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Location intelligence | Article

The business case

Our videos and supporting material showcase how location intelligence is being used to better understand the characteristics of communities, infrastructure and places, and when and where they need particular services.

Authors and contributors: Andy Coote, Martin Ferguson

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Here, we explore the best approach to developing a business case for investing in location intelligence.

A business case is a structured proposal for business improvement that provides a package of economic and related information sufficient for decision making. It must be well structured, describe the business improvements it brings and provide sufficient evidence for a reasoned decision to be made.

In the first part of the video, we look at why we need a business case. In the second part, we provide some examples that can be used in your own authority.

Video: Location Intelligence – The Business Case

In the public sector, a business case is almost always required for investment to ensure that public money is invested in the most effective manner.

The levels of sophistication required by decision makers in your authority will vary according to the size and complexity of the project or programme envisaged.

Public sector business cases should follow guidelines in the Treasury Green Book and associated guides The green book explains the five separate perspectives that need to be addressed in any business case:

  1. The strategic view looks at whether the investment fits with the organisation’s goals and citizen needs.
  2. The economic view is usually the most difficult — how do we work out the value of the benefits. The second part of the video gives examples that you can draw on.
  3. The commercial view focuses on how you have ascertained potential costs and procurement approach.
  4. The financial view shows costs and benefits expressed in terms of capital v operational expenditure and considers affordability — what funding will be necessary and when.
  5. Finally, the management view covers the ability of the organisation to deliver a successful project.

In creating the business case it is important to remember that location information is always “a means to an end’ and value is most clearly realised, and behaviours changed, when it is used in applications to support decision making and action planning, and thereby generating business impact.

Those illustrated in this video and more fully explained in this web page include:

Multi-Agency Incident Transfer (MAIT)

It has been estimated that MAIT reduces the call time from over 4 minutes per call to 16 seconds. This has resulted in a saving of 18,000 hours spent on the phone requesting attendance from other agencies. It has been calculated that the potential time-savings for one force/agency per year could be in the region of £37,000. Further benefits from reduced response time are lives saved, injuries treated more rapidly and damage to property reduced.

Learn more:

https://www.bapco.org.uk/resources/resource/multi-agency-incident-transfer-mait-from-atos-brochure

Integrated transport planning

Transport for London (TfL) is leading the way in increasing the availability of high quality data to improve the service to its 8 million customers. The value of time saved due to the avoidance of disruption on the transport network in 2012 is estimated by a Deloitte study at between £15 million and £58 million, depending on the modelling assumptions used.

Learn more:

Transport for London – Case study (Appendix 6) – Transport for London’s open data policy saves citizens between £15m and £58m per annum

Barcelona’s parking management solution

Since its inception in 2013 an average of 4,000 tickets have been issued per day and 650,000 tickets issued in the first year. A review of the project by the Harvard DataSmart team suggest that parking revenues have increased by $50 million (£40 million) since the scheme was introduced.

Learn more:

Barcelona’s Parking Management system has increased revenues by an estimated £40m since the scheme was introduced

Global Value of Geospatial Services

The main finding of this study is that digital mapping has become a powerful tool for policymakers to ensure the safety of their citizens and inform urban planning decisions, and for companies and consumers to save time and money when managing their daily affairs. And the benefits of digital maps are far bigger than people may think. As an industry, geospatial services generate US$400 billion in revenue per year.

The infographic below illustrates the wide range of benefits identified for consumers and businesses.

Image: Global economic impact of geospatial services infographic

Learn more:

The economic impact of geospatial services: how consumers, businesses and society benefit from location-based information.