Tag Archive for 'site selection'

Invest In Ontario’s GIS Site Selection Tool

Published
by
Ian Smith
on April 7, 2010
in Author-Ian Smith, Economic Development and Investment Attraction
. 2 Comments

Do you think that you have the ideal website and applications for investment attraction purposes?  Are you providing the best information to site selectors to make informed decisions?  Consider using a geographic information system application to address the two issues at the same time.  Invest in Ontario is a prime example of how a government agency is modifying their approach to selling their region for business attraction.

In February 2010, The Ontario Ministry of Economic Development and Trade launched SelectOntario, Canada’s first web-enabled, investment attraction-focused site selection tool. (A similar tool is available on the Indiana Economic Development Corporation’s website.  Please read, “Site Selection Tool Puts Indiana On The Map“)   The index page of SelectOntario can be seen in Figure 1:

Select Ontario Index Page

Figure 1: Index Page Of SelectOntario

There are four main components of the tool that site selectors may use to gather information:

  • Site Search - To find real estate for an investment project
  • Community Search - To examine communities by workforce and demographics
  • Industry Search - To investigate industry clusters in Ontario
  • Skills Search - To assess the skills, language and educational capabilities of Ontario’s workforce

For the purposes of this post, the Site Search was selected to test SelectOntario to identify available real estate for sale in the City of London for a new drug store.

Placing a mouse over the “Site Search” button will prompt the tool to provide a menu where users can select to conduct the following types of searches:

  • Industrial
  • Commercial
  • Investment
  • Agriculture
  • Investment
  • Vacant Land
  • Business

Figure 2 is an image of the Vacant Land search interface.

Figure 2: SelectOntario’s Vacant Lot Search Interface

By entering the following details for the query, users will be supplied with the map seen in Figure 3:

  • Transaction Type: For Sale Only
  • Vacant Land Subtype: Industrial Lot
  • Price: (Maximum): $5 000 000 (Canadian Dollars)

Figure 3: Mapping of Available Industrial Lots In Ontario With A Maximum Value Of C$5 000 000
Please On Image To Enlarge

The numbered green plotted points on the map indicate the available vacant lots for sale.  Each point corresponds to a data record listed below the map.

The second page of records must be accessed to read details on the lot in London as seen in Figure 4.

Figure 4: Site Summary Report For Vacant Industrial Lot At 268 WILLIAM ST, LONDON,  ONTARIO

The application permits users to generate comparison reports amongst available lots.  Figure 5 is a site comparison report for 268 William St and 203 Crumlin Side Road in London.

Figure 5: Site Comparison Report For Two Lots In London, Ontario

SelectOntario is a tool that will no doubt make life easier for site selectors.  Via computers or smartphones, site selectors can conduct extensive research on some of the key locational factors on one site.

Time will only tell if other Canadian provinces will select to adopt an similar tool rather than sticking with an ordinary website with tons of .pdf documents to open.

SelectOntario is available at http://www.ontario.ca/siteselection/

Site Selection Tool Puts Indiana On The Map

Published
by
Ian Smith
on March 17, 2010
in Author-Ian Smith, Economic Development and Investment Attraction
. 1 Comment

Here is a look at a new web application that will facilitate the site selection process for investors interested in the state of Indiana.

The Indiana Economic Development Corporation launched StateIN.ZoomProspector.com at the beginning of March.  The tool will allow investors to gather relevant information to make the best decisions regarding site selection and business investment.

Figure 1:StateIN.ZoomProspector.com

Users of the application can simply enter their specifications in terms of what they are looking for their location needs.  ZoomProspector will provide results from the database as illustrated in Figure 2.

Figure 2: Results From StateIN.ZoomProspector.com

It shall be interesting to see if other regions around the world will take a cue from the state of Indiana to rethink how to cater to site selectors’ needs for information.

StateIN.ZoomProspector.com is available at StateIN.ZoomProspector.com

What Is Available On YouTube For Site Selectors?

Published
by
Ian Smith
on November 18, 2009
in Author-Ian Smith, Economic Development, Investment Attraction and Web 2.0 Strategy
. 5 Comments

YouTube is a very powerful online marketing vehicle if used correctly.  To some, throwing on a video without clear descriptions, nor well defined tags seems to be sufficient enough as apart of economic development 2.0 strategy however; it is not effective.  Economic development officers and  marketers of cities, regions and countries for investment attraction must remember that an increasing amount of site selectors and advisers are turning to the web as a part of their site location search process.

According to the report, “A View from Corporate America: Winning Strategies in Economic Development Marketing” by Development Counsellors International (DCI), the frequency of the use of internet by site selectors and advisers in the site location search process increased from 55% in 2005 to 63% in 2008.  Based on this fact, this investment decision makers have learned to search the web including social networking sites efficiently with their own methodologies.

Just for the fun of it, Intelegia conducted a search of YouTube to see what is available in terms of investment attraction promotional videos as of November 13th, 2009.  To conduct the search for the “best in class” videos, the following keywords were used:

  • “Invest In”
  • “Economic Development”

Intelegia considered results that were listed within the first 5 pages in the “All” and “Channel” sections for each of the keyword queries.  The videos were evaluated and selected for this blog post on the basis of convincing the viewer that their region is the best place to invest in.

“Invest in”

Invest in Ontario

This promotional piece discusses the key locational factors to consider when selecting Ontario as a place to invest.  It stresses the competitive advantage of selecting Ontario in regards to how companies can benefit from the province’s innovation-driven business environment.

Invest in Columbia

This video is used to position Columbia as the best place to invest in Latin America.  It provides information that addresses concerns such as the country’s debt and inflation.  In addition, it discussed trade related issues and locational factors.

Both videos above were found on the first page of results and has descriptions attached to them.

“Economic Development”

Portland’s Economic Development Strategy

Portland’s Economic Development Commission’s YouTube  video is very compelling to investors.  Through the use of testimonials from existing companies in the city, the commission demonstrates Portland’s manufacturing and innovation-driven environment for a green economy.

After conducting this exercise, it is apparent that some agencies or departments that are responsible for marketing their territory for investment attraction are not using YouTube at all or not to it is full potential.  Agencies and departments that are in both cases must remember that it is not good enough to have a convincing video but it must be easy to find on the Web 2.0 application.

Did we miss anything?

Does your organization have a video on YouTube specifically for site selection or investment attraction purposes?  Do you think it is better than the videos presented above?  Post the link in the  comments’ box and we will make it the subject of a future blog post.

Site Selection Intelligence With Bing Maps

Published
by
Ian Smith
on October 29, 2009
in Author-Ian Smith, Competitive & Internet Intelligence, Economic Intelligence, Internet tools and Investment Attraction
. 0 Comments

A few weeks ago, we introduced Google Street View as a means to collect information for site selectors in terms of location details of possible sites.  To provide a balance view of such mapping tools, here is a look at Bing Maps.

Using Bing Maps is pretty straight forward.  Simply plug in the address that you are interested in and let Bing Maps do the rest.  Bing Maps will first provide you with a general map overview with the specific location identified with arrow as seen in Figure 1.

Figure 1:A general map overview for 6100 St. Jacques in Montreal, Quebec

Bing Map gives you 5 different option in which to view the specific location on the map such as:

  • Road
  • Aerial
  • Bird’s Eye
  • Labels
  • Traffic

Figure 2 illustrates the bird’s eye view for 6100 St. Jacques in Montreal, Quebec.

Figure 2: Bird’s eye view for 6100 St. Jacques in Montreal, Quebec.

Similar to Google Street View, Bing Maps offers navigational control toolbox to move around the map.  The toolbox is located  in the top left hand corner of the page.

Tools such as Bing Maps and Google Street View are handy to have especially on a website that is dedicated for investment attraction.  This kind of functionality would allow site selectors to conduct online research regarding available locations to expand in a region with the surrounding infrastructure.

Bing Maps is available at http://www.bing.com/maps