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    Driving Customer Engagement with Location-Based Insights for Brick-and-Mortar Success

    Table of Contents

    The Client:

    Location Insight – Connecting clients with their customers! 

    Companies with multiple locations need to: 

    • Direct existing customers to the most convenient location to meet their current needs, and 
    • Attract and drive new paying customers to ‘brick-and-mortar’ locations. 

    The Location Insight suite of services leverages geolocation technologies to direct customers to business locations through search engine optimization techniques. These services also attract new customers by ensuring business names and locations appear on popular search engines. 

    Location Insight allows businesses to communicate with existing and prospective customers, providing highly relevant location-specific information. It drives business to targeted locations and offers a data management system that reduces costs by enabling client-side clerical updates. 

    Other features of Location Insight include telephony and wireless display platforms to ensure consistent information across web, mobile devices, and telephone interfaces. This integrated, local-search-marketing platform combines advanced locator technology with a robust content management system. 

    Business Challenge:

    Why Search Engines are Important? 

    • 70% of shoppers feel store locators influence purchasing decisions, and 90% of web visitors expect store locators with maps on websites. 
    • 47% of local searchers visit a merchant as a result of their search. 
    • 25% of all searches include a geocentric (local) term. 
    • 70% of U.S. households use the internet as a source for shopping locally. 
    • 50% of local searches conducted through search engines have a purchasing intent. 

    Location Insight helps businesses capitalize on these trends by: 

    • Offering a hosted solution that increases customer traffic through locator technology and search engine optimization. 
    • Enabling brick-and-mortar locations to compete in an internet-driven marketplace. 

    Forgeahead’s Solution

    Forgeahead collaborated with the Location Insight industry to develop and enhance locator solutions, supporting over 40+ clients. Key projects include: 

    • Web-Based Locator: Displays bank branches and ATMs for clients like Chase. 
    • Mobile Locator: Mobile application mirroring web functionality for location searches. 
    • XML Locator: Provides detailed results with static maps in XML/HTML formats. 

    Notable Projects: 

    • CHASE Locator: Integrated locator system providing branch/ATM data, local SEO, ADA compliance, internationalization, and browser compatibility. 
    • Bofa-MEWEB: Replaced static locator for Merrill Lynch Financial Solution Advisors. 
    • CIBC-MA: Mortgage Advisor Locator featuring advanced search and profile navigation. 
    • Visa/Amex Profilers: Enhanced usability and data reporting for global ATM profilers. 

    Key Contributions: 

    Forgeahead provided tailored solutions such as: 

    • Bing REST web service integration. 
    • Migration to Bing token service. 
    • Implementation of reverse geocoding and batch processing. 
    • Automation of functional test cases. 
    • Internationalization and ADA compliance. 

    Technology Used: 

    • Web Technology: Struts, J2EE, Spring, REST APIs, HTML, AJAX, CSS. 
    • Servers: Apache Tomcat, SQL Server. 
    • Build Tools: Ant, Hudson. 
    • Browsers Supported: IE, Firefox, Safari, Chrome. 

    Forgeahead’s Development Methodology

    Using SCRUM agile practices, Forgeahead ensured efficient project delivery with tools like JIRA and collaborative platforms. 

     

    Forgeahead’s Challenges

    • Transitioning to an offshore model. 
    • Implementing agile methodologies. 
    • Supporting multiple live applications. 
    • Managing cross-client configurations and deployment. 

    Forgeahead successfully overcame these challenges, delivering solutions that met client acceptance criteria and went live on schedule.