Local information systems

A Local information system (LIS) is a form of information system built with business intelligence tools, designed primarily to support geographic reporting. They overlap with some capabilities of geographic information systems (GIS), although their primary function is the reporting of statistical data rather than the analysis of geospatial data. LIS also tend to offer some common knowledge management functionality for storage and retrieval of unstructured data such as documents. They deliver functionality to load, store, analyse and present statistical data that has a strong geographic reference. In most cases the data is structured as indicators and is linked to discrete geographic areas, for example population figures for US counties or numbers claiming unemployment benefit across wards in England. The ability to present this data using data visualization tools like charts and maps is also a core feature of these systems.