Invest in the right place at the right time.

 .id placemaker helps you to make confident decisions about when and where to put your business effort. 

.id placemaker is an internet application developed by population experts to tell the story of change across cities, towns and regions and assist organisations to plan their reponses.

Placemaker shows how demand for a product or service is changing so that organisations can invest in the right place at the right time.

It converts Census data, along with .id's Small Area Forecast Information (SAFi) into knowledge about how the population is changing from past to present to future.

When combined with client data such as customers and/or facilities, placemaker provides out clients with strategic insights into how well they are operating in a place and identifies where else they might effectively conduct their business - now and in future.

The story is brought to life in a visual, intuitive and compelling map-based web application.

Placemaker puts this knowledge directly into the hands of decision makers. It gives them clarity to see the big picture, explore options and make confident decisions.  

This map shows the demand for aged care (represented by people aged 60+) in 2016. It also shows the currently level of supply with our clients facilities marked in blue, and other providers in grey. You can quickly see that the suburb of Resevoir has a high level of future demand, but no supply. 

 

How does placemaker work?

 .id placemaker gives decision makers the clarity to see the big picture, explore options and make confident decisions. 

.id placemaker can be delivered with standard data sets or customised for each client's specific business application. A typical implementation includes:

  • Census and population forecast maps managed by .id to show how cities and regions are growing and changing - "what is the big picture?"
  • overlayed with the client's own data sets (e.g. store locations, customer addresses, performance metrics etc) and that of their competitors - "where do I fit in?" 
  • overlayed with maps depicting target markets (today and in the future) - "where else should I be operating?"

This brings together data depicting the demand for services with data depicting the supply of those services and makes it easy to see where opportunities lie today and in the future and what your next move should be.

.id takes care of preparing and presenting all of the data. Placemaker is delivered as a hosted web site putting this rich source of business intelligence straight into the hands of decision makers, while leaving the data management issues with .id.

 

How will your business benefit?

 

Competitive advantage Organisations are increasingly embracing demographic information to gain a competitive edge. By combining demand and supply data (including where your competitors are operating), placemaker can quickly identify areas of demand which are currently under supplied, giving you a head start on the competition.

Build confidence and minimise risk Organisations are swimming in data, but it does little to support decision makers if it cannot be easily accessed and explored. .id carefully selects only the data that will answer important strategic questions. Placemaker presents related data together in one unifying mapping interface from which patterns quickly emerge. This provides decision makers with both the big picture context and site specific detail from which to make confident, informed decisions.

Target resources .id placemaker displays information from the highly aggregated (eg State based) to highly detailed (eg a few city blocks).  This enables decision makers to be very targeted in both their investments and promotions, ensuring the best possible returns for their outlay and efforts.

Attract investment and support  Placemaker provides a powerful evidence base to support capital raising, investment pitches and funding submission. The compelling presentation of data in a visual format, especially maps, is a huge ally for anyone trying to build the case for a particular decision or investment. 

 

Who is using .id placemaker?

 

Australian Football LeagueThe Australian Football League (AFL) currently consists of 18 teams spread over five states of Australia. The League needs to pursue a coordinated and holistic approach to fan engagement. This is particularly true in Victoria, where 10 clubs compete to attract new members. The AFL needs to ensure that the fan engagement activities of these clubs results in expanding the total AFL membership base, rather than each club competing for a larger slice of the existing pie.

To develop efficient and coordinated strategies, the AFL requires a well designed evidence-base that shows relevant demographic patterns and trends across metropolitan Melbourne and how they are changing. When combined with AFL membership data, and presented spatially, .idplacemaker provides the AFL and each club with strategic insights into the distribution of current members and where else they might effectively attract new members – now and in the future.

Australian Red Cross Blood ServiceThe Australian Red Cross Blood Service (ARCBS) is responsible for meeting the nation’s need for blood products and related services in collaboration with Australian governments. ARCBS operates from more than 100 static and mobile sites around the country with the support of over 2,000 volunteers who collect blood donations from the community.

ARCBS is working to broaden the donor base significantly and to achieve this objective will need to pursue a coordinated and evidence-based approach to building its donor base. .idplacemaker provides ARCBS with a custom designed evidence-base that can support decisions about when and where to locate collection sites and target marketing activities.

By spatially presenting data that shows relevant demographic patterns and trends across Australia and how they are changing with ARCBS donor data, .idplacemaker provides strategic insights into the distribution of current donors and assists ARCBS prioritise its efforts to attract new donors.

Catholic Education OfficeThe Catholic Education Office (CEO) engaged .id to build a web enabled market analysis tool to assist them in matching their school services to their potential student base across Victoria. The application includes both Census data and population forecasts, presented at parish/catchment level for every Catholic school in Victoria (over 500 schools).

There are two levels of access to the site: school level access for principals to analyse their schools' performance, and head office access to allow for State-wide planning. Using this tool the CEO is able to analyse the 'fit' between existing school location and capacity, and the likely future demand. This enables them to make evidence-based decisions about where and when to open and close schools; what capacity those schools will need to provide for at what time; and crucially, where and when they need to invest in land and other assets for future school development.

This is a good example of how placemaker has become an integral strategic tool which enables CEO to refine how they deliver their services and plan for the future. We learnt from our experience with the CEO that as we built our knowledge of their business, we were able to develop and refine the tool to meet their needs. At the same time they were able to refine exactly what content they required and how it is best presented to inform their decision making. This two-way learning process for both .id and the client resulted in the refinement and improvement of the decision making tool - an approach we envisage will apply to all placemaker clients. 

Uniting Aged Care UAC provides aged care facilities and services across Victoria and Tasmania.  The development of a new aged care facility requires a significant investment and people’s decision to relocate to an aged care facility is complex.  UAC requires an evidence-based approach to facilitate their location and product mix decisions taking into account these complexities.  .id built a placemaker application which analyses the total size of the aged care market currently and in the future, the current supply of aged care accommodation, the proportion of elderly not already accommodated in a aged care facility, the level of latent demand, ability to pay for aged care services, the level of care required, any culturally specific requirements etc.

We worked together with the client to identify the target variables, and will continue to develop the application as we both develop our knowledge.

 

Invest in the right place at the right time.

 

To find out more about .id placemaker and how it can benefit your business, please contact us to book a consultation.