Software for planning the future of your business--or just a trip across town
MANY OF AMERICA'S LARGEST corporations routinely purchase complex satellite imagery to help determine where to grow their businesses next. Down here on earth, mapping software can be a great way to develop a home-based business, or to find your way around unfamiliar territory when traveling.
For our purposes, we divide mapping programs into two categories: geographic information system (GIS) and global positioning system (GPS) products. GIS programs help you create color-coded maps that visually depict demographic and business data. GPS packages are navigational tools; they come with GPS satellite receivers that pinpoint your position and software that can guide you to a destination.
To sample the field, we tested three GIS mapping programs and three GPS navigation aids in and around our home office. We used the GIS programs to produce maps of client office locations, territory distributions, and demographic analyses of hypothetical business regions. To test the GPS kits, we plugged in the included receivers and drove the programs around town, rating them on their ability to steer us to assorted obscure locations.
When shopping for your own mapping software, be sure you know whether you need a GIS or GPS solution--or one of the few packages that does a little of both. We found the GPS packages a little rough around the edges, but were pleased by how useful all six programs were: Finding new markets for our services and plotting time-saving directions were never so simple.
DeLorme XMap Business
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A cross between standard GIS software and consumer-oriented navigation software, XMap Business is a beginner's look at the world of mapping software.
The program's seven CD-ROMs contain street-level maps of the United States, as well as phone book and 1990 census data. Unfortunately, there's no function to turn that information into color-coded maps for scouting new territories or finding new business locations, but the program does include an elegant set of drawing tools. We also admired the program's MapFolio, which Lets you save a library of maps with all layers, data, and routes intact.
The XMap interface consists of a simple set of tabs; you use the appropriate tab to locate an address, import data, or navigate a route. We used the included route-planning engine to easily import a set of clients from our contact manager and build the most efficient route to visit them. If you have a GPS system such as DeLorme's Earthmate, you can use the software on a laptop for on-the-road driving instructions.
XMap can automatically update certain kinds of data, such as traffic alerts, and lets you purchase additional demographic data via the Web. Priced at just $100, this program is a good choice for any business not looking for high graphics functionality or a complex GIS solution.
ESRI BusinessMap Pro 2.0
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BusinessMap Pro 2.0 is old-school GIS mapping software; it has a dated interface and its emphasis is focused sharply on generating color-coded thematic maps. On the other hand, there's nothing more powerful if you want to perform a graphical, geographical analysis.
BusinessMap Pro is the only program here capable of actually designing sales territories. We were able to divide cities into a number of color-coded regions by zip code, area code, and other criteria, then export the resulting maps into Microsoft PowerPoint. This program also lets you plot data on maps like its rivals, but adds a 2D and 3D charting module. We used it to create bar charts based on the demographic and sales data in the map.
The program specializes in ring studies--bull's-eye charts showing data distributions from a central point on the map. Unfortunately, like the rest of the program, the included Ring Study Wizard wasn't easy to navigate.
Much of BusinessMap Pro's power comes from costly add-ons Like ESRI's Business Tracker and Market AnaLyzer, which can bring its total cost to nearly $500. At $130, the base package is a fine choice for managers who thrive on plotting business data and household distributions, but overkill for most home-based businesspeople.
Microsoft MapPoint 2001
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Along with the clean Lines and elegant interface of a well-designed Microsoft Office product, MapPoint 2001 boasts a slew of useful features, making it the pick of the litter for GIS software.
In some ways, the $249 MapPoint is a cross between BusinessMap Pro and XMap: It offers a powerful Data Mapping Wizard for creating color-coded thematic maps based on business and demographic data. We found the wizard a cinch to use--in just minutes we created a map of Manhattan with zip code areas colored according to population and circles on top representing the average household size.
In addition to typical drawing and annotation tools, MapPoint includes a route planner and a GPS navigation mode for taking the program on the road. Thanks to its native understanding of Microsoft Outlook data files, we easily imported a huge database of contacts and created an optimized route to reach them in just a few easy steps.
MapPoint includes demographic data for 1980, 1990, 1999, and projections for 2004, and can download maps to Windows CE handhelds, export maps to Web pages, and import data from OutLook. Even if it is the most costly GIS software we tested, MapPoint's features and ease of use add up to a great bargain if you have light to moderate business mapping needs.
DeLorme Earthmate with Street Atlas
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Earthmate combines a thin GPS receiver with DeLorme's Street Atlas USA 7.0 software for a competent street-Level navigation solution at a reasonable $200 price.
Setting up a route is a snap; you can either enter an address or choose destinations directly off the map. However, if you're trying to enter a street address with a zip code you don't know, the program is infuriatingly difficult to configure.
The Street Atlas software draws a route on the map and displays turn-by-turn driving directions in a frame on the side of your computer screen. On our notebook's display, the text was small and difficult to refer to while driving, so we took advantage of the program's robotic-sounding speech engine to tell us when to make turns.
If you make a wrong turn, Street Atlas can recalculate your route. The Earthmate package has other amenities as well, including the ability to retrieve current road and weather conditions from the Internet, as well as make Lodging reservations for you.
The software could be better optimized for life in a moving vehicle and the receiver could acquire satellite signals faster, but as a low-cost alternative to TravRoute CoPilot, Earthmate can get you around town with ease.
Rand McNally StreetFinder and GPS
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Rand McNally is a mapping icon, so we had high expectations for StreetFinder DeLuxe 2000 and GPS. Unfortunate[y, it's a less useful business toot than we had hoped.
The system's principal limitation is that StreetFinder, despite its connectivity to Rand McNally's laptop- or cigarette-lighter-powered GPS receiver, doesn't provide any turn-by-turn driving directions. Instead, the program simply retrieves general directions and reports the approximate time and distance to your destination.
To be fair, StreetFinder has other useful features that can help you streamline your next business trip. A trip organizer module Lets you store information about your itinerary, lodging reservations, and expenses. The $99 package comes with two CDs full of data on hotels and restaurants, business listings, and a concierge toot that delivers Local details about U.S. cities. But aside from the included MapShots utility for downloading maps to your handheld device, there's nothing here you can't get for free on the Web.
TravRoute CoPilot 2000
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Though it's the most expensive GPS package we tested at $399, TravRoute's CoPiLot 2000 makes navigating painless.
When you start CoPilot, you'll see a dialog box for setting up your route. You can grab entries from a Favorites list or enter an address manually. Once configured, CoPilot displays turn-by-turn directions in bold Letters, along with a highlighted route on the map.
CoPilot includes an excellent voice-recognition engine that announces upcoming turns and responds to a library of about a dozen spoken phrases. You can also control the display with verbal requests to zoom and change the level of onscreen detail.
If you wander off your specified route, CoPilot recalculates a new route for you. When we encountered traffic or road construction, we instructed CoPilot to generate an alternate route.
