Mapping & GIS
We use mapping tools for analysis and visualisation, and for preparing geographic data for modelling within consultancy assignments - they enable various logistics network design and location analysis such as:
- Facility relocation and weighted "centres of gravity"
- Visualise size of flows
- Allocate customers between fulfilment centres or depots
Read our talk through of a typical logistics mapping project.
For £27 you can buy our ebook on UK Logistics Location Strategy - fill in our contact form and someone will be back to you very shortly.
We 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 UK-based in-company training aimed at getting you started with Maptitude and more tailored training for specific needs. 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 some subjects that are covered in depth and awareness of other features so that the user can return to them as required.
Or, if you need assistance with something specific, we can help you with on-the-project coaching, so you come away with useful results immediately. Minimum 2 hours (=£220+VAT) or pro rata - we try to keep Friday mornings free for this.
Maptitude Tips
We usually change one of the tips every week or so:
Tip A: Lots of us don’t bother with a mouse these days, preferring to use the touchpad on laptops, but if you have a mouse and it has a scroll wheel, you can use this to zoom in and out, and also to pan if you hold the scroll button down.
Tip B: If you want your bands in a Theme (eg shaded colours) to be neat numeric numbers (10,000 to 20,000 etc), you can choose the Colour Theme wizard icon, and then choose Customise (bottom right) and then choose Steps. Then put in the start figure and step size – make sure the number of classes you choose can accommodate all of your data.
Tip C: It’s always worth having a look at your data in Excel and then in Maptitude after you’ve imported it. If your data includes currencies, include your units such as pound signs as part of the column title so you can see them once the data is imported. If your data includes percentages, check that the column header description and units correctly match after you’ve imported.
If you'd like an alert when a fresh tip is posted, follow on Twitter:
Follow @KirstenTisdale on Twitter