Editing GIS in the Philippines (section)

== IV.	Assessment of the Technology: Analysis and Suggested Applications ==

Being an information system in itself, Geographic Information Systems have a wide variety of uses from any field of study. The use of information is always a key ingredient for success in any field. The system utilizes spatial gathering, or basically, data collection techniques regarding the place. One of its major strengths is the fact that the data collected from the places are not limited to the topography and physical shape of the terrain as it can find out almost anything and everything regarding the place from its people to the structures within and even the congestion. This proves to be a tool that is useful in all branches of society.<br />

GIS can be an integral part of making business decisions. According to Economics, markets work well if there is perfect information. It is therefore tantamount to saying that without information, a company could experience sudden misfortunes that it could have otherwise avoided had they had information about it.<br />

Firstly, it is a great marketing tool. GIS provides data that can be stored in databases and given the right query can reveal trends and data about consumer spending, foot traffic, feasibility, salability and etc. Marketing deals a whole lot on knowing about the place and where to put their products so that it can sell. Using the data, a marketer can tell which place will sell like hotcakes and which place won’t. GIS is not limited to a city alone and can go to the lengths of gathering information from certain supermarkets, groceries and the like to satisfy the questions when it comes to market segmentation, audience targeting and market efficiency. Finding the perfect place for one’s products is crucial for making a product sell. It also lays down the groundwork for businesses to start promotions. <br />

One clear example is if a company decides to post a billboard in EDSA, one would need data about how traffic a certain parts of EDSA are and how many people can actually see the boards. Strategic placing is an integral use of GIS. The use of GIS aims to be able to build customer relationships in an indirect manner. It really helps bring about brand awareness.<br />

Secondly, it is a good logistics tool. Still related to marketing, one may want to create a launch or campaign for one’s products. Or if not marketing, companies may want to host events for its employees and staff. With GIS, one can determine the place they can use for their needs. GIS also serves as a tool to create 3D layouts of the places. It can give the users a good look into the place and show the layout to higher officers concerned who may not have the time to go to the place themselves. For deliveries, GIS is a vital tool to know which routes to take to increase efficiency. GIS can gather information regarding traffic flow, efficiency of drainage systems, road distances and the like that can be calculated to find the best route to take. Without this sort of information, customers can become dissatisfied with the service of the company and decide not to patronize the company anymore.<br />

An example of an efficient use of this can be the delivery systems of famous food chains such as Jollibee, McDonalds, Pizza Hut, Greenwich and etc. The call centers that take the orders can simply query on their database on the best route to take and call up the branch that best suits the delivery needs of the company.  There have been complaints about McDonald’s delivery service and if they decided to get GIS for their company, then, it would be much more efficient and fewer customers would be frustrated waiting for their products.<br />

Aside from business, the previous parts have elaborated the various strengths and opportunities that the system has. It could definitely be used to fix the traffic situation within the country given that the decrease in oil prices has increased congestion in the metro. A good example of the proper use of GIS in Metro Manila is the elevated u-turn along infamous C-5 intersection. It is infamous because it is known to cause traffic that could last for an hour. The smart solution that the MMDA utilized was that they learned through GIS that the congestion was caused by the intersection itself and the heavy use of that road. They therefore implemented the elevated u-turn and the traffic situation there has decreased. This and others have been elaborated more at the users of GIS section.<br />

One of the weaknesses however of GIS is the burden in the collection of data. The set-up of the databases for the sake of collection of GIS is a task that can’t be done by one individual with one computer alone as it really needs a group. After being able to collect data, there are already faster systems that can give queries to give the user trends and patterns that they may not have discovered. Another weakness of GIS is the fact that it does not have ease of access. Most providers of GIS cater to the government and big companies and that is because they have the capabilities to get their own data. Smaller companies have to resort to hiring a provider that can help them collect the data. The cost of this is big on small companies and it really is hard to implement. Also, a company must have their own data warehouse to store all this data. Spatial data along with inventory data, logistics data and marketing data can be a real heavy load for companies.<br />

A threat to GIS is the lack of personnel who can interpret the data. Not everyone has studied much of Geography to truly understand the patterns and trends taken from the data. This however is being solved by the providers through programming of more user-friendly interfaces. They can still however fail to include variables when making their queries, which can deter the output given by the system.<br />

Another threat to GIS is if the data is not collected properly. GIS is still flawed depending on human error. If the data has not been collected properly, the solutions that GIS has given might be lacking in information. All threats basically to GIS is regarded on human error. The system is just something programmed and wrong programming can also lead to failure in decision-making.<br />

But aside from a few flaws, the system is a great way for users to gain information power that is so needed in any field of study.<br /><br />