Cloud and SaaS Applications are Driving Location-centric Shared Services, Collaboration, and Better Citizen Information, says Pitney Bowes Business Insight

Windsor, Berks UK – 8 June 2010 – Cloud Computing and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications are driving the democratisation of data through lower cost, greater collaboration, easier data access and faster development and deployment, particularly in the UK Public Sector, according to Pitney Bowes Business Insight, the leading global provider of location intelligence, data management, and customer communication management solutions.

Cloud Computing and SaaS applications are enabling citizen-centric Shared Services, which help drive collaboration, plan sustainable growth, improve public services and better share information with citizens. As the democratisation of data drives the focus on new on-demand delivery channels for public services, Location Aware CRM will also play an ever more central role in government planning and innovation.

“Governments today are facing challenges such as rapid population growth, particularly from immigration, carbon footprint reduction, resource shortages, increasing requests for planning permission, as well as terrorist threats and security concerns,” said Scott Robinson, Director, Global Data Products Pitney Bowes Business Insight. “Cloud computing offers huge potential for capitalising on the spatial analysis, modelling and simulation functions of a Location Aware application, enabling public sector organisations to harness efficiency gains and cost savings that would simply not be possible with traditional on-premise computing models.”

Robinson continues, “PBBI believes that as the market matures, and customers get savvier with location as a lead component of their reports and analyses, we will see demand for ‘what if’ scenario modelling from customers, such as crime profiling for fraud, planning or insurance purposes. Location Intelligence is a natural application for cloud computing as it’s a data-heavy and computationally demanding technology. It not only lowers costs through faster development and deployment, it also enables data intensive crunching and analysis to better process and explore information, and provides users with fixed IT costs based on actual usage.”

Pitney Bowes Business Insight solutions enable public sector organisations to improve their planning capabilities for security functions; enhance disaster forecasting, pandemics and emergency preparedness and recovery operations; attract, retain and support local businesses for job creation and strengthening of local tax bases; plan and development of large-scale public sector works projects; better manage carbon footprint reduction; and enhance citizen-centric self service capabilities, thereby reducing the amount of phone, email or walk-in queries to front desks or contact centres.

The company’s Location Aware CRM solutions comprise Location Intelligence, Data Management and Customer Communications Management, which enable customers to harness the power of the ‘where’ dimension in their operational, business, and strategic decisions. Location Aware CRM solutions enable organisations to analyse vast amounts of multi-dimensional data for greater business insight and better decision making. PBBI believes that Location Aware CRM is set to break into mainstream business computing over the next two to five years.