How Create A Customer Layer With Address data works

This tool allows you to add address data of your customers to your map. The Customer Setup tools geocode your data and place the data as points on your map. When data is added to your map, it will be associated with the analysis extent that is active at the time. If the active analysis extent is a study area, the layer will be added to the group layer of that study area. You can change the analysis extent at any time using Set Analysis Extent on the Business Analyst menu.

The data source for dimension members can be of three types: OLAP Data (the information on the dimension table can be extracted from cube metadata), OLE DB (the information on the dimension table can be extracted from a database by OLE DB), or Tabular Data (the dimension information stored in a .dbf, a comma- or tab-delimited .txt file, or an RDBMS).

Note:

In the case of Tabular Data if your data is in an RDBMS, you must bring the data into ArcGIS before setting it up using the Business Analyst tools. To do this, click the Add Data button, click the Look in drop-down menu, then click Database Connections. Choose the database connection and follow the wizard to finish adding the database to ArcMap. You can also set up a database connection in ArcCatalog. Only stores that fall within your study area will be analyzed if you have set up a study area using the Create Study Area wizard and that study area is set as the analysis extent.

The Set Up Customer Layer With Address Data tool will geocode points on the map by Address/City/State/ZIP (optional), Address/ZIP, ZIP, or ZIP+4. The more information you provide, the better your geocoding results will be. If you don't have addresses in your database and are going to geocode by ZIP or ZIP+4, click ZIP or some other database field in the Address drop-down menu and ZIP drop-down menu of the Geocoding dialog box.

Geocoding by ZIP Code places the store point at the center point (centroid) of the ZIP Code. If you use this fallback approach, the point locations will be less accurate than while geocoding by the address, city, and state. When store points are geocoded, multiple points can be geocoded at one location, because the file might contain stores that share the same address. For example, you may have multiple store records that have the same address from a single shopping mall. While address geocoding, the unit number can't be used to determine the location of a point, so all stores with the same address will be placed on top of each other.

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