How to Create & Share Map Analysis in Map Business Online

Posted on January 25, 2017 by Geoffrey Ives

In a word – yes. Map analysis and sharing is easy in Map Business Online. Please allow me to elaborate. (You know you want me to.)

When a zip code, county, jurisdiction-based territory map is created in Map Business Online, business map users are defining an area of accountability  or interest that could apply to a sales person, a field technician, an insurance claims agent, or a clinician. In fact, these areas of interest could apply to any business at all and for many reasons.

Put simply, business maps can be viewed as defined areas of work; sales work, marketing work, medical work, any work. These geographical areas of interest or territories will have data layers assigned to them for analysis purposes.

Each Map Business Online territory can be viewed as a combination of datasets. Go to the Data Window view in Map Business Online and in the drop-down, pull up your territory by name.  Now your Data Window view displays your territory’s associated data layers.

When territories or areas of interest are first created, the data layers assigned are simply the ones that Map Business Online decides are important. But you are the boss of Map Business Online.  By clicking the More Data button, in the lower right corner of your Data Window view, you can decide what data is to be associated with your territory.

The More Data button opens up a database manager view. Relax! It’s easy to use. You’ve got your existing data on the right – the stuff we assigned. On the left-side there is easy drop-down access to more data options.

First, look at the existing data layers on the right. Select one layer with your cursor – like Primary County. Once selected it becomes highlighted. Use the Blue Arrows in the middle to move it to the Left Side. That’s how you move data out and into your territory data view – with those blue arrows.  The primary ZIP code and primary county layers are largely for addressing jurisdictions that overlap. They aren’t used very often. Nuke ’em. By that I mean, calmly select them and move them to the left.

Now, on the left under General, select the Drop Down arrow.  Here you will find Demographic Data, Calculated Data options, and any Imported data you may have pulled in as a spreadsheet. Feel free to add these data layers to your territory analysis. That’s right – I said, “Analysis.” This is your territory analysis. Aren’t you fancy? 

Ok Mr. Fancy Pants, when you are satisfied with your analysis, you can export that data by clicking the right most button on the Data Window toolbar – Export Territory to File.  Your data analysis will be exported out as a CSV file which can be opened from within Excel. Go ahead. Share it.

The Data Analysis methodology described above, is a great way to share information with your constituents.  Territory and Market Analysis maps provide valuable information for co-workers, clients, and other stake holders associated with your business.

Bensen's

Street Level Detail – Always Available

Map Business Online makes sharing your maps and map analysis  easy for business map users.  Map sharing is a critical feature for corporate users. Maps are for sharing not silo-ing. Once your territory is created you can share your maps in multiple ways:

·         Export dataset views from the Data Window as a CSV file and share as a spreadsheet

·         Save territory map views as image files and share through email or PowerPoint type presentations

·         Create a shared interactive web map URL using the Map Business Online MapShare button. Your Map Viewers will be able to interactively click on points, view shared data in a data window, conduct data queries, and route on their shared business map. This is a very affordable and powerful way to share maps

·         Generate YUGE Map Business Online wall maps using the large PDF formatting in the Print Button

·         Use an online screen sharing application to share your Map Business Online application live

·         Advanced users can set-up teams of shared map editing users among full Map Business Online subscribers. Collaborative editing is a powerful way to solve shared business challenges

Sharing your territory or area of interest analysis with your constituents encourages feedback, buy-in and strategic thinking based on location intelligence. Are your competitors conducting such analysis? Maybe, maybe not.

So you see, it’s easy. And where I come, it’s called, “Wicked easy.”

Map Business Online – Easy, affordable, advanced and we’ll help.

Find out why over 25,000 business users log into www.MapBusinessOnline.com

Contact: Geoffrey Ives geoffives@spatialteq.com or Jason Henderson jhenderson@spatialteq.com (800) 425-9035

MapPoint users – please consider www.MapBusinessOnline.com as your MapPoint Replacement.

Please read customer reviews or review us at Capterra, or at the Salesforce.com AppExchange.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

How Far is It & How Long Will It Take Us to Get There?

Posted on January 18, 2017 by Geoffrey Ives

One might answer, “It’s pretty far and it will take a while.” Put another way, the question might be, “Are we there yet?” Before you muzzle your children, read on.

Distance and time measurements are at the core of what business mapping, or any map software provides. “How far is it?” can be answered quickly using business mapping software by simply drawing a crow flies line from point A to point B. Look for the ruler on the toolbar in Map Business Online.

So yeah, a line from point A to point B answers the question of distance, but it does not address time. And for us non-crows, traveling on roads, timing is going to entail a more complex calculation. In business mapping, driving time calculations accommodate:

  • Road classifications – highway, secondary roads, dirt roads
  • Turn restrictions – many cities don’t all left turns into traffic. This impacts route times
  • Speed limits – related to road classifications and zoning
  • Traffic – historical traffic data can be a critical aspect of the calculation, especially for high traffic areas at commuting times

Business mapping driving time calculations are applied to point-to-point routing estimates and to drive time polygon calculations. Point-to-point route calculations simply compile a list of stops (in Map Business Online the limit is 100 stops per route) and sum the segment distances and times into the overall calculation. By choosing to optimize the overall route calculation the user is requesting the most efficient route from start to finish, disregarding stop order input.

Thus, route calculations can be a great way to estimate the amount of time a field technician requires to get from one location account to another. Map Business Online users use optimized routing to build estimates for jobs, to plan efficient routes for driving, and to verify mileages from expense report submittals.  In other words, routing tools aren’t just for drivers.

So, if a driving technicians ever calls to ask, “Am I there yet?” tell him to quit whining or you’ll give you something to whine about – Copyright Rick Ives (my Dad, 1972-ish).

Driving time

Drive Times

Classic drive time calculations in business mapping software, like Microsoft MapPoint, expand upon point to point route calculations.  Drive time calculations begin at a central point and then proceed outward from that point in all directions, along the road network. The result is usually a jagged a polygon describing the furthest extent a vehicle could drive in all directions, in the time allotted, from the designated central point.

In Map Business Online the drive time tool calculates driving distance as well. It’s the same process expect the vehicle drives a set distance from the central point, in all directions. In either distance or time calculations the results are derived from the inherent road network data of the mapping application.

In Map Business Online drive time calculations can be initiated from the Search Tool by selecting the Drive Time option and placing the start point on the map. A user could also begin by inputting an Address and clicking the Drive Time polygon tool in the mini-toolbar associated with your location point. Either way, a drive time or distance calculation can be initiated.

Driving time and driving distance polygons are effective ways to estimate market potential, to gauge consumer interest based on the demographic realities inside of a drive time polygon. If you have a sense of how far people are willing to drive for an event, and you have the population of that area,  then you can estimate attendance.

An example could be a seminar on retirement planning held at a major hotel event center. Based on earlier research the seminar team knows people will drive up to 40 minutes to attend the seminar, any more time and attendance drops off. The seminar’s target demographics are all ethnicities, male and female, ages 55 and up. A quick drive time polygon will establish the size of your potential audience. From there, advertising costs can be calculated for reaching the seminar audience.

Drive time area calculations are also great ways to define coverage areas and territories. Insurance claim field work is often assigned by area and using drive time estimates to define those areas make sense because time is related to capacity. A claim’s agent will get more accomplished in areas where driving times are short, between claims.

Are We Done Yet?

In business mapping software, and in Map Business Online specifically, the user can estimate distances and drive times:

  • For quick rough estimates – simply draw a measure line and use the crow fly distance. “Jim it’s ten freaking miles. Quit whining and go, or I’ll give you…”
  • Create a point-to-point optimized route to generate exact distance and time estimates.  “Ed you submitted an expense for 30 miles. I show 15 here in Map Business Online. Educate me.”
  • Create a drive time or driving distance polygon that will define an area based on driving time or distance from a central point in all directions. “Sir, the car wash is being held on a Saturday morning. No father is going to drive more than 15 minutes with screaming kids in the car. That’s your audience.”

It helps to explain to your map audience how these various approaches yield varying degrees of accuracy in the results. That way, instead of asking, “Are we there yet?” over and over, they might just fall asleep.

At least they’re not whining.

Map Business Online – Easy, affordable, advanced and we’ll help.

Find out why over 25,000 business users log into www.MapBusinessOnline.com

Contact: Geoffrey Ives geoffives@spatialteq.com or Jason Henderson jhenderson@spatialteq.com (800) 425-9035

MapPoint users – please consider www.MapBusinessOnline.com as your MapPoint Replacement.

Please read customer reviews or review us at Capterra, or at the Salesforce.com AppExchange.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

How Do Corporations Apply Business Mapping Software?

Posted on January 4, 2017 by Geoffrey Ives

Large and small businesses seek new perspectives, business intelligence, and improved operations through the application of business mapping software. Enterprises do this for both strategic and tactical reasons. Enterprise mapping enhances business processes across the organization.

For years, corporate America has been well served by Microsoft MapPoint as a tool that provided business maps for enterprise and corporate planning. But with MapPoint’s cancelation, most business mapping services are now cloud-based, easy-to-use and completely affordable. And I assume you realize all that old MapPoint map data is more than a decade old. It’s time for corporate planners to start researching their options for business mapping tools that help maintain a competitive edge in sales and marketing, while improving efficiencies across the entire organization.

Strategic Applications

Business mapping provides strategic advantages because business analysis supplemented with geographic views can enhance strategic planning with location intelligence. Corporate managers come and go. Strategies tends to shift based on who’s calling the shots – we’ve all experienced this. But location intelligence anchors your strategic decision-making process to Earth-based realities. A zip code will reflect specific sales volumes, Census based demographics, patient activities by zip code, and competitive presence in zip codes – these are realities that don’t shift when the latest Guru shows up. By leveraging that location information across a network of zip codes, strategic direction can be quantified, goals set and progress measured against goals.

Strategic plans based on location intelligence are definable –easily explained to your team. Consider the difference between this:

  • Folks we believe you can grow the business by 25% next year by redoubling your efforts.

And this:

  • We’ve identified our best performing zip codes across the USA and established a preferred zip code profile in areas where we do not currently sell product. By focusing in these specific prospect areas, we believe we can grow our business by 25% next year. Here’s the list of zip codes with the highest potential.

Enterprise level strategic processes that can benefit from business mapping include market analysis, competitor analysis or even business expansion planning. A true strategic plan should always include location intelligence at some level. Virtually any analysis related to customers, facilities, prospects or staff can be enhanced through business mapping.

Communicate Accountability with Clarity

Business maps are visual. They provide a visual assessment of a business plan that can be instantly understood if the maps are created carefully. Business maps are also easily shared and are therefore excellent tools for gathering feedback or simply communicating the strategic or tactical message your teams need to understand.

Business maps drive accountability because they offer real, often physical boundaries that define responsibilities for field workers, teams, and managers. By establishing clear lines of territory control and accountability, perhaps with company sanctioned overlapping highlighted, managers are taking the guesswork out of field work flows. Reduce ambiguity through business mapping.

The Tactical

Business mapping software is applied tactically by large enterprises to effectively manage field teams in operations such as home care staff management, insurance claims management, field technician coordination and basic field sales planning. Corporate departments and teams use mapping tools to visualize groups of customers or prospects for contact or visits. Insurance companies visualize claims, ATM companies visualize bank machines, billboard advertising firms visualize billboard placements. Sales departments across all business create sales territory mapping.  The list goes on. Route planning tools are available for folks who travel and to organize field work around areas of responsibility.

By defining coverage areas and territories, business managers assign tasks and objectives related to physical addresses or points on a map. As mentioned above, territory maps help define areas of accountability. Optimized routing drives efficiency. Planned business routes dovetail with time schedules and offer an opportunity to contact other prospects in a defined areas. If your technician gets done early, is there another home he can visit to make his trip more efficient?

Drive time analysis can be applied to explore the proximity of all potential customers or businesses in a target area. By adding a drive time polygon to a business map, a manager can visualize every potential customer within a 90-minute driving time of a facility or store. There is power in that map time-based view:

  • Drive time can define sales potential – There are X number of accounts with a 90-minute drive in all directions
  • Drive time can limit wanderers – You will get no credit for activity outside of a 30-minute drive time polygon
  • Drive time can define coverage areas – We may want to add a sales rep in the Grand Junction area because it falls outside of our usual drive time network

Enterprise use of business mapping is often related to sales and marketing processes.  Large industrial corporations and service enterprises use business mapping to supplement marketing and sales processes across their organizations.

Corporate users apply business tools tactically toward market analysis in several ways.  Marketing departments segment marketing campaigns geographically, testing various areas by message or offer. Marketers also like to derive campaign results geographically, tracking results for future campaign development in other areas or for other products.

Marketing mapping is really just managing and visualizing huge amounts of address based data sets against a map.  Subscription management, marketing agency work, retail sales analysis are all areas that benefit from the application of business mapping software.

Competitor Map

Supplemental mapping analysis for large firms that focus on consumer product sales will by enhanced by the addition of demographic data.  A business map acts as a database management tool easily merging demographic data categories with map administrative district layers, and even imported business data pertinent only to the user organization. Once again, an easy affordable solution for deriving a multi-layered visualization that helps corporate decision makers move processes forward.

Developing better business processes and new business strategies is just the constant way of things. Business models are made to be broken. Surround your business with the tools to analyze results, expose new patterns, and communicate effectively. Stop delaying replacing MapPoint. Experience and re-experience the power of location-based visualizations.

Map Business Online – Easy, affordable, advanced and we’ll help.

Find out why over 25,000 business users log into www.MapBusinessOnline.com

Contact: Geoffrey Ives geoffives@spatialteq.com or Jason Henderson jhenderson@spatialteq.com (800) 425-9035, (207) 939-6866

MapPoint users – please consider www.MapBusinessOnline.com as your MapPoint Replacement.

Please read customer reviews or review us at Capterra, or at the Salesforce.com AppExchange.

 

 

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Map Business Online CloudTrust Rating & Customer Reviews

Posted on December 21, 2016 by Geoffrey Ives

This week Christmas came early to my Map Business Online office here in Western Maine. Outside the landscape was yuletide ready with a solid six inches of snow on the ground and well below zero wind chills, forcing me to stoke the wood stove with a few extra sticks of wood from the woodpile.

Last week ,we sent out December’s email newsletter – Your Business Map. In addition to features and tips it highlighted several critical new elements in our business mapping software evolution.

The Map Business Online website now includes a dedicated security section that talks about all the things we do to keep imported user data, and users in general, safe and secure while online. This includes our recent certification by the Skyhigh Networks CloudTrust program. Skyhigh performs an independent thorough review of enterprise level cloud service candidates and we are proud to be welcomed into their fold. In 2016 Map Business Online was also reviewed and approved by Veracode at the behest of a top ten property and casualty insurer, through static and dynamic code scans.  Security is a top priority at Map Business Online.

This week also marked the publication of our Business Mapping for the Enterprise landing page.  Here we describe many of the reasons large and small businesses should consider Map Business Online for their business mapping needs.

But my real Christmas gift was this. Our most recent newsletter invited customers to review Map Business Online through Capterra’s software review platform. We got a little less than one hundred reviews – although they are still coming in. Read them here: http://www.capterra.com/gis-software/

These customer reviews repeated four aspects of Map Business Online that both large and small business should pay careful attention to:

1.       Map Business Online is a great replacement for Microsoft MapPoint, especially if you’re managing territories or conducting market analysis

2.       Map Business Online is very easy to learn and use. And if you get stuck we’re standing by to help

3.       You won’t find a more affordable solution. Go ahead. Try. Let me know if you find one

4.       Territory managers, marketing folks and sales planners just love Map Business Online

A growing list of Map Business Online users are applying team collaborative mapping  tools to their business challenges. Sharing maps for co-editing can be a game changer for some organizations or simply a more efficient way to manage a team of map creators in other companies. Which ever category your company falls into, it may be well worth your while to try collaborative map editing.

And now, let’s all try to take a break from mapping and online business for a few days. Enjoy your family and friends over the holidays.

Have a happy and safe holiday!

Map Business Online – Easy, affordable, advanced and we’ll help.

Find out why over 25,000 business users log into www.MapBusinessOnline.com

Contact: Geoffrey Ives geoffives@spatialteq.com or Jason Henderson jhenderson@spatialteq.com (800) 425-9035, (207) 939-6866

MapPoint users – please consider www.MapBusinessOnline.com as your MapPoint Replacement.

Please read customer reviews or review us at Capterra, or at the Salesforce.com AppExchange.

 

 

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Why Does Geographic Data Segmentation Matter?

Posted on December 14, 2016 by Geoffrey Ives

Business mapping users generally import customers, prospect, patient or client addresses into a business map application for visualization and possible segmentation of their data. We’ve talked a lot about data visualization. There’s real value in seeing your customers or patients spread out across an organized business map. But what is the value in segmenting your address databases?

Divvy Up the Work

The most obvious answer for this question can be related to email or direct mail marketing. Segmenting your lists geographically creates manageable chunks of data that are more easily assigned for distribution, follow-up, and results analysis.

Think of it this way. If you’ve got a list of ten thousand names and addresses you’re probably going to divvy that up among a group of sales people or associates for follow-up. No one person is going to contact ten thousand people in a reasonable amount of time. It’s so much more manageable to hand a list of several hundred names to a sales representative and ask them to contact people and record results, then it is to overwhelm them with 5,000 names.

Geographic segmentation of lists makes sense because:

  • States, counties or zip codes are easily queried, generating quick segmented lists for work and review. Segmentation of some sort, is required for marketing tests
  • Geographic groupings may reveal commonalities across customers, patient, or prospect lists. Commonalities can help with messaging. Geographic commonalities could be: weather, sports teams, vernacular, gas prices, epidemics, product interest
  • Geographic segmentations easily incorporate Census demographic statistics, enhancing market comprehension and revealing consumer patterns
  • Travel and delivery related scheduling can be better managed and analyzed through geo-segmentation.

Filtering

Another way to segment imported data is by filtering.  Sure, you can filter your data in Excel, but Excel doesn’t display those filtered results against a zip code map of the USA.

Filtering can be a good way to manage an assignment. Let’s say you’ve been instructed to reach out to every contact in a zip code list. In a business map, you can import your list, then filter by zip code. Maybe you can contact fifteen people in an hour. Filter your data by a few zip codes that approximate an hour’s worth of calls.  This limits the list on the map to just those zip codes. Do your work and color those complete records as done – use whatever symbol and color you’d like to assign.

Later you can view the map to see how much progress you’ve made and how many green dots are still left to contact.  Notes on each the contact discussion can be included in the map data.

Market Analysis & Profiling

Filtering and segmenting supports testing your marketing lists. Everyone in the marketing business knows the mantra “Test, Test, Test.”  Business mapping software provide wonderful segmentation tools that let you test markets with applied science.

For instance, based on your existing list of patients, you could establish a zip code profile for your most challenging or expensive clients. Those zip codes will include demographic characteristics that will, upon review, expose patterns. In this way, you can determine your business’ optimum and worst performing zip codes, establishing a profile by zip code. Your zip code profile establishes optimum demographic criteria for you business. Armed with this information you can look for new target areas to conduct market tests in.

Business mapping software will visually expose demographic areas of interest based on your target profile. Pick three areas and send an email or direct mail piece into each area. Analyze the results. Double check the demographics. Are there new demographic categories to consider? Glance over your data by zip code. Look for anomalies in the data and ask yourself, “Why?”

An example of geo-segmentation and area profiling is an outdoor retailer from Maine. They sought to sell products outside the state of Maine. Through testing and demographic analysis they found similar markets in northern sections of Minnesota and Wisconsin which helped to rapidly expand their retail presence across the whole USA.  Business mapping enables the construction of a demographic market or customer profile which can then be pasted across the entire country.

Zip Code Demogrphic Profile

Arrange Your Business Data

With business mapping, users can segment their address data based on their own data classifications.  Any business data you import into a business mapping software should include columns of data that can be color coded on the map.  Area color shading can be applied to numeric data like sales dollars, gross profit, or record counts. Color shading can also be applied to descriptions by type or category like customer type, product preference, or lead source.

In this way, your data can be segmented on the map view by color, symbol type or even color shaded geographic districts. You could still filter your imported data to show only certain records. For example, you could filter for only those records associated with customer type “house account.”

Filtering your imported data by your particular business classification adds value to your map analysis. In addition to geographic segmentation, zip code demographic profiles, by applying your work’s custom classifications you are leveraging information only your company has available.

You could learn that a specific demographic segment tends to purchase more of product X during the fall time-period, in this section of the USA, or through retailers. There’s a lot of business intelligence to unpack there. But you may find that by using a business map you’ve discovered new questions to ask about your business. Questions your competitors may or may not be asking yet.

Map Business Online – Easy, affordable, advanced and we’ll help.

Find out why over 25,000 business users log into www.MapBusinessOnline.com

Contact: Geoffrey Ives geoffives@spatialteq.com or Jason Henderson jhenderson@spatialteq.com (800) 425-9035, (207) 939-6866

MapPoint users – please consider www.MapBusinessOnline.com as your MapPoint Replacement.

Please read customer reviews or review us at Capterra, or at the Salesforce.com AppExchange.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Large Format Map Printing – Paper, Toner & Patience

Posted on December 7, 2016 by Geoffrey Ives

Business mapping software is a visual tool. Its purpose is to add value and meaning to business analysis through imagery and maps. Those images can be shared as digital files (JPEG, PNG files) or interactive web pages, or they can be printed.

Printing maps is more art than science. Map printing has been happening for thousands of years now. We’ve come a long way since the days of Columbus and Magellan, when maps could take decades to produce. Back then, checking the printer queue involved horses and the iron maiden. These days the maps we print are ready in a matter of minutes.

Today printable maps can still be quite challenging to produce despite the application speeds we experience. Printing a large format map for wall mapping is not a quick click-a-button and you’re done process. Plan to spend some time making your map print job match your desired output.

Map Options

Printing a typical photographic image, like a picture of your child, entails setting a few options, but in large part, the process is straightforward. Crop the image, tweak the color and contrast, then print. Map printing can be quite a bit different from picture printing.

Printing a map requires forethought. You must ask yourself, “What map layers do I want to show in this picture?” Options might include:

  • A street-level detailed map background.
  • Topographic detail.
  • Satellite or aerial imagery.
  • Cities or towns.
  • Rivers and water bodies.
  • Zip codes, counties, Census tracts, states, or other district layers.
  • Demographic data.
  • They imported business data layers.
  • Additional draw layers pertinent to your business – market analysis, territories, lines & points.

In digital mapping, much depends on your area of interest. Simply deciding you want to see a given layer doesn’t solve the problem. You must ask yourself, “What is the map extent I desire for my printed map?”

Your Map Extent

Let’s explore this further. A rectangle will typically define your map extent. That rectangle could be your map application’s screen view or a drawn rectangle you place on the map representing your map area of interest.

If you want to include zip codes on your map and your map extent includes New York City, you need to consider how large an area you can accept before those inner-city zip codes become unviewable. The further you pull, the less detail you’ll achieve in your map result.

Mapping applications are designed to provide a variety of zoom levels for the map viewer. As a map user zooms out, they see more geographic area and less map layer detail. As they zoom in, they see more map layer detail and a smaller size of view. For map layers like ZIP codes, the mapping application is designed to optimize the map viewer’s visual experience so that information is presented in a readable fashion at any given zoom level.

Zip code labels are a great example of how mapping applications manage map layer data views. At a contiguous USA-wide map view, the application must decide which labels it shows if zip code labels are all turned on. It cannot show all ZIP code labels because they overlap, creating an unreadable mess. That’s why Columbus always left the ZIP codes out of American maps.

The map application must control the visual presentation. A map user can tweak the map layers to encourage more ZIP code labels to appear, but there will be a limit. To optimize your view, try to:

  • Zoom in as far as possible while still maintaining the desired map extent.
  • Adjust the zip code label font to the smallest possible setting.
  • Avoid bolding your text.

What is the shape of your area of interest? This matters a lot. The entire USA is a natural landscape view, a printing rectangle that fits pretty well in your business map field of view. States like California, Texas, or New Jersey may be less optimal for full views. We’ve had multiple customers desire a map of Texas that displays all county labels. This is a tall order because the size and shape of Texas do not optimize the map application’s field of view.

California is a vertical object that doesn’t optimize well in a landscape field of view. These states don’t fit nicely into a typical map application screen view because they run vertically, and mapping tends to be landscape or horizontal.

Business Analysis Map

This means the business map user who desires a printed map should consider map layer options and target area shape and size as they prepare to print. For instance, ensure your printer settings are set to landscape view for business maps. It just makes sense to match the map application field of view to the printer parameters.

Print Button Options

MapBusinessOnline includes print options in the Print Button functions. When you print to your desktop printer, your print image will reflect your screen map image exactly. That’s a What You See Is What You Get image. Use this for straight-ahead print jobs on 8.5 x 11 pages.

But to capture more map detail, try large-format printing by saving your map file to PDF. Print from that saved PDF file to a desktop printer’s more extensive page size options, or take a saved print PDF file to a plotter printer.

The extensive formatting options in Map Business Online provide several additional options for your print output:

  • Print…Keep the current map view’s center and scale – Zoom your map view in well beyond your regular field of view. Now play with the paper sizes to optimize your map to print shape and make your output bigger – up to a 60″ x 60″ wall map.
  • Print…limited by selected drawing – Define your map extent by a drawn rectangle, then proceed to paper and size adjustments. The print window will ask for the drawn rectangle. At this point:
  • Close the Print Window.
  • Open the Drawing tools’ Rectangle Tool.
  • Draw the desired rectangle print area.
  • Return to the Print Window and proceed.

But here’s the key to map printing: it’s not a cookie-cutter experience. It requires experimentation and patience. So if you’ve got a map print job ahead of you, think about your options and allow time for investigation at the end.

Remember, Columbus would have killed for a map in half an hour. Plus, all the limes and lemons you require to avoid scurvy are a short drive to the grocery store. And no one is getting keelhauled at your business today. I hope.

_______________________________________________

Discover why over 25,000 business users log into www.MapBusinessOnline.com for their business mapping software and advanced sales territory mapping solution. The best replacement for Microsoft MapPoint happens to be the most affordable.

To access MapBusinessOnline, please register and download the Map App from the website – https://www.mapbusinessonline.com/App-Download.aspx.

After installing the Map App, the MapBusinessOnline launch button will be in the Windows Start Menu or Mac Application folder. Find the MapBusinessOnline folder in the Start Menu scrollbar. Click the folder’s dropdown arrow and choose the MapBusinessOnline option.

The Map App includes the Map Viewer app for free non-subscriber map sharing.

Please read customer reviews or review us at Capterra or g2crowd.

Contact: Geoffrey Ives at geoffives@spatialteq.com or Jason Henderson at jhenderson@spatialteq.com.

Posted in Business Mapping Software blog post, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Why Would I Use Census Tracts in Business Mapping?

Posted on November 16, 2016 by Geoffrey Ives

Business mapping users apply a variety of geographic layers to their map analysis. These layers include cities, zip codes, counties, states and Census tracts – among others. Geographic map layers display boundaries that define specific administrative districts. A defined zip code boundary on the map represents a specific area associated with specific demographic values. Other values can be assigned to districts as well, like user define business data or external data layers such as hospitals, businesses or natural resources.

In business mapping, these defined geographic areas are used as a basis for creating territories, areas of interest, focused market analysis, demographic analysis, coverage areas, as well as business process and planning maps.

Census tracts are geographic districts defined by the US Census Bureau as, “Census Tracts are small, relatively permanent statistical subdivisions of a county or equivalent entity that are updated by local participants prior to each decennial census as part of the Census Bureau’s Participant Statistical Areas ”

Census tracts, as boundaried areas, are used in business mapping as a base unit for the creation of map analysis. Census tracts offer advantages to map users such as granularity in urban areas, direct relationships to published Census demographics, and an alternative to zip codes in map layer color shading.

Census tracts can be tricky. Unlike zip codes, Census tracts are not unique. Note the definition includes the words “relatively permanent.” I can find a Census tract labeled “1104” in CA, CT, FL, GA, IL, MN, MO, NY, PA, TN, PR, and UT. And there are lots of Census Tract numbers.

If I told my wife I was going to be “relatively permanent” for this upcoming Holiday season, I’d be eating Chinese take-out in a flea-bag hotel room on Christmas morning. Just saying.

What this relative permanence means is, if you are looking up a Census tract number to locate an area, build a territory, or create an area of interest, you’re going to need to specify the State or FIPS code as well. A FIPS code helps to appropriately identify and locate Census tracts in mapping.

A FIPS code is a five-digit Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS.) FIPS codes are intended to uniquely identify counties and county equivalents in the USA. Within Map Business Online, FIPS codes identify which state and counties contain the Census tracts you may be interested in.

In Map Business Online, sales territory creation by polygon search or draw tools works for Census tracts in the same way it does for zip codes or counties. First, make sure the Census tract layer is turned on. Simply select a search tool and draw an object on the map. Choose Census tracts as the searchable layer. Name and save the territory. Easy-peasy.

However, if you are importing a territory dataset using the Create Territories button, you’ll need to pay attention. As you import your data, in the dialog drop down for Census Data make sure you choose the FIPS code option. This will appropriately identify the state as you import your Census tract based datasets. Once the process is completed you should find your territories color shaded by Census tract and territory name.

MapPoint Users

If you have created territories in MapPoint and you want to convert these for use in a new business mapping application’s territory mapping tool, make sure your export includes columns for: FIPS, Census Tract, State and Territory Name.

If your business has been a MapPoint territory map user Map Business Online may be able to assist in your conversion process. MapPoint offers the ability to export your territory datasets as an Excel spreadsheet or CSV file. In some cases, you may be able to import that data directly into Map Business Online for territory creation. But if it’s got Census tracts involved there may be some issues to contend with.

For one thing, your MapPoint subscription is based on old data. Not just because they obsoleted MapPoint in 2014, but because Microsoft stopped updating geographic layers years prior to 2014. Using MapPoint for territory management today is like asking your aging parents where to take your wife for your anniversary dinner. The Blue Plate special at the Agawam Diner is simply not the place to respark the old magic.

Because MapPoint data is old, there are several iterations of FIPS and Census tract updates that are missing in the data. This means your territory assignments will require adjustments. You can certainly adjust those Census tract assignments manually, but if you have hundreds of territories an automatic conversion can save time and accuracy.

Map Business Online is happy to process this conversion for a reasonable fee, which we can estimate through a review of your data. Please let us know if you would like some help with a MapPoint conversion.

Once your territories are established in Map Business Online you can simply select a Census tract or a group of tracts to adjust your territories to your liking. Again – easy, peasy.

Moving Forward

Census tracts offer advantages for map analysis and territory management. In heavily populated urban areas Census tracts typically represent smaller areas with a lot more people living in them. From a mapping perspective Census tracts offer a tighter segmentation across the map view. Busy traveling field staff who found zip codes too wide an area to manage might plan more effectively using a Census tract based territory map.

Likewise, analysts that seek more detail on population or other demographic data distributions often turn to Census tracts as an appropriate base layer for their area of interest. In extremely populated urban areas like Los Angeles or New York City a zip code breakdown of data may simply be too big a picture.

In short, Census tracts are a good choice for business mapping applications that require more detail than zip code or county based maps. They offer better options for finer control of territory coverages. If your business spends a fair amount time wondering which street in neighborhood is next, consider Census tracts as your base unit for area of interest map development.

Tracts & Zips Where I Grew Up

Tracts & Zips Where I Grew Up

Map Business Online – Easy, affordable, advanced and we’ll help.

Find out why over 25,000 business users log into www.MapBusinessOnline.com

Contact: Geoffrey Ives geoffives@spatialteq.com or Jason Henderson jhenderson@spatialteq.com (800) 425-9035, (207) 939-6866

MapPoint users – please consider www.MapBusinessOnline.com as your MapPoint Replacement.

Please read customer reviews or review us at Capterra, or at the Salesforce.com AppExchange.

 

 

 

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Can Business Mapping Help With Our Annual Business Planning?

Posted on November 9, 2016 by Geoffrey Ives

The answer is decidedly ‘Yes’ – business mapping software can provide critical intelligence that enhances plan  development. It can also help to clearly communicate key components of your plan.

Whether you’re running a small business or managing a department you’ve got goals and objectives to meet. By this time in the annual business cycle, you’re starting to plan on next year’s goals and objectives. This may be your first planning ‘rodeo’ or you may have been through the annual planning process dozens of times.

Regardless of how often you’ve conducted business planning and goal setting exercises consider adding affordable business mapping software to your quiver of arrows, the list of tools you can count on to inform your business planning and effectively communicate your plan’s details.

The fact of the matter is business mapping software is predominantly cloud-based now, which makes it readily available, easy-to-use and very affordable. There’s little pain in your taking a business mapping tool for a spin to see how it can help plan strategically. Have an administrator or assistant manager sign up for a free trial. All they’ll need is access to the mapping software and an address spreadsheet of accounts, patients, properties or donors – whatever location-based data your business typically generates.

MapPoint Replacement

In the past, many organizations purchased Microsoft MapPoint’s desktop mapping software. A great tool in its day for about $300. Sadly, MapPoint was canceled by Microsoft in 2014 leaving thousands of users scrambling for a replacement – like Map Business Online – and seeking a solution at a similar price point.

MapPoint provided tools for sales territory management, sales planning and field technician optimized route management. It offered marketing analysis tools and demographic map analysis that supported competitive analysis, strategic planning, and basic business visualizations that can expose business trends and shed light on what’s working and what may be a serious problem in your business future.

Microsoft MapPoint also gave a way a lot of advanced functionality like fleet tracking and GIS analysis which may force some users to turn to significantly more expensive solutions.

For most users, business mapping software remains an affordable option for supplementing strategic plans, building basic business analysis, route planning, and sales territory alignment.

Next Year’s Business Plan

If you’ve never applied a business mapping software to your business planning or daily business analysis, “Darling, your luck’s about to change,” to steal a film noir quote from the Big Easy.

Any plan worth a bucket of compost will look at the past and project the future.  This is a basic component of a business plan. Even if that plan simply says, “In the past we failed. Now we’re moving forward.”

Business maps can clearly display sales activity on a map – point maps showing specific account by account sales activity, heat maps showing hot spots of field support activity, or perhaps county or zip code color shaded maps to reflect the number of donors each area over the past year.  It all depends on your business. Just import a location enable dataset. Location enable means you have columns for addressing, or even just zip codes. Import all the extra data columns you need to create maps that support your plan.

Business maps can be manipulated to reflect demographic break downs of major areas of work concentration – by zip code, city, county or other jurisdictions. Demographic data, presented as a color shade or as an actual numeric figure, can support significant changes in business approaches, making the selling of your plan an easier task.

For example, a business manager for a field medical agency might want to adjust staff placements across the state based on changes in the organization’s patient census. A demographic map view can support that plan’s implementation by displaying a growing population of 65 to 99 year olds across the coverage area along with dots or symbols of your choice representing actual patient locations (no identities of course.)   Your business plan proposes a change, outlines the process, and supports the concept with a business map view.

Heat Map View

Heat Map View

Maps for Research vs. Maps for Communicating

Working with a business mapping software opens-up a world of spatial assistance. Many business planner use maps to conduct research. Once again, demographic analysis can display trending opportunities or threats. By importing some of your key address-based business data layers your map will incorporate your particular business reality.  In this way, your business map will help to flesh out your business plan, informing your analysis about obstacles that may block plans or perhaps exposing paths to achieving results in-spite of obstacles.

These research maps could include multiple layers of data, perhaps two or three map iterations of the same area highlighting different data layers on different map views. Your imported data is a critical element. By adding product, sales, staff, or even competitor data to these map views, your expanding your business awareness. Though this business mapping exercise you are trying to expose areas of commonality, obvious duplications of field effort, surprise areas of sales success and perhaps the lack of presence in critical areas. Let your mind wander over your business map.

Use these research maps to assist in developing your plan.  Then pick and choose some map views to help communicate your plan.  Make sure those map views are focused on the issues that most support your plan. Avoid too much data or map clutter. A complicated map can detract from you plan while a focused map with a couple of keep data sets can make a striking point for the right audience at the right time.

Map Sharing

You’ve got three ways to share maps in your business plan.

  1. Save map images or static map views and embed them in Power Point Presentations or similar software. This is a great way to emphasize points in your plan. Simply save the map image as a PNG or JPEG file. You can also use the MS Snippet tool to grab full map images or map sections.
  2. Set up interactive web map URLs of your plan maps. These web maps will be available at the same URL for as long as you require them – all year if necessary. Your associates can click into these maps for reference at their leisure for no cost.
  3. Use the application itself – Live! You’ll want to make sure you’re comfortable with the business mapping application, but this can be a powerful way to support your ideas and your business plan. Think how those interactive electoral maps add value when watching the latest poll breakdowns on TV. Just make use you’re ready to use the application in front of an audience. I saw an epic fail electoral map presentation on The Today Show last week that was not pretty. Know your application before you go live, use static maps in the interim.

Be the Map Hero

For companies who have not been using maps for business planning, or who let mapping software go a few years back, here’s a little secret: executive decision makers love maps. By bringing a focused, uncluttered business map to the planning process, one that answers a few critical questions, you will enhance your position in your organization. Managers and business owners are always looking for people who bring solutions. They want problem solvers. Maps address problems, maps communicate. Be a hero.

A carefully considered business mapping analysis could lead to your new position at work. Napoleon was in his twenties when he suddenly became a general. At the time, he had just been appointed to the cartographique section of the army.  “Mon dieu!” Be the map hero, before that other dude is.

Map Business Online – Easy, affordable, advanced and we’ll help.

Find out why over 25,000 business users log into www.MapBusinessOnline.com

Contact: Geoffrey Ives geoffives@spatialteq.com or Jason Henderson jhenderson@spatialteq.com (800) 425-9035, (207) 939-6866

MapPoint users – please consider www.MapBusinessOnline.com as your MapPoint Replacement.

Please read customer reviews or review us at Capterra, or at the Salesforce.com AppExchange.

 

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Routing Enhancements & Time Windows for Map Business Online

Posted on November 2, 2016 by Geoffrey Ives

MapBusinessOnline was recently upgraded to include enhanced routing features. (Updates like this occur automatically in a Cloud-Based software service.) Although MapBusinessOnline has included 150-stop optimized routing for years. With the demise of Microsoft MapPoint in late 2014, many customers were asking for more robust routing functionality to supplement their business mapping requirements.

As of now, Map Business Online includes:

  • Support for time windows – Schedule stops based on preplanned arrival times, plan stop duration times, and calculate total route times with all travel and stop times included.
  • Create and export route files for sharing—Save and export route files in .pdf, .html, .csv, .gpx, and .itn formats. This lets users move route files from MapBusinessOnline to navigation devices.
  • Create No-drive Areas or route barriers based on your awareness of route usability. Users can define where the bridge is out, or the off-ramp is closed and consider that adjustment in route calculations.
  • Historic and real-time traffic patterns are now considered in route estimations.

MapPoint offered a lot of functionality for $300.00. For that reason, users who used the tool for fleet tracking and advanced route planning applications, like multi-vehicle management and more than 150 stops per route, will be forced to find alternative vendors like Telogis at prices an order of magnitude higher than MapPoint’s required investment.

However, for basic business mapping users who want to supplement their market analysis and territory mapping with optimized route creation, MapBusinessOnline enhanced routing may be just the trick.

Route segments, highlighted in yellow, can be selected, presenting relevant turn-by-turn directions.

Sales Planning

The traveling salesperson can now view their territory coverage areas, assign customers to a route plan, and include appointment times and visit durations in their route estimates. Saved time means more face-time with clients.

This means your whole day can be planned more accurately. Sure, cancellations may still occur, but you’ll know exactly how much time that leaves you to fill in with a substitute prospect account.

Some sales planning users use MapBusinessOnline as a contact planning tool, storing key contact information in map tags or the data window. Remember – you can even take notes into your location database through the map point callout tags.

For Field Services and Deliveries

We supply business mapping services to many field service operations. From hospice and home care to fuel delivery, ATM management, physical therapy services, and appliance repair technicians – all these business types benefit from the application of business mapping software.

Medical clinicians and aides require a time window schedule to deliver their services. When they arrive at a home to find a patient is not there, their entire day could be thrown off. They may have traveled hours to get to that service point. Time windows allow the route user to confirm the appointment time and reroute as necessary—rescheduling in the event of a cancellation or accommodating additional appointments.

Product delivery services need to track their efficiencies as closely as possible and adhere to delivery schedules. Truck issues and traffic conditions can affect schedules or drive up costs while lowering productivity. MapBusinessOnline time windows help maintain order in the chaos of work travel.

Time Wiindows

Repair Technicians

Now, you can use Map Business Online to preplan lunch and work breaks during the day. Estimated stop times can be built into your daily plan based on the planned jobs for the month, week, or day. Develop time estimate templates for typical repairs. Refrigerator repairs, furnace cleanings, dog grooming, geriatric PT, and even pizza oven adjustments can all be categorized, symbolized on the map, and tracked by route file for accurate future planning for your business.

Field managers now have the ability within Map Business Online to generate a route for new field technicians and export that route as a GPX or ITN file for use within their Portable Navigation Device. This is the best way to get newbies up to speed and on the road quickly, and it’s perfect for retail display services.

MapShare Routing for FREE!

And remember, MapBusinessOnline includes MapShare – the ability to share interactive web maps of your business coverage maps with your field people AT NO CHARGE – up to 100 web sessions per month, 1200 per year for free.   In addition to being able to pan and zoom all over the map, click on points, view tabular Data Window views of shared data, query data, and export results, your users can generate their own multiple-stop routes – free of charge.  You will not find this capability available for free in other mapping applications.

So – Remember and compare – MapBusinessOnline Routing with Time Windows:

  • 150 multi-stop optimized routes now with Time Windows
  • Share route files
  • Create route barriers
  • MapShare free viewing with routing
  • Standard MapBusinessOnline business map features like Market analysis, Territory mapping, Customer visualization

Request a web demo here.

Posted in Business Mapping Software blog post, Franchise Mapping, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Creating a Demographic Map – The Mystery of Trinity County

Posted on October 26, 2016 by Geoffrey Ives

Last week I created a new Map Gallery posting for www.mapBusinessOnline.com .  The process, as usual, was quite easy and interesting. I thought I’d share my business mapping work flow and link to the map for people to see how I did it.  Demographic data is used in business mapping software to reveal business trends and tendencies in selected areas of interest.

First, I combed through the latest demographic data update in Map Business Online. This update was released during the last week of July, 2016.  There’s a whole group of new categories available and the existing categories were updated.

I noticed a set of new US Census Bureau categories that seemed interesting:

  • Families (2014) Male households, no wife present (Families/Male)
  • Families (2014) Female households, no husband present (Families/Female)

I wanted to explore this new category a little. So, I decided to create a ratio for Families/Male (dividend) to Families/Female (divisor), figuring the ratio would likely be a decimal quotient in most cases and thus easy to display on the map. I was right, for the most part, but interestingly there actually where areas where the males headed families outnumber the female headed families by a wide margin.

Calculate Data Columns

To build my ratio for color shading I needed to first calculate data columns. I did this in Map & Data, selecting the zip code layer and choosing Manage Calculated Data Columns.  I named my resultant layer and chose the Families/Male category of Census Data over the Families/Female category, select the “divide” option in between them.

Next I choose the Color Code Map option along the master toolbar and selected the zip code option. In the top drop down I selected Calculated Data and the Male/Female Fams option I had just created in the above step.  To keep things simple, I chose a range of 3 color groups:

  • Orange – for ratio result 0 to .75
  • Red – for ratio result .75 to .99
  • Blue – for result 1.0 to 21

As I applied the color code options Map Business Online presents the low and high numeric range by zip code. I found it odd that 21 was shown as the top numeric range in the data. This means that based on the data and the selected map layer the zip code with the largest ration number across the nation holds 21 Families/Male over Families/Female.  But we’ll look at that more in a minute.

With my color coding processed I decided to edit my Map Legend a bit. You just click the little Edit Gear in the upper right of the Map Legend to edit. I took out all legend layers except the zip code layer. Why leave superfluous layers in there? I also removed the “Other” color group category. Always keep your map focused. Never give the “I always ask a lot of questions” person, the opportunity to interrupt your presentation.

Finally, I decided it might be useful to include some additional demographic data for reference in the Zip Code label – both on the Zip Code label itself and in the pop-up balloon which occurs upon cursor hover. So I appended the zip code label with population, Families/Male and Families/Female totals, and I included the calculated ratio results for each zip as well.  References like this do add clutter to the map, but they also provide an immediate reference that might answer questions in the map viewer’s mind.

The actual Male Families no wife present – Map

Investigating the Odd

Getting back to that 21 number in the color coding range. When Map Business Online presents the expected range it is saying to the user (in this case), “The largest number I see across the entire USA Zip Code layer for your ratio per zip code is 21.” And this was true for a zip code in the County of Trinity in Northern California.

I could tell this was true because I used the Data Window as an investigation tool. Selecting the Zip Code layer in the Data Window, I clicked More Data. I then added all the pertinent data layers I’d been working with to my Zip Code layer, including the Calculate Data Ratio – Male/Female Single Parent Families. Once the data was set, I simply clicked the Heading in that Calculated Data column to arrange the data in descending order. There were a bunch of blanks because the Female Single Parent households showed as Zero and we all know anything divided by Zero freaks gives a null answer. But after the nulls,  the first number to come up was in fact the 21 associated with the town of Hyampom in Trinity County, CA.

Hyampom

That “21” means, as you can see in the row of data, for that zip code Male Headed Single Parent Families with no wife present, out number Female Single Parent Families with no husband present, by 21 to 1. And the next level is 13.5, in just one zip code over! That’s just weird to me.  You can see on the map the across the nation most zip ratio results are between 1 and 2.

I tried calling Trinity County but they could not justify my number for me. On http://www.countyhealthrankings.org I found an interesting statistic. Trinity county leads California in premature lives lost before the age of 75 with a rate of 10,300 per 100,000 people. That’s a lot.

I’m wondering if, based on the family stats we were working with, those deaths may be disproportionately affecting women?  Or perhaps the Census Bureau data for those two zip codes are simply wrong? If you follow the Wiki link above to the Hyampom town write-up there’s a discrepancy in the Census data.

No answer yet, but this entire mapping exercise serves to show that maps expose trends. And the moral of the story, check your data. Question your results before you submit your map.

Map Business Online – Easy, affordable, advanced and we’ll help.

Find out why over 25,000 business users log into www.MapBusinessOnline.com

Contact: Geoffrey Ives geoffives@spatialteq.com (800) 425-9035, (207) 939-6866

MapPoint users – please consider www.MapBusinessOnline.com as your MapPoint Replacement.

Please read customer reviews or review us at Capterra, or at the Salesforce.com AppExchange.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment