end consumers.
- Customers—A point or set of points that represent those individuals, places, or organizations that have accessed, received, or interacted with the good or service.
The following table includes a brief description of how these terms can be interpreted more generally and some synonyms for a range of industries. If you don't see yours, send an email to businessanalyst@esri.com.
| Industry | Store synonyms | Customer synonyms |
|---|---|---|
Retail | Store | Customer |
Real estate (occupiers) | Office | Employees |
Real estate (operators) | Asset or facility | Tenant |
Manufacturing and CPG | Production facility or distribution center | Distributor, wholesaler, or end consumer |
Financial services (retail banking) | Banks | Customers |
Nonprofit | Community center or organization | Funded programs, members, or donors |
Health care | Hospital, medical office, or medical facility | Patients, doctors, or nurses |
Government | Agency or center | Constituents |
Utilities | Nodes or substations | Customers (people or organizations) |
Oil and gas | Nodes or source | Customers (people or organizations) |
Natural resources | Source or site | Distribution points (ports, railways) or buyers |
Territory Design terminology
The following table describes Territory Design terminology.
| Term | Description |
|---|---|
Balancing | The process of creating territories that have equal statistics across a market |
Base (Alignment) layer | The base geography, or building blocks, from which all territories and their levels are based |
Capacity | An attribute threshold to constrain territories |
Constraints | Customizable parameters that control the shape and size of territories |
Locked territories | Territories that won’t be reassigned to other territories during the Solve operation |
Seed points | Territory centers are representative of the starting point for the territory, such as offices or stores |
Territory | A geographic area, or group of geographic areas, that form a boundary |
Territory solution | A layer containing all the necessary elements for building, editing, and maintaining territories |