Trying to create a customized Business Locator Report

AaronNepple1 · ‎09-26-2017

I am using Business Analyst Online to create a report of Businesses surrounding a point. Out of all of the pre-made reports, the Business Locator is the closest to what I would like to deliver.

Is there a way for me to customize how this report is set up? I would like to limit the scope of the search based on specific NAICS or SIC codes and categorize the report based on those codes.

Also curious if there is contact info available for businesses in your data.

Thank you in advance for your time.

-Aaron

PraveenSrivastava · ‎07-06-2018

Hello Kieran,

The issue with getting business types different from the chosen one in the drop down has been fixed. Please feel free to check it out . Also, please note that it is still a text based search so if some other business has the words (e.g. Day care) selected in the drop down, it might result in the output. NAICS and SIC categories help getting a refined list of businesses by business type.

Thank you for your valuable time and feedback. Please let me know if you have further questions.

Praveen

KieranSmith2 · ‎07-27-2018

Hi Praveen,

Just a few thoughts on the new Nearby function.
1. Is there scope to adjust the filter in the live infographic so that the end user can use a dropdown list (e.g. naics codes and descriptions or the same one that is in the original dropdown); searching for a keyword looks to be too open-ended (especially if the user is unfamiliar with the data). It would be nice to see a filter that can incorporate the values being searched (e.g. searching unique values).
2. It's normal for us to check more than one type of business when assessing a site, so I created a test infographic with four reports with a single map showing the results. However the map shows all the results in the same colour. Separate colours would help, as would a title for each result table so the user knows what each one is trying to show (because these can’t be configured by the user, only by an author in advance).
3. When editing a Nearby table, it isn’t possible to reset the filters, which I would like to have as an option. For example when creating a Nearby table there is a dropdown filter list (popular business type). The main reason I ask about this is because it would be much easier to use an existing report as a template for different categories. Otherwise I have to create the Nearby panel from scratch, and I’m using the free-form panel so it makes getting the table and column sizing, text size/type etc a bit of a process if I have to keep starting from scratch.

Overall it's great to see these kind of improvements.

Thanks

Kieran

PraveenSrivastava · ‎07-30-2018

Hi Kieran,

Thank you for the continued feedback on the Nearby capability. It is great to see that you are trying different things with the Nearby capability and applying it in your work.

Please see my comments and some questions below related to your feedback.

1. While running the infographic (i.e. the live infographics) with a Nearby table, there is an option (shown in the screenshot below) to filter results based on the attributes added to the table. However, I think you are interested in having filtering options based on all business categories and any NAICS code - much like how they are available while defining Nearby tables, correct?

2. By default, the map uses different colors for different nearby businesses. Could you check if you have the 'Add points to map' option checked (as shown below) for all the Nearby tables? This is at the end of the building Nearby tables workflow.

You can control the colors for different businesses in the build experience by clicking 'Edit' on the map panel and choosing the 'Add other layers' option.

I agree with the need for having titles for the Nearby tables. This is something on our short term roadmap.

3. Could you provide more details about resetting the filters when editing Nearby tables? Are you expecting to use the businesses drop down that is there when Adding a Nearby panel or Replacing a panel by Nearby but not available when Editing a Nearby panel? We are working on some improvements for the edit experience of the Nearby tables and your feedback will be very helpful.

Thanks once again for all your feedback and continuing to explore new features in Business Analyst.

Praveen

KieranSmith2 · ‎08-03-2018

Hi Praveen,

Back to you...

1. Correct, having a NAICS code and/or description would be helpful. If searching for keyword only, for example, I can type in "coffee" and it will select only those with coffee in the name, but would not select a "Starbucks". Ultimately I'd like a user who is not familiar with the data be able to extract something in an intuitive manner.

2. In my template the default is one colour for different businesses (all red). I was able to follow your instructions in the "add other layers" option to then change the colours for my different tables. However there is no "Add points to map" option when trying to edit the variables of an existing table - this only shows up when creating a new table. It would be helpful to have an option of including/excluding the points on a map from an existing table.

Also, in my test I use 4 tables and created 4 separate colours, but when I did so all the business tables are named "Businesses", so it's not obvious which applies to which. Further when I clicked Display Legend no legend appeared on my map.

3. A business dropdown (or NAICS description) would be helpful to have. This seems related to the first question above.

Thanks again,

Kieran

PraveenSrivastava · ‎06-28-2018

Hello Kieran,

Thanks for trying out the latest release and providing feedback.

You can edit the text in the output table by using the options available after clicking in the table header and row cells in the Build experience.

The output shown by choosing 'Day care' from the popular list drop down is based on a search performed by using both words (e.g. Day or Care) so it might include some other results that have those words though they might not be Day Care locations. Thank you for reporting the issue. We are investigating this. A current option will be to refine your results using NAICS code for the particular business category you are looking for e.g. 62441003 for Child Care Services.

Thank you,

Praveen