How ESRI’s
Revolutionary Apps Can Help CRE Practitioners
In
the world of commercial real estate, geographic data and statistics are a key
factor in determining successful strategies. Luckily for CRE practitioners,
ESRI, a geography-based business solutions company based in California, has
developed a series of useful apps for smartphones and tablets. Fortunately for
us CRE professionals, ESRI is also very familiar with commercial real estate as
they are the information provider for the CCIM Institute and CCIM TECH in
powering the Site To Do Business (STDB).
The
apps ESRI has created include the BAO (Business Analyst Online) app and the ArcGIS
app, two tools proving themselves to be extremely useful in the field of CRE.
So, what do these apps do, how do they work, and how can they help the CRE
practitioner? Let’s break them down one at a time:
ESRI BAO App
ESRI’s BAO (Business Analyst Online) is a free app
that is able to access demographic info and market data for any location in the
US directly from your smartphone or tablet. The BAO app has a variety of
functions, including listing the types of people in a certain area, including
their Tapestry or Lifestyle segmentation, the differences in demographics
between two locations, displays a list of competition in a given area, and
determines if a location is suitable for you based on specific criteria. The
App is available for the iPhone,
iPad and Android market. The free
version has limited reports and will allow you to obtain the market data within
a 1-mile radius. Power users and desktop
users may find it beneficial to purchase a subscription, which is required to
access further data.
Simon Thompson, Director of Commercial
Business Solutions at ESRI, recently talked to me about their BAO App, and had
this to say, “Getting BAO onto the iPad and other SmartPhones was like swapping
a Mini for a Maserati. It freed people up, enabling them to drop the laptop and
leave the office. Having all those reports available anywhere is important but
what matters is that they’re on the device which is your essential work tool -
alongside email, calendar, contacts, phone and all those apps that you can’t
live without. It means you work how and where you need, on location or on the
way to a site.”
ESRI ArcGIS App
The ArcGIS App
(geographic information system), can “extend the reach of your GIS from the
office to the field”. It’s capable of mapping, organizing, and sharing
geographic information and data directly from your smartphone or tablet. So,
how can an app like ArcGIS help a CRE practitioner? In addition to a myriad of
geographical features, ArcGIS can aid in the accuracy of GIS databases,
seamlessly share enterprise data, manage future work tasks, and collect and
edit data to share with colleagues. The ArcGIS App is a true all-in one,
available across the Apple, Android, Windows, and Amazon platforms for free.Simon’s parting comment to me on these ESRI Apps resonated as it applies to so many commercial real estate apps. He stated, “Think about what it means to analyze anything from anywhere and then send the information that you and your clients need all from the one app. BAO’s and ArcGIS’s beauty is its simplicity. You don’t think about how vital, powerful and productive it is until you don’t have it. That’s the real test of an essential tool.”
The bottom line? ESRI’s
geographical data apps will prove to be extremely useful to any commercial real
estate practitioner. With features that allow for instantaneous data collection
on the go, ESRI’s free apps are
definitely worth a try.
Sources:
ESRI ArcGIS App (http://www.esri.com/software/arcgis/smartphones)
ESRI ArcGIS Brochures/Articles/Podcasts
(http://www.esri.com/software/arcgis/smartphones/brochures-articles)
