 |
|
Digital mapping and geographical information can deliver intelligence quickly, clearly, economically and selectively to the people who really need it, in the office or out in the field.
That’s not a “message from the sponsors” – it’s a report consistently delivered by current users of mapping and GIS products, and is based on their real-life experience. It came through loud and clear at a Corporate Briefing event organised this month by Kingswood MapMechanics, one of the UK leaders in this field, at which speakers from several user-organisations presented their own stories. |
The audience heard about mapping innovations in education by Map Analysis; in retail planning and catchment analysis by ASDA; in telecommunications infrastructure management by Fibernet; in door-to-door delivery and territory management by Circular Distributors; and in demographic profiling and business expansion by Buy As You View.
Andrew Button of Map Analysis described how digital mapping with GeoConcept had revolutionised planning in the education sector by allowing people to view and evaluate demand patterns geographically, and plan resources and funding more effectively. His company had set up a system that combined school and educational college data with existing information such as National Training Records to provide a quick-turnround analysis service, offering a range of standard or bespoke maps and reports to present the results against easily-understood map backdrops.
“GeoConcept is incredibly powerful, but also logical and easy to use,” he commented. He says he particularly values its ability to run parameter queries (he is automatically prompted type in plain-English conditions without having to construct complex SQL queries). It is also quick to zoom into each new location as it came under scrutiny. Its flow mapping ability helps to present features such as travel patterns in a vivid graphical style, and its MASK feature allows him to set up a standard text that appeared on all maps, but could be changed in a single process.
Map Analysis is now about to launch an interactive web site, and this represents a major leap forward, Andrew Button says. It will allow clients to download a range of analytical maps over the Internet, and print them out selectively.
Jamie Graham of Fibernet, a bespoke network service provider, described how GeoConcept, a MapMechanics product, had transformed the task of managing the company’s communication cable infrastructure. “In the past, one department held the maps, one dealt with leased-line data, and another looked after a central database. Now we’ve planned to bring all these functions together, using the GeoConcept GIS.”
Fibernet controls 3,000km of cable, and also leases optical fibre cable between towns, and is now using GeoConcept to record the whereabouts of its infrastructure. Until lately it has been using Ordnance Survey Landline digital mapping, but now it has switched to OS’s new Mastermap vector map series, which allows more detailed presentation of specific features. For instance, Fibernet can highlight pavements in a different colour from roads – invaluable in the cable market.
Fibernet is making savings because the Mastermap series is available in more specific geographical units that are charged according to the number of “objects” on them. MapMechanics is playing a role here by using its own translator software to convert the mapping from OS to GeoConcept format.
Fibernet has also invested in GeoConcept Pocket for Pocket PC devices, with a view to using this in future for mobile engineers.
The audience heard how retailer ASDA, the Wal-Mart subsidiary, has used GeoConcept to streamline the process of evaluating catchments for new stores by using an enhanced drive time calculation system incorporating real-world road speeds.
These are based on special NAVTEQ digital mapping, in which each road link is associated with a unique set of speeds for various times of day. The speeds are constantly gathered by ITIS from over 50,000 vehicles in regular service, whose position is pinpointed by GPS (Global Positioning System). Strategic development manager Neal Stevenson calls it “undoubtedly the biggest single development in routing systems that I’ve experienced.”
Spotting areas with a concentration of lower-income households has been the objective of Buy As You View, a Cardiff-based retailer which allows consumers on lower incomes to pay for high-quality television sets literally as they watch, using a special coin meter. They can also buy a whole host of other electrical and lifestyle goods through the same payment mechanism.
The company has been using Prizm demographic data, cross-referenced with known customer data, to find the most promising geographical areas for expansion. On this basis it had opened new premises in Sunderland, Rotherham, Birmingham and Warrington, doubling its customer base in five years.
According to IT director Martin Greenhalgh: “Although we could have made educated guesses about likely locations, we needed to adopt a more scientific approach that would provide the maximum potential.”
Circular Distributors has used a range of geographical solutions in a major overhaul of its territory definition process, and in the words of planning director Charles Neilson, it has gained “unprecedented power” to update and refine its distribution routes in-house.
The audience heard that the objective was to create viable, walkable delivery rounds throughout the country. Kingswood MapMechanics developed a semi-automated process, using GeoConcept to display postcodes sector on screen, overlaid with a street pattern drawn with Andes street-level raster map data. Within each sector, Codepoint Polygons originated by Ordnance Survey identify clusters of about 15 addresses in each single unit postcode.
Working interactively, operators are able to outline “microsectors” enclosing enough postcodes to make up potential delivery areas, and then decide whether each one meets all the company’s “rules” (such as number of visits, proximity to each other, and avoidance of main roads or other barriers). |
