Anderson Economic Group was commissioned by Oakland County to research the best potential locations for Covisint. Covisint is a large e-commerce venture, established by the major auto manufacturers, which will create one of the world’s largest electronic marketplaces.
This study relied upon our firm’s extensive geographical information systems (GIS) facility, which was customized to include the location of all automobile and truck assembly plants in North America, as well as the locations of the top 100 suppliers to original equipment manufacturers (OEM’s) in the North American automobile industry. Using this facility, AEG was able to compare the proximity of a hypothetical Covisint facility to their customers in the following suggested locations: Oakland County and Washtenaw counties in Michigan; Austin, Texas, San Jose, California; and the Route 128 area in Massachusetts.
The study, which included custom maps and summary statistics on each location, was released by Oakland County Executive Brooks Patterson to a special meeting of over 400 local businesses. In January 2002, Covisint announced that it would remain headquartered in Oakland County.