For many in the retail industry Geographic Information System (GIS) is all about maps. That, however, is untrue as GIS can help in decision making and market information. For the franchising industry GIS is a great enabler for site selection and optimization.

Geo spatial services allow consumers, businesses, governments, and other organizations to make decisions based on geographic data. The primary ingredients of geospatial services are electronic maps and satellite imagery describing our physical and human environment.
According to a Boston Consulting Group and Google report, India’s geospatial industry generated approximately 3 billion dollar in revenues in 2011 and comprises at least 135,000 high-wage jobs. The industry is composed of geo-data pro­viders, location-enabled device manufacturers, geo-app developers, and a growing network of geospatial experts and educators. More importantly, geospatial services deliver efficiency gains in the rest of India’s economy that are valued at many times the size of the sector itself, creating a lasting source of competitive advantage for India.
The report says that geospatial services drive 40–45 billion dollar in revenue and 70–75 billion dollar of annual cost savings, representing 25 times the size of the geospatial services industry itself. Geospatial services are used on a daily basis by roug­hly 8–9 million Indian workers today (over 2 percent of the total Indian workforce).
In addition, Indian consumers place a direct value on geospatial services at 1.5–2.0 billion dollar annually. Recognition of the many ways geo-applications and location-enabled devices are central to our daily lives.
Consumers rely on geospatial services primarily for direction-finding and searching for local businesses.

Maps and navigation
Moving from place to place in the most optimal way creates efficiencies in every-day life. Example:

Vacationers navigate to interesting sightseeing locations using a tourism smartphone app

Business people find their way to hotels in unknown places while traveling for work

Local business search
Locating businesses nearby can improve decision making for citizens and drive sales at stores

Citizens find new places to eat after searching for recommendations on restaurant ratings apps

Businesses rely heavily on geospatial services for both planning and operations

Logistics & operations

Optimizing transportation, warehousing, facilities management, and operations:
Transportation firm increasing utilization rates and load-factors of truck fleet

Manufacturer minimizing supply-chain costs and efficiently managing inventory

Sales & marketing
Targeting of customers based on location to increase sales and marketing yields and reduce costs.

Chain retailer designing an app that lets customers locate nearest storefront

Salespeople dividing territories to balance potential and create an equitable sales plan

Strategic decision making
Leveraging geo-data to drive core business decisions to most effectively deploy resources.

Agribusiness company determining optimum fertilizer application from the air

Retailer choosing the next set of store sites based on where its target customers live
Who is Using GIS in Franchising?

Internationally companies like Dominos, Burger King, Baskin Robbins, Long John Silver, Dunkin Donuts are using Geographic Information System to get the best of their franchising decisions.
For these corporates, GIS helps in determining the worth of the real estate, the location it is based in, the expected footfalls and the affect of business from neighboring area.
Normally a strategic plan would take months to complete and would require days and weeks in a specific market to learn the potential trade areas.
With GIS it is possible to create a nationwide franchising plan in just a couple of weeks.

The GIS experts

Technology has a wide scope for use across different industries and Geographical Information System (GIS) industry and its increasing importance in various national projects has meant ADCC Infocad is well positioned to ride the wave.

Nagpur-based ADCC Infocad Pvt Ltd is a part of Meghe Group, a conglomerate, with varied interests in the fields of basic and professional education, banking, information technology, industries, agriculture, textiles, power, media & entertainment etc. ADCC Infocad was incorporated on 1998 to cater to the GIS industry and has emerged as a reliable software solution provider.
With the manpower of 700+ personnel based out of its production centers in Nagpur and Hyderabad, ADCC has developed domain expertise in the field of GIS / remote sensing, photogrammetry, engineering design services, surveys and customized application development. The verticals are but not limited to overseas and corporate, central / state government organizations and public sector units. The company today operates in two verticals — products and services. In the product segment, ADCC is also a solution provider for Autodesk Inc, USA for entire products suite in Indian states namely Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, New Delhi and the National Capital Region.
To provide an Enterprise level solution, ADCC has also partnered with Digital Globe in the year 2008, Intergraph Siemens, Corel, Sanako, Adobe, Microsoft, Tally, HP, Dassault and Matlab. ADCC has been recently appointed as pan India distributor for Trimble-Building Construction Division for education business.
“We also have Autodesk Authorized Training Center in Nagpur and Mumbai to impart training to corporate, education institutions and government organizations,” says company Managing Director Amit Somani.
The company was involved in the land records programme of the government and was also involved in creating the data base for Reliance Infocom in 200 cities across India during its roll out in 1999-2000. “This was a major achievement for the company in the field of GIS and also for the telecom industry,” says Somani.
On the services side it provides the GIS, engineering design services and software services. GIS forms the mainstay of its business under which it has undertaken land records, helped utilities sector and catered to remote sensing organizations. It has mapped over 20,000 villages across India, 1000 square km of urban India for water management, 2000 square km of dense urban population and rural water scheme across two lakh properties across Maharashtra.
In water resources’ mapping the company has covered almost 10,000 square km of area under water shed management in Chattisgarh, municipal GIS in Bangalore where entire Bangalore was mapped and the same being repeated in Nagpur.
The company is also doing GIS work for Surat and Delhi.
ADCC’s GIS has also found its way into the electrical sector of entire Noida, Reliance Energy, a major project in Indore and Ratlam for Bharati, sewage treatment plant in Muscat, and mapping Surat city for Gujarat Gas network,
In the engineering design services the company has been involved in preparation of manufacturing drawings of the mechanical components/ assemblies for Bharat Aluminum Company Limited (BALCO) and presently with Nuclear Power Corporation of India with whom ADCC has signed a two year contract for the design of the atomic reactor, support systems, drafting of components with about 75 people working on the project.
In the software services for land records customized applications have been developed in local languages where in villages maps can be developed by farmers on a click of a button. This is being implemented in Madhya Pradesh.