mapping & GIS
We use mapping tools for analysis and visualisation, and for preparing geographic data for modelling within consultancy assignments - they enable various network design and location analysis such as:
- Calculate weighted "centres of gravity"
- Visualise size of flows
- Allocate customers between fulfilment centres or depots
We also have also helped clients in sales and marketing:
- Identifying customer hot spots
- Prioritising sales leads
- Competitor adjacency analysis
And in areas such as managing territories for field engineers.
What is Maptitude and what else can it do?
Maptitude Geographic Information System (GIS) software is cost-effective comprehensive desktop mapping software from Caliper. With Maptitude you can:
- Know exactly where your customers are and what sites are best for your business
- Identify hot-spots, geographic patterns and trends that cannot be seen in database tables and spreadsheets
- Use demographic data to model what additional business is likely to look like for your company
- Ask questions of your data based on its location, specific attributes and/or what else is in the vicinity
- Enhance your reports and presentations with maps and charts
You can see some of the other imaginative analysis and presentation options in Maptitude here on Caliper's website.
Maptitude training
Maptitude includes extensive geographic data so you can get started as soon as you install the software. You can learn how to use Maptitude yourself - there is built-in help, the user manual is also comprehensive including many tutorials, and then there are plenty of helpful videos on Maptitude's site and on Youtube. However many people find that a more time-effective method is to undertake training.
Aricia provides in-company training with two one-day courses: Getting Started with Maptitude and Using Maptitude for Business Analysis - this latter course is usually delivered as Day 2 of a two day training programme and assumes that trainees are familiar with the topics covered in Getting Started.
Aricia's training is suitable for business users who need to create maps and analyse data in a geographic way, but who are not GIS experts (and don't particularly want / need to be!). The training is a mixture of subjects that are covered in depth and awareness of some features so that the user can return to them as required. Previous users of Microsoft MapPoint should note that Maptitude is more complex than MapPoint, but that is because it enables more complex analysis.
Or, if you have specific requirements, we can help you with on-the-project coaching, so you come away with useful results immediately. Minimum 2 hours (=£200+VAT) or pro rata - we try to keep Friday mornings free for this and are happy to meet up in one of the informal coffee areas in the Premier Inn at Banbury, or at a location of your choice with travel costs.
Maptitude Tips
We usually change one of the tips every week or so:
Tip A: In dataview, remember to right click and change Field Properties to an appropriate no of decimals (or other format), for example when theming a formula field, to make legend look tidy.
Tip B: You can both bookmark a map, so you can return to the same place and zoom level, and also synchronise more than one map, so that the maps pan and zoom to the same place.
Tip C: Incorporating web imagery in your map can be useful for checking locations or locating by pointing for those postcodes that just won't geocode automatically (that DC you're building with a brand new postcode).
If you'd like an alert when a fresh tip is posted, follow on Twitter:
Follow @KirstenTisdale
Google Maps
We've just been experimenting with publishing maps to the web. This one mixes business and leisure activities - it's a map of where the car club we run has had rallies over the past 15 years. You can make the map full size and if you click on the marker you can access the rally plate that was used and if it's a more recent rally access photos etc.
What about MapPoint?
Microsoft MapPoint is an established product for which we continue to offer training and this product remains an effective and cost-effective mapping solution right now. However, we do wish to draw your attention to this piece of news: MP2013 was the last version of MapPoint - Microsoft and Amazon UK have stopped selling the EU version, although you can still buy it from other providers.
Be reassured, MapPoint will continue working - you will not lose any functionality. However, the UK demographic data was already well out of date in the 2013 version along with some postcodes (eg E20). Postcodes and roads will gradually become more and more out of date - it is major changes to the road network* that are most likely to affect its use, as geocoding and demographic data issues can be dealt with in other ways.
*Still a way off, but the most dramatic new projects announced in December 2014 include: dualling the entire A303 and A358, including a tunnel at Stonehenge giving dual carriageway from London to within 15 miles of Land's End, and dualling of A1 all the way from London to Ellingham, just 25 miles from the Scottish border. And then, of course, there's the proposal for the Silvertown Tunnel, adding another river crossing in London planned to be suitable for most HGVs.