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Location Intelligence and Mobile BI: Advancing the ‘where’ in mining and exploration

Yellowfin
7 Min Read

You work for Big Mining Co in the mining and exploration industry. Mineral exploration requires and utilizes a diverse range of data types and techniques, including satellite and geophysical images, geologic maps and a plethora of databases.

You work for Big Mining Co in the mining and exploration industry. Mineral exploration requires and utilizes a diverse range of data types and techniques, including satellite and geophysical images, geologic maps and a plethora of databases.

Various research firms, including the IDC, state that over 80 percent of enterprise data has a location component.  You know that this percentage is probably much higher in relation to Big Mining Co’s data – the need for a modern Business Intelligence (BI) solution with robust Location Intelligence (LI) capabilities is obvious.  LI, the combination of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and BI, allows you to analyze, visualize and understand the relationships between geographic data and other metrics.

But LI isn’t just useful and applicable to traditional man-made assets and infrastructure. For you, and other players in the mining and exploration industry, knowing the location of raw resources in relation to infrastructure and available manpower is of paramount importance. Most companies involved in the minerals game already utilize GIS components to capture, analyze, manage and present geographically significant information. However, more can be done, as these organizations continue to purchase more assets, and therefore obtain more location-based information, inadvertently producing siloed stores of spatial data via a range of operational systems. Broadly speaking, LI software can assist organizations in the minerals, exploration and mining sector to:

  • Collate relevant data types
  • Analyze the impacts of real-world activities to identify trends
  • Create meaningful reports to add/drive business value
  • Manage operations

LI functionality within a BI platform can incorporate and utilize these varying information sources, converting and presenting that information in usable and meaningful forms, capable of providing significant insight and adding considerable business value.

But with an increasing proliferation of geographically dispersed assets, as an operations and site development manager, you’re also expected to be in more places, more often.  So how can you take all this critical geographically significant information with you?  Simple.  Ensure your BI solution contains integrated LI capabilities and Mobile BI functionality.

Mobile BI – the ability to receive reporting and analytics on-the-go via mobile devices – and LI – the ability to combine location-based data and traditional metrics captured within a BI system – empower you to uncover otherwise hidden trends, patterns and relationships; no matter where you, or your assets are located.

Just ask Yellowfin

So, what can a BI platform, encompassing LI and mobile analytical capabilities, bring to a mineral company’s critical business processes and operations?

Just ask Yellowfin how, at:  http://www.yellowfinbi.com/YFContact.i4

8 ways Location Intelligence and Mobile BI can be utilized in mining and exploration

Over its lifecycle, mining exploration generates a huge amount of spatially significant data. Imagine being able to:

    • Monitor assets;
    • Track sub-surface infrastructure;
    • Monitor, track and assess the availability of staff;
    • Monitor competitors;
    • Monitor the environmental impacts of exploration and mining activities;
    • Establish the location of hazardous materials;
    • Monitor work-related incidents and establish appropriate OH&S protocols;
    • Compare pre-approved sites with geographic phenomena, features and obstacles;

All while standing on a prospective exploration site!

Enterprise GIS have the ability to help organizations involved in mining and exploration streamline operational efficiencies by averting risk and saving time. However, much of this location-based information, capable of delivering significant benefits, is dispersed across many different information systems. A BI solution with robust LI capabilities can pull this information together to uncover hidden trends, relationships, risks and opportunity.

For more detail, check out our blog – Location Intelligence for Mining and Exploration: http://www.yellowfinbi.com/YFCommunityNews-Location-Intelligence-for-Mining-and-Exploration-106713

The importance of where: Location Intelligence and Mobile BI

Gartner’s 2012 BI Magic Quadrant survey indicated that the majority (53%) of organizations will deliver some form of mobile analytics by year’s end.  The same report revealed that many organizations, across a diverse range of industries, are beginning to apply BI and analytics to new business areas. As a result, respondents listed “geographic-intelligent functions” as one of the standout new product requirements for 2012. 

The insight able to be leveraged by assessing location-based data on mobile devices is enormous. LI is the glue that binds organizational data assets together, generating context, meaning and exposing crucial relationships between data types. Mobile BI is the platform of the future for reporting and analytics, as executives abandon their desks, and spend more time amongst assets, employees and customers.

With the intensification of trends towards globalization, outsourcing and the instantaneous (driven by our constant connectivity courtesy of the Internet), not knowing will no longer be an excuse, no matter where you, or your company’s operations, are located.

For more on LI and Mobile BI, simply visit:

Further reading: Still not convinced?

Still not convinced? Check out some of our recent blog posts on Location Intelligence:

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