In the fast-paced world of economic development and corporate expansion, making a “billion-dollar decision” requires more than just a list of addresses; it requires big picture empowerment. At Strata Platforms, our mission is to create unrivalled software solutions that help our partners build a case for their most important moves. Whether you are a site selector pinpointing a new location or an economic developer marketing a community’s assets, our integrated tools—LOIS and Lasso—are designed to deliver greater visibility, efficiency, and evidence-based analytics. 

LOIS: GIS Property Database for Economic Development 

LOIS serves as the public-facing “front door” for communities, utilities, and railroads to showcase their real estate assets on their websites. Originally born out of an energy utility’s need to strategically help communities build a web presence, LOIS has evolved over 25 years into a premier GIS-based property marketing platform. 

• Customization is King: One of the primary advantages of LOIS is its extreme configurability. We operate on the principle: “If you got it, we can map it.” This allows clients to feature unique data layers, from hospitals to deep-water ports and specific utility infrastructure, ensuring that their community’s specific strengths are highlighted.
  
  See a few examples:
  • Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation
  • BNSF Railway
  • Greater Wichita Partnership

• A Story Told Through Data: LOIS goes far beyond a standard real estate listing by integrating high-level data from partners like ESRI for demographics, Lightcast for workforce statistics, and Data Axle for identifying large employers by industry sector.

• The Power of Visualization: In today’s market, visualization is a proven scientific necessity; listings with photos and movement receive double-digit more views than those without. LOIS supports unlimited photos, drone footage, and even custom video “pitches” from economic developers to introduce themselves to prospects in an approachable way.

Lasso: RFI Management Software for Site Selection Projects 

While LOIS handles the outward marketing, Lasso is the private, secure workspace where the “heavy lifting” of a site selection project occurs. Strata Platforms takes data privacy and project confidentiality extremely seriously, with strict standards in place to ensure sensitive information remains protected at every stage. It is a private communication and workflow software built specifically to manage Requests for Information (RFIs). 

• Replacing the “Email Chaos”: Lasso was built to replace the insecure practice of emailing confidential infrastructure, utility, and incentive information. It centralizes all requests, deadlines, and documents in a single workspace. 

• Team Coordination: Lasso allows regional or state teams to delegate specific RFI questions to partners and utilities, ensuring everyone works from the same data set and meets the same deadlines. 

• Memory and Efficiency: One of Lasso’s most powerful features is its ability to “remember” previous submissions. This prevents local economic developers from having to re-enter the same community data for every new project, transforming teams from fatigued to organized. 

The true strength of Strata Platforms lies in how these tools work together to remove silos.  

Global Reach via LocationOne.com 

Every LOIS subscriber receives an automatic co-listing on LocationOne.com, which functions as a “meta-aggregator”—the Zillow of corporate site selection. 

• Massive Visibility: This site aggregates over 55,000 sites and buildings across North America, attracting thousands of monthly views from investors in over 80 countries. 

• Site Selector Ready: Because site selection consultants, foreign direct investors and domestic corporations want a single place to discover and search for economic development properties, LocationOne provides a unified map for discovery, search, filtering, and saving favorites. 

Here to Serve You 

Our ecosystem is designed for the diverse players who shape our economies: 

• Economic Development Organizations (State, Regional, & Local): Our “Umbrella Subscriptions” allow states to purchase access for all their local partners, ensuring a unified system while letting each community have its own custom map to tell its own unique story. 

• Utilities and Railroads: These partners use LOIS to feature properties that will drive new revenue and support the community partners within their multi-state service territories. 

• Industrial Real Estate Brokers: LOIS provides a deeper level of data, such as workforce intensity and utility specs, that traditional commercial real estate platforms often lack, giving brokers a competitive edge in attracting corporate end-users. 

At Strata Platforms, we believe that big decisions require the big picture. By combining sophisticated mapping, secure project management, and global data aggregation, we empower our partners to move with confidence. 

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