3. Maps provide a context for aggregation and division of data

Maps give valuable visual cues when rolling up data into territories, as well as breaking it down into sub-territories and individual entities such as stores or salespeople.  Quickly toggling between data aspects and even combining some of those aspects provide visual feedback that can often be absorbed much more quickly by the user than textual feedback alone.

Fig. 3:  Here territories are shaded based on underlying values.  Clicking on a territory, region, or individual store drives the spreadsheet to aggregate or disaggregate revenue totals, and the details panel updates with corresponding charts and graphs.

Maps provide a venue for ad hoc sub-divisions of data

A spatial query is a very powerful tool to extract a sub-set of data tailored to answer specific questions.  Incorporating this capability into a dashboard delivers tremendous power into the hands of the user.  Data can be aggregated based on proximity to a specific location, or even joined by a meandering polygon based on the needs of the user at a particular time.  Maps armed with spatial query tools give the user the ability to quickly aggregate any set of entities that they choose.

Fig. 4:  Here a spatial query is used to filter which suppliers should be emailed regarding the crisis at hand.  Similarly, KPIs or any other data about these suppliers could be aggregated and displayed back to user.