2007 July 26

This issue sponsored by

Professional Surveyor Magazine

Editor's Introduction
A Modest Proposal: Public GIS Centers
geoVue Helps Papa Gino's Locate New Restaurants
- Interview with Papa Gino's Anthony Padulo
- Interview with geoVue's Jim Stone

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Editor's Introduction

This week, I propose that geospatial professionals take the lead in establishing public GIS centers and I report on how geoVue has been helping Papa Gino's decide where to locate new restaurants and whether to relocate any of its old ones. Plus, 21 press releases.

— Matteo Luccio

A Modest Proposal: Public GIS Centers

Just like war is too important a subject to leave only to the generals and law too important to leave just to lawyers and politicians — insert here your favorite examples of subjects that should not be left solely up to the experts — citizens should become more involved in planning land use and disaster response in their communities. As a former policy wonk, I understand that broader participation in the making of public policy tends to yield more practical, equitable, and stable solutions. So, merging my former and current passions, here's a challenge to geospatial professionals: they should take the lead in the creation of public GIS centers in their communities that would provide the hardware, software, data, training, and support to enable citizens to analyze local planning issues.

Such centers should be set up as independent non-profits and supported by funds from state and local government, local businesses, private donors, and low, sliding-scale user fees. Hardware, software, and data vendors should donate relevant products. Publishers of geospatial publications should donate subscriptions. Volunteers should be trained to assist walk-in users. Universities and community colleges should contribute instructors — in GIS, of course, but also geography, political science, economics, geology, ecology, agriculture, and other relevant subjects, depending on the most salient local challenges, as prioritized by the center's board of directors.

Here are a few examples of the types of questions that such centers might help citizens explore:

geoVue Helps Papa Gino's Locate New Restaurants

One of the most common commercial applications of GIS is to help in choosing retail locations. Last week, geoVue — a provider of dynamic location optimization software for retailers, restaurants, and other real-estate based consumer channels — and Papa Gino's, Inc. — parent company to Papa Gino's Pizzeria and D'Angelo Grilled Sandwiches — announced that the latter is employing the former's software solutions to assist in its growth strategy for its two restaurant chains. The two companies, which have been working together for more than a year, are completing a plan that will help Papa Gino's prioritize markets, determine how many new restaurants to open in which trade areas, and how to rank them.

Interview with Papa Gino's Anthony Padulo

Papa Gino's Senior Vice President of Franchise Development

What were you trying to achieve?

We were looking to develop a strategy that created growth opportunities from a franchising perspective as well as continue our own corporate growth within New England. I had some familiarity with this kind of software because of my prior experience at Dunkin Donuts, where it helped us better understand trade areas. For me, the objective last year was to develop a program that would accomplish three things:
1. tell me where we should be growing (which new markets outside of New England would be best suited for our products),
2. help me understand what the potential is within those markets and where we should be located specifically, and
3. help me do a sales forecast of that potential location, to help me decide.
I also wanted to be able to do the same kind of analysis with our existing stores. Many of our restaurants are 30 or 40 years old and may not be in the right trade areas today.

Interview with Jim Stone

geoVue's founder and Chief Development Officer

What do you offer your customers?

One of our objectives is to enable them to perform analysis themselves, in-house, at whatever level they want to operate. Some are very sophisticated, and have large in-house staffs. They are looking for software, data, and training, but other than that plan to be very self-sufficient. Other customers are either relatively new to using these methods and tools or don't have large staffs. One of the components of the solution that Papa Gino's is using is a market planning and optimization tool, called iPlan. It requires a fair amount of experience to use and Papa Gino's decided to hire an analyst who was able to do so. We have other customers who may not open enough stores and may not want to make the investment in a person who can do that. We will then provide the market planning as a service to them and tell them which markets they should focus on and how many stores they should put in each. Then they can use that as a starting point for their planning and site selection process.