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Business Analyst 10: Dramatic Performance Improvements, Enhanced User Experience

With Esri Business Analyst 10, users can customize the interface for quick access to the tools they use most. The new color-coded maps toolbar streamlines the process for creating thematic maps.

Esri Business Analyst Desktop and Esri Business Analyst Server users can now research their markets, analyze customers, and evaluate sites in even less time. This performance improvement is just one of the many new features that increase users' efficiency. The user interface can be customized to allow users to access the tools and information they need more quickly and easily. Additionally, the latest release incorporates more online resources, including Esri's latest demographic data, thus eliminating the lag time to receive the new data in the software and ensuring availability of the latest information when needed.

The performance improvement from 9.3.1 to 10 for Business Analyst is significant. Processes in Business Analyst 10 are 60 times faster than they were in 9.3.1. This includes delivering faster results in how demographic calculations are made and reports created. The speed of data aggregation for trade areas makes it possible to process data nationwide without having to break up work into smaller groups. With the new business search tool, users can filter, add, and remove criteria quickly and easily and display only the information they want.

Additionally, the new release of Business Analyst focuses on faster performance through a more customized user experience. The Business Analyst toolbar and menu have been redesigned and reorganized, allowing users to work more efficiently. Users can pick what tasks they want and don't want to see on the new, dockable Business Analyst window. This includes adding favorite commands, accessing project files, and running batch tasks. The Custom Data Setup wizard (renamed from Analysis Layer Setup) is now on the Business Analyst menu, and the workflow has been simplified to allow a more streamlined way to bring your own data into Business Analyst. Finally, the format of all reports generated in Business Analyst has been updated, making the reports easier to read and comprehend both on-screen and in print.

With more resources and data available online, Business Analyst users get more timely and direct access to the information they need. The 2010/2015 data is now accessible in Business Analyst 10. However, with the recently released Business Analyst Online (BAO) Reports Add-in, Business Analyst Desktop users can access the data updates as soon as they have been released. The updates are generally available in BAO months before being included in Business Analyst. With the add-in, desktop users can seamlessly incorporate the latest data into their workflows as soon as it is available. With the new Message Center that launches with Business Analyst, users have quick access to recently used projects and maps. They can also connect to the Business Analyst blog and forum, get the latest news, view demos, access help files, check for software updates, and submit product feedback.

Business Analyst is available for use on the desktop and as a server-based, collaborative solution. New with the 10 release is Business Analyst Desktop Premium. This premium version contains everything in the standard version plus more demographic, business, consumer spending, and market potential data, along with all the segmentation tools from the Segmentation Module, as well as the full version of Address Coder software for geocoding and data appending.

For developers who want to create applications that include the demographic data reporting capabilities of Business Analyst, there are now Flex and Silverlight versions of the BAO API. Complete code samples are available on the Business Analyst Resource Center at resources.arcgis.com/ba-online-apis.

More Information

For more information on Business Analyst solutions and help to determine which product is right for you, visit www.esri.com/ba.