Business Points needs better query utility in BAO

[JayLarsen]

I need to get the business points for large employers in my area.  However, if you recall, the flow for BAO starts out with asking if you want to narrow by NAICS or include all.  I need to include all.  Then it populates the map, to the limit of 5000 businesses.  Only then can I say I only want firms with 100+ employees or something.  So I know most of my targets will not be there, since they got clipped off by the limit of 5000 points.

Is there any way to put the limit of 100+ employers first, then I will never even hit 1000 points.

It's like the query flow is sort of backwards for a lot of searches.

[DonnaBuhr]

Hi Jay,

As you are aware there is a maximum of 5000 business results that can be returned in Business Search.  The 5000 limit works well for focused business searches, but as you state; the limit can quickly be reached when the “Show all businesses (up to 5000)” option is selected, especially in high concentrated business areas.   

It is not currently possible to put the limit of 100+ employees first because the business search workflow only allows you to filter and refine the returned search result attributes in Step 2 of the workflow.  We appreciate your valuable feedback and are always looking to improve the application workflows.  We will take your request into consideration for future improvements to Business Search.   

Our best practices recommendation for the current workflow design is to refine the business search criteria and search extent.  For example, narrow your business search criteria based on a specific business category, NAICS or SIC Code and focus your search extent area so the 5000 limit is not as easily reached. Depending on the area, you may need to perform additional business searches.  In this case, it it is helpful to refine your search extent in Step 1 of the workflow to study areas, such as predefined geography sites or polygons.    

Thank you again for your feedback and suggestion.  We appreciate hearing from you and your comments help us improve Business Analyst.

Best regards,

Donna