Posted December 29, 2016 in Site Selection
What happens when you combine an intuitive, user-friendly digital platform and an assortment of comprehensive resources that enable timely, data-driven decision making for professionals involved in all facets of site selection? You get a groundbreaking online site selection tool.
In 2017, the innovative platform described above will become a reality.
Applying the experience and insight gained from operating our current Site Selection Center since 2008, and utilizing feedback from SSC end-users, businesses, and economic development and site selection consultants, Entergy is in the process of developing a new SSC – a tool that will set the standard for site selection websites.
Today, a large percentage of site selection activities occur online. Businesses and site selection specialists often depend on websites to find properties and their associated data to make well-informed decisions about potential locations. Correspondingly, Realtors, economic developers, and property owners use site selection websites to market their available properties.
As an economic development leader, Entergy has taken on the challenge of developing a platform that meets the needs of individuals involved in the site selection process. This is why we are focusing our efforts on creating an easy-to-use platform with robust search and property management functionality, simple navigation, and responsive design technology that provides a consistent user experience across any device – desktop or mobile.
Entergy’s new SSC will provide these benefits and more.
Site selection is perhaps the most important decision a business can make. Because of this, having access to a one-stop-shop that allows decision makers to find properties that meet specific requirements and gain comprehensive demographic and property data, is essential.
Entergy’s current Site Selection Center makes this possible with an interactive geographic information system (GIS) mapping application, an ever-increasing database of buildings and sites, and business and demographic data. Moving forward, we are very excited about what the Next-Gen SSC is going to offer.
Knowing that a property is available, and having the ability to analyze the appropriate data associated with the property, is for all intents and purposes the baseline of a property search. Simply stated, a robust property inventory is essential to site selection. This is why listing and managing properties will be made as simple as possible.
Furthermore, the new SSC will include a number of additional features that improve property management:
Entergy’s wrapper program will continue to be an integral part of the Site Selection Center. Wrappers allow the economic development organization to have a website that focuses on their region and is consistent with their branding. All properties that appear on a wrapper website also appear on the main SSC ensuring the broader marketing of the property. Since wrappers are an adapted view of the SSC, the economic development organizations utilizing them will realize all the benefits of this Next-Gen website.
The new Site Selection Center will include a library of short, to the point tutorial videos to quickly get users up-to-speed on key features of the website. Following the launch, Entergy will sponsor a robust training effort that will include roadshows in the four-state Entergy Region (Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas). Until then, Entergy will continue to focus on ways to provide innovative solutions that streamline the site selection process for property managers, site selectors and businesses everywhere.
With Entergy for 15 years, Pamela Webster is the program manager for Entergy’s Site Selection Center website. She is exceptionally skilled at performing geographic information systems (GIS) analysis on data relevant to locations for a particular industry or company. Pam has been honored with the Esri Technical Certification of ArcGIS Desktop Associate, which recognizes superior skill levels utilizing Esri’s software for GIS.
