Seeking alternatives to Business Analyst, AnySite/MapInfo, and Sites To Do Business?

I think the kind of academic term you are referring to is "Site Selection".

Also, Anysite is a peculiar product, in that it includes a whole bunch of data as standard, which is why for many GIS Professionals it appears rather expensive for what it does, which in reality isn't all that difficult and only really undertakes fundamental analysis which most spatial software would be able to undertake quite easily.

The power (and therefore the theoretical justification for the cost) of Anysite comes with the combination of the data and the software (albeit quite poor software) ... not one or the other.

So if you are looking to procure something to replace you setup, ensure you have both the data and software components covered otherwise you may very well find the old adage "grass is always greener" rings true.

Also, if you're in Australia, the ABS table builder can provide you with much of the data that sits within AnySite, including links with geography IDs. It would take an inordinate amount of time to get it all as its obviously a massive amount of data, but if you had something small and tightly scoped you could use this to replicate the data and then use your GIS package of choice to do the analysis.

I would strongly recommend Maptitude as a geospatial software package to meet your spatial analysis needs. I have been a user of the software for about 3 years now, as the software is quite affordable compared to MapInfo and ESRI Business Analyst Online. The software is aimed at the business/real estate person who needs to do site selection work, hot spots, demographic analysis, and advanced trade area analysis. The software is easy to use, customizable, and can easily bring in point data from an Excel Spreadsheet with your store attribute data including latitude/longitude or by address (the software comes with a great geocoder). You can also build your own formulas to do a custom analysis. Included with your country package of choice is detailed census data available at the county, zip code and census tract levels.

Maptitude - http://www.caliper.com/maptovu.htm Map Examples - http://www.cardgeog.com/business/analyzing-new-locations/

To do real estate site analysis inexpensively, I'd recommend Meridian Econometrics' tool at www.meridianecon.com. It's very easy to use, and the visualizations and reports are clean and useful. The maps use contours instead of choropleth to differentiate zones according to search criteria, and the analytical engine incorporates mobility. All in all it's a lot of help for very little money.