The workshop highlighted various ways to be creative in bringing datasets and business strategies together. This involves identifying the available data and combining the different data sources to produce the results that add value to a business objective. AfriGIS Data Expert Christopher Ueckermann highlighted what his team have been prioritising in the past year. He started off with background on the data processes and updates in the latest release. He also added some statistics to illustrate the status quo and focus – specific areas of data to concentrate on and when to source new data, whilst chasing coverage, especially on the Street Centrelines and National Address Database (NAD).
Lourens Snyman, AfriGIS GIS Analyst, then gave a detailed explanation where data is used as a geographic feasibility study in rural areas. A visual summary was presented to explain the methodology used to conduct the geographic feasibility study to optimise accessibility on the Department of Public Administration (DPSA) Thusong Service Centres project. He explained the level of accessibility implemented in rural areas based on certain traffic distances and then compared them to the current level of accessibility. With that, CSIR guidelines were incorporated to add additional locations to achieve a more suitable approach in the distribution of the Service Centres. Edrich Cousins, a GIS specialist at Caxton Local Media gave us a brief background of what they do and the actual application of the AfriGIS data that is used in a commercial environment. He also shared insight of how their newspaper distribution works in reaching their readers in certain areas, in real time.
The way we are talking about data and spatial data has changed. The focus has shifted and one of the key fundamentals in today’s world is that you can have a lot of data but the volume of data is no longer a benchmark. What is important is the value of the data that is available. Brian Civin, AfriGIS’s Chief Business Officer, concluded the programme by adding that “it all comes down to what are the goals, core strategies and objectives of an organisation? How do we balance what asset we have in the form of data, ultimately with market and marketing price?” This can be anything from service delivery to coverage. It is all about enhancing the business intelligence that we provide to our clients that need to make decisions. It doesn’t matter what your application is, you can enhance it if you can take advantage of the data and the insights it provides.
