Business

Banking

Financial analysts employ GIS for targeting their markets by visualizing service needs. Companies including Metropolitan Life and Chase Manhattan Bank rely on GIS software to help them improve operational excellence and profitability. Learn more.

Insurance

Many insurance companies have made GIS a central component of their business, using it to visualize, analyze, and distribute risk. Companies such as CHUBB Insurance use GIS software for portfolio risk management. Learn more.

Logistics

Logistics management requires planning the distribution fleet's activities, route locations, and schedules. Argentina's telephone company, Grupo Telefónica, uses the GIS logistics routing solution shown to the right to increase the number of daily deliveries without increasing resources. Learn more.

Media

GIS is used by media bureaus for everything from analyzing circulation and attracting advertisers to creating the maps used in the material itself. The Associated Press (AP), USA TODAY, and National Geographic Society use GIS software to create accurate maps quickly for magazines, newspapers, and online news services. GIS maps can help the media keep the public informed about street closures or openings and other emergency services, as in this map of lower Manhattan from the AP. Learn more.

Real Estate

From map-based contact management to sophisticated investment analysis in large real estate investment trusts, real estate agencies rely heavily on electronic mapping. Many realtors have found great success in using the Internet to market properties. Companies such as SSR Realty Advisors, Inc. use GIS in commercial real estate, while REALTOR.com uses GIS to bring maps online to 1.2 million people shopping for a new home. Learn more.

Retail Business

Businesses maintain information about sales, customers, inventory, demographic profiles, and mailing lists, all of which have geographic locations. Therefore, business managers, marketing strategists, financial analysts, and professional planners increasingly rely on GIS to organize, analyze, and present their business data.

Companies such as Sears have saved millions of dollars by managing deliveries with GIS. Gold's Gym Enterprises uses GIS to study new franchise locations. Smaller companies, such as Ultra Marine Kayaking of Santa Cruz, California, find GIS useful and cost-effective for creating accurate and attractive maps for promotional materials. Learn more.