Years ago, I faced the problem of justifying a reorganization of sales territories and the addition of several salespeople to fill those territories.  I spent many hours manipulating sales history, SIC code data and county codes using a dual floppy, 64K memory PC.  If the foregoing information is not enough to date me, it was 1984.  Although the result was successful, looking back through the lens of present day technology, it seems I was using a hammer, chisel and stone tablet.

Since that time, there have been at least two major changes in the tools available to people solving business problems.  The first change was the adoption of tools that today are dominated by Microsoft Office – particularly word processing and spreadsheets.  The second was the advent of connectivity between personal computers through the internet and email, and all the subsequent permutations of those basic technologies.  Both of these changes involved the classic adoption curve – early adopters to those dragged kicking and screaming into the modern world.

From another perspective, we have been through two leaps in technology, digital paradigm shifts, if you will.  First, the adoption of tools that enhanced individual productivity, and then the adoption of connections between those tools that enhanced group productivity.  Of course, along the way there have been many incremental improvements to the tools and connectivity, but the two ‘leaps’ stand alone.

Today we take these tools and connections for granted and lose sight of the difficulty of the transitions to their use.  In each case, we had to learn to use the tools and go through a fundamental adjustment in our work processes.  From the initial confusion and frustration with the new technologies, we worked through the obstacles and achieved the benefits.  Along the way, our understanding of the possible was transformed.

Of course, most of the above applies to those of us with some degree of grey hair, or, in some cases, the lack of hair.  Anyone under the age of forty is likely to assume today’s technology tools and web connectivity as givens.  They have yet to face fundamental technology shifts.  It also may be true that technology shifts no longer occur as identifiable major events.  The accelerating pace of technological change indicates we may now be in an environment of constant incremental change on a scale that would have been considered fundamental, but now is no longer separable into distinct events.

Solving problems like the one I faced in 1984 is much easier and faster today because of the tool and technology progress in the intervening years.  However, solving that problem today is still a chore without another advance in technology.  Sales territory analysis and realignment is essentially a spatial problem.  Sorting and analyzing text and tabular data while trying to see patterns, gaps and overlaps is difficult and time-consuming.  The recent emergence of the concept of location intelligence and geo-analytics software to provide that intelligence is a great step forward in solving problems that are spatial in nature.  Now, the analyst, after going through another technology learning curve, can achieve better results in less time.

The technology leap represented by geo-analytics software may represent another paradigm shift, although arguably not of the magnitude of the Office tools and the Internet, or it may be part of the flow of constant technology progress.  Adopting geo-analytics capabilities in a business for analysis purposes – and even extending these capabilities into work processes – requires an investment in the learning curve and the inevitable frustrations that go along with it.  But with the spread of general web-based mapping tools, the groundwork is being laid that will drive location intelligence and geo-analytics software into the business mainstream.