At the risk of overusing the term we have all come to associate with 2020, it was an ‘unprecedented year’ in the field of geospatial technology, particularly for mobile data — not in terms of technology innovation but in the adjustments and adaptations that had to be made due to significant changes in people’s behavioral patterns. The focus was not so much on platform functionality but on how best to react to a situation and quickly address these monumental shifts for customers in the retail, grocery and quick service restaurant verticals. Even though focusing on these different problems meant that there weren’t any groundbreaking changes in platforms, there was still significant progress. For instance, Johns Hopkins released data on COVID-19 that was incorporated with traffic data by several geospatial platforms to highlight the worst-hit areas. The technology wasn’t new but the approach was— breaking those data silos that we have seen for years. Knowing which areas were more affected, what services were available and which businesses were closed requires a great deal of data integration and multiple platforms worked together to accomplish that.
“While all verticals will have their concerns and look at recovery differently, the common denominator across all will be helping consumers feel safe again.”
Strengthening data infrastructure
As data providers, one of the ways for us to make data more powerful is integrating multiple sources of data. For instance, for the travel and tourism industries, hotel data or rental information can be combined, so that a decision-maker can look at travel patterns and other related spends. There may be challenges, such as most brands not wanting to share first-party information, but safely integrating data in a privacy forward manner is an important part of the infrastructure. The next part is making data easily understandable. Once people can visualize something, it helps them understand it better. That visual component is especially useful in Big Data, where the data is either too large to grasp or it’s not clear how the data is being manipulated. Visualization is the key to mainstream understanding and acceptance of data. Not only does it broaden the horizons for organizations as they come to understand the power of such data, but it also opens up possibilities for data providers to come up with new use cases.
Making consumers feel safe
While each vertical will have its particular concerns and look at recovery differently, the common denominator across all will be helping consumers feel safe again. There is such pent-up demand in these areas that once that safety barrier is overcome, there will be surges. So, there is a great opportunity in helping clients understand foot traffic and pattern differences moving forward, because our new normal will be different from both 2019 and 2020. Another area of opportunity is looking at what different jurisdictions are doing to see what’s most effective. Are there particular cities, states, or counties where people seem to feel safer because there is a higher volume of people eating out or traveling? We can then correlate the data with what those areas have done to aid their recovery.
