Create new layer - To identify optimal new sites, Open an existing project that contains your existing Catchments layer if you want to exclude existing sites from the Site Optimisation. If you don’t want to exclude any existing sites then you can Create a new project. Once your project is open choose Add Data, Create New Layer.
Choose which type of layer to create - Select Catchment Areas to create Catchments covering the potential site areas.
Choose to create optimal Catchments - To access the Site Optimiser and input the criteria that you want the system to use to identify and rank your potential new sites, select Create Optimal Catchments.
Select target method - Select Geographical Area to identify potential areas that meet your criteria.
Exclude existing Catchments - The Site Optimiser gives you the option to exclude your existing sites from the optimisation so that the results won’t include sites that you already trade in. Tick the box next to Exclude Existing Catchments and select the layer that contains your existing sites from the dropdown list next to Layer. Alternatively, if you want a green field approach which assumes you have no existing coverage in this market, leave the Exclude Existing Catchments box unticked.
Choose the site components - You need to select a component layer which is the layer that contains the building blocks to make up the sites. Select a layer from the dropdown list next to Layer in the Components section.
Tick the Regionalise box if there are a large number (more than 10,000) of components in your component layer.
Select a column from the Column dropdown list which the system can use to group the components into regions.
If you only want the system to look at certain regions you can select these by clicking on Choose Regions.
Select target value for sites - The Target Value section allows you to select the column from your component layer that will be the determining factor in selecting the sites. Select a column from the dropdown list next to Column.
The number in the box below is the minimum value for which a potential site will be created. For example, you may only want to see potential sites where Population is more than 80,000. Enter a value into the number box by using the slider or typing into the box.
You can specify the maximum size of sites or catchments that you want to create by ticking the box next to Maximum Travel Time or Maximum Radius and entering the maximum value required.
Advanced Options allows you to apply further specific settings for the optimisation.
Rank potential new sites - The Scoring section of the panel lets you choose the key drivers or the leading factors which will allow the system to rank the potential sites in terms of suitability. To choose your first Driver click on the dropdown box next to Layer and then select the Component Layer that you chose to build the optimal sites from. Then select the column that is important to the success of a site from the Column dropdown list.
To add additional drivers, press the + button. Up to 10 drivers can be selected and different weightings can be allocated to each driver depending on their importance.
To change the weighting of a driver drag the Weighting slider or type a number into the number box. Give the drivers which are the most important higher values than those that are less important.
If you tick the box next to Overwrite Styling the potential sites will be shaded on the map in red, amber and green according to how high they rank in terms of suitability as new sites.
The system has a standard method for classifying each of the drivers but you can change the method by clicking on Advanced Options and selecting the method that you require.
Once you are happy with your settings you can press Optimise to run the Site Optimisation.
Viewing the results on the map - A new layer will be created which contains the optimal sites. If you chose to Overwrite Styling in the Scoring section of the Site Optimiser the resulting sites will be displayed on the map coloured according to their score.
To see the list of Catchments and the data associated with them open the data view by clicking on the datagrid icon at the bottom left of the map.
Create new layer - To identify optimal new sites, Open an existing project that contains the Map Pins layer that includes the locations that you would like to target, then choose Add Data, Create New Layer.
Choose which type of layer to create - Select Catchment Areas to create Catchments around the potential sites.
Choose to create optimal Catchments - To access the Site Optimiser and input the criteria that you want the system to use to identify and rank your potential new sites, select Create Optimal Catchments.
Select target method - The Site Optimiser has two different methods that you can use to identify locations for new sites. The Geographical Area method will identify potential areas that meet your criteria, with the aim being to provide specific search areas, narrowing down the areas that need to be considered for a new site.
The Captive Location method will identify specific sites that meet your criteria. This step by step guide shows the steps taken for the Captive Location method. If you would like to use the Geographical Area method, please refer to the Site Optimiser Steps - Geographical Areas step by step guide. Click on the button next to Captive Location to select this method.
Exclude existing stores - The Site Optimiser gives you the option to exclude your existing sites from the optimisation so that the results won't include sites that you already trade in. Tick the box next to Exclude Existing Stores and select the layer that contains your existing sites from the dropdown list next to Layer. Alternatively, if you want a green field approach which assumes you have no existing coverage in this market, leave the Exclude Existing Stores box unticked.
The Captive Locations are the full set of locations that you want to consider for your new site. This needs to be a Map Pins layer that you added previously to your project. Click on the dropdown list next to Layer 1 to select the appropriate layer.
Define the Catchment radius - In order to identify which potential sites already contain existing sites the system needs to look at an area around the potential site and check if any existing sites fall within this area. To set the radius around each site that the system should consider, enter a value into the box next to Maximum Radius.
Set Advanced Options - The Advanced Options panel allows you to set specific criteria for locating the optimal sites. In the Existing Location section you can setup a filter so that only certain sites from your existing stores layer will be excluded from the optimisation instead of excluding all the sites within the layer.
If you don't want to exclude all the sites in your existing stores layer, use the boxes to setup the required filter and press Apply. You can add up to 5 additional filters by pressing the + button.
Select locations of interest - The Captive Filter section allows you to select particular captive locations that you are interested in instead of allowing the system to consider all the captive location sites included in the layer. If you only want to include certain captive locations, use the boxes to setup the required filter and press Apply. You can add up to 5 filter criteria by pressing the + button.
To return to the main Site Optimiser panel press the back arrow at the top left of the panel.
Ranking potential new sites - The Scoring section of the panel lets you choose the key drivers or the leading factors which will allow the system to rank the potential sites in terms of suitability. To choose your first Driver click on the dropdown box next to Layer and then select the Captive Locations layer that you choose to select the optimal sites from. Then select the column that is important to the success of a site from the Column dropdown list.
To add additional drivers, press the + button, Up to 10 drivers can be selected and different weightings can be allocation to each driver depending on their importance.
To change the weighting of a driver drag the Weighting slider or type a number into the number box. Give the drivers which are the most important higher values than those that are less important.
If you tick the box next to Overwrite Styling the potential sites will be shaded on the map in red, amber and green according to how high they rank in terms of suitability as new sites.
The system has a standard method for classifying each of the drivers but you can change the method by clicking on Advanced Options and selecting the method that you require.
Once you are happy with your settings you can press Optimise to run the Site Optimisation.
Viewing the results on the map - A new layer will be created which contains the optimal sites. if you choose to Overwrite Styling in the Scoring section of the Site Optimiser the resulting sites will be displayed on the map coloured according to their score but you may need to zoom in to see the Catchments in detail.
You can open the legend by clicking on the legend icon which is on the toolbar to the right of the map, to check how each of the catchments has been coloured. The green areas are the areas which score the highest against the criteria that you set.
To see the list of Catchments and the data associated with them open the data view by clicking on the datagrid icon at the bottom left of the map. You will see that there is an individual score column for each of the drivers that you choose for the optimisation. There is also an overall Score which has been used to determine the rank which is displayed in the Rank column. The catchments with the lowest Ranks are those which have scored the best against the criteria that you set.
Viewing the results in the data view - To see the list of sites or Catchments and the data associated with them open the data view by clicking on the datagrid icon at the bottom left of the map. You will see that there is an individual score column for each of the drivers that you chose for the optimisation.
There is also a overall Score which has been used to determine the rank which is displayed in the Rank column. The Catchments with the lowest Ranks are those which have scored the best against the criteria that you set.
