I recently read an Economist Article discussing how the latest generations of maps are helping to pinpoint geo-related business and social issues.  They go into some detail around some of the issues the new maps are illustrating, but leave out the details.  In my own experience, law enforcement is using maps to help with identifying hot crime areas and to manage patrol operations.  The maps helped them decide where to place patrols and how they were generally doing over time to diminish crime.  Yet the maps were static and always 6 months behind.  What they needed were maps that updated themselves every day to track mini-trends and to give real time feedback. 

This got me thinking about how the next generation of maps can help the Enterprise and Collaborative teams.  I’ve attempted and failed in the past to develop geo-coded maps about our customers and partners buying habits.  This was 5 years ago, so either the technology was too embryonic or I didn’t provide a clear scope to the IT organization.   I still believe the idea is sound.

Next generation mapping tools can be used in combination with Intranet based information sources to give Executives a clearer picture of key hot spots.  For example, if I were looking to map conversations with internal collaborative teams around topics like top tier suppliers I could begin to plot where in the organization we interact with them the most.  Why is that important?  Well, corporations are constantly trying to cut costs and increase efficiency with their suppliers and mapping the conversations would help identify areas of focus.  This of course is not geo-maps but internal maps of departments and project teams. 

Using mapping tools with time-lapse capabilities like Open Street can help map external policy changes or initiatives and how they are affecting the enterprise or its customers.  For instance, geo-tagging the new marketing initiative on an outbound html campaign can help determine whether the new Unilever soap is going to be purchased in the UK or in India (or both).   When the recipient opens the email it automatically adds a point to our map which begins to identify hot spots.  Once the hot spots are determined, Unilever can focus additional localized advertising in those areas or even test the soap in local stores. 

There appears to be many applications for Enterprise Maps, I am certain we are just starting to navigate into the terrain.