GIServices - Main

GIServices provides the SBDC community with detailed demographic reports, annual consumer expenditures and competitor mapping.

What is GIS?

GIS stands for Geographic Information System. “GIS is a collection of computer hardware, software and geographic data for capturing, managing, analyzing and displaying all forms of geographically referenced information(http://www.gis.com/whatisgis).” In other words, GIS takes data and geography and combines the two for analysis and representation.

At the SBDCNet, GIS is:

GIS at the SBDCNet is a service that provides current, past and projected data that you can use to help start and grow your business. We offer several reports to help businesses. We have demographic reports that cover age, housing, race and ethnicity, marital status, educational attainment, income, vehicles and business and employment data. For all these categories, we have current year estimates as well as five-year projections. We also offer reports on consumer expenditures and retail sales.

The most important aspect of GIS reports is the geographical boundaries. We can provide information for several types of geographies as long as they are clearly defined. For example, we can use city boundaries, county line, census tracts, block groups or zip codes. Also, we can set our own boundaries in what is called a ring study. If you provide an address or intersection, we can then draw radii from that point and analyze the data within those radii. The most common and, we feel, most useful distances for a ring study are 1 mile, 3 mile and 5 mile but we can do larger distances up to a single 100 mile radius.

GIS is a wonderful tool that can help businesses succeed. Please take a look at the examples provided and if you have any questions please feel free to contact the SBDCNet GIS Division – Robert Greer (210) 458 – 2427.