Optimizing Geospatial Infrastructure Management with Geocoding Accuracy Nigel Taylor Trillium Software 2009

Harte-Hanks Trillium Software 25 Linnell Circle Billerica, MA Agenda What is geocoding? How geocoding can help optimize geospatial infrastructure management Industry-specific examples Action points

Harte-Hanks Trillium Software 25 Linnell Circle Billerica, MA What is Geocoding? Turning an address into a geographic location Or The process of assigning latitude and longitude coordinates to a validated address. The two main challenges are: –Accurately locating individual addresses –Geocoding on a truly global basis

Harte-Hanks Trillium Software 25 Linnell Circle Billerica, MA Not all Geocodes are the Same Geocodes come in different levels of ‘granularity’: –True and interpolated (estimated) rooftop positions –Street-level –Centroid positions for postcodes, towns, and cities In international geocoding, the use of postcode-level geocodes is commonplace The problem is that postcode areas vary in size from country to country: –UK – 1.7million postcodes –Canada – 800,000 postcodes –Germany – 27,000 postcodes –France – 18,000 postcodes –Australia – 3,300 postcodes

Harte-Hanks Trillium Software 25 Linnell Circle Billerica, MA Different Levels of Geocode True Rooftop and ‘Interpolated’ Rooftop = 91 Crawford St, Richmond 4822 Australia (True rooftop in red, Interpolated rooftop on green)

Harte-Hanks Trillium Software 25 Linnell Circle Billerica, MA Different Levels of Geocode Street Centroid = Crawford St, Richmond 4822 Australia (0.7 miles from 91 Crawford Steet, shown by green circle)

Harte-Hanks Trillium Software 25 Linnell Circle Billerica, MA Different Levels of Geocode Town Centroid = Richmond 4822 Australia (again, 0.7 miles from 91 Crawford Steet, shown by green circle)

Harte-Hanks Trillium Software 25 Linnell Circle Billerica, MA Different Levels of Geocode Postcode Centroid = 4822 Australia (31 miles from 91 Crawford Steet, shown by green circle)

Harte-Hanks Trillium Software 25 Linnell Circle Billerica, MA How can Geocoding Impact Decisions? Almost every organization uses at least one system that relies on the ‘geo-location’ of addresses –Logistics – deliveries, routing, navigation, depot planning, allocation of funding/resources –Risk management for terrorism and natural peril –Telecoms – service provision determination –Customer/Citizen analytics – marketing, store planning –Where’s my nearest? – branch locators, Local government resource Good quality geocoding extends the geographic reach of these systems, and improves the quality of their outputs Precise geocoding on a global basis means you can maximise your investment in systems you already own: –Reducing costs, increasing efficiency, and making better-informed decisions Here are some examples…

Harte-Hanks Trillium Software 25 Linnell Circle Billerica, MA Insurance Industry Systems for assessing and managing risk (flood, terrorism, etc) are often based on postcode areas in many countries True risk from perils is more accurately assessed using precise building locations Business benefits include: –More accurate pricing of risk –Better assessment of accumulated exposure in specific areas –Better decisions on capacity – e.g. ability to take on more business –Accurate assessment of reinsurance requirements and costs

Harte-Hanks Trillium Software 25 Linnell Circle Billerica, MA Insurance Industry Example Postcode level geocode = Praha, Czech Republic = true position of building, 1mile from postcode centroid

Harte-Hanks Trillium Software 25 Linnell Circle Billerica, MA Insurance Industry Example Street level geocode = Ostrovského, Praha, Czech Republic = true position of building, 0.3miles from street centroid

Harte-Hanks Trillium Software 25 Linnell Circle Billerica, MA Insurance Industry Example Building level geocode = Ostrovského 2, Praha, Czech Republic = true position of building, 75ft from building-level geocode

Harte-Hanks Trillium Software 25 Linnell Circle Billerica, MA Insurance Industry Example X X The true address location is in the floodplain; whereas the street and postcode geocodes are out of danger

Harte-Hanks Trillium Software 25 Linnell Circle Billerica, MA Insurance Industry – impact on reinsurance costs

Harte-Hanks Trillium Software 25 Linnell Circle Billerica, MA Logistics Industry Systems for managing depot catchment areas are often based on postcode areas Postcodes in many countries cover large areas, and are irregular shapes Decisions on assigning depots for collections and deliveries can be optimised using precise address locations, rather than relying on postcodes Outcomes include reduced miles per collection/derlivery, with savings in fuel and man-hours

Harte-Hanks Trillium Software 25 Linnell Circle Billerica, MA Logistics Example - Depot Catchment Areas Depots at A and B, catchment areas defined by postcode boundaries Collection from location X, in same postcode area as Depot A Distance A to X = 4.2miles Distance B to X = 1.7miles A B X

Harte-Hanks Trillium Software 25 Linnell Circle Billerica, MA Fraud Detection Transaction monitoring systems are used by online retailers for decision support – i.e. whether to accept individual orders Models use various transaction attributes to detect fraudulent activity One such attribute is distance between billing address and shipping address: –Greater distance correlates strongly with higher risk of fraud The challenge lies with international address locations (measuring distances between addresses outside of core markets such as USA and UK) Global geocoding capability extends the reach of fraud detection systems to an international arena

Harte-Hanks Trillium Software 25 Linnell Circle Billerica, MA Fraud Detection – Example Results

Harte-Hanks Trillium Software 25 Linnell Circle Billerica, MA Action Points Identify systems in your business/organizations that rely on accurately located addresses Confirm the granularity or precision with which addresses are being geocoded at present Confirm the geographic reach of your systems If you find your systems are limited by an inability to geocode in certain countries, then this is easily remedied If your systems rely on street, postcode, or city ‘centroid’ positions, a switch to precision building-level geocoding will have a positive impact on your profitability

Harte-Hanks Trillium Software 25 Linnell Circle Billerica, MA Ends Questions Global Locator from Trillium Software