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Kingwood MapMechanics contributes GeoConcept, AA maps to innovative system

   

 

  

 
 

Web-based interactive mapping lies at the heart of Travelshare, a new product which is seen as making car-sharing a practical, realistic and attractive cost-saving proposition the first time within major business organisations and public bodies.

Developed by Field Business Solutions of Grantham, Travelshare relies on two key components supplied by Kingswood MapMechanics, the digital mapping and geographic information systems specialist: real-time interactive map displays delivered by GeoConcept Internet Server, and GB raster mapping from the 1:250,00 AA range of digital map data. Kingswood MapMechanics is the main distributor of both products in Britain.
         

GeoConcept Internet Server is a special Web server-based version of the mainstream GeoConcept GIS. It can deliver most of the functionality of the full product to Web browsers, and has the ability to generate and deliver mapping to order in near-real time.

Travelshare allows individuals within large user groups to enter details of regular or one-off journeys on screen (whether work-related or not), and find other people with matching travel requirements automatically. They can then make contact selectively with anyone meeting their criteria, using conventional telephone or email, or communicating directly over a messaging facility built into the Travelshare system.

The system has been developed to help organisations save money on parking provision and reclaim valuable space for revenue-earning activities, whilst at the same time supporting environmentally-sound policies. Projections by FBS using widely-recognised statistics show that, for example, if a large organisation such as a hospital were to reclaim 600 staff parking spaces and offer them to paying visitors, it could generate £1 million in revenue per year.

A key attraction is that Travelshare is not an imposed solution demanding participation by staff. Organisations can formulate their own strategies and incentives for its use, but the individuals in the organisations actually structure their own travel arrangements on a one-to-one basis through the system. “Before intranets and the Internet, there was no way this could have been accomplished,” says FBS founder and director Dave Wilkins.

Trial users such as Mars group are reported to have found Travelshare highly effective already, although David Wilkins says: “It is surprising that Government and public organisations are not yet giving as much backing to this type of system as you would expect, given the universal policy emphasis on reducing car use.”

From an early stage of development, on-screen mapping was considered a key element in Travelshare, David Wilkins says. “People relate to mapping. They can visualise their journey much more easily than with words.”

He adds: “Kingswood MapMechanics were particularly helpful and supportive when we were setting everything up. We briefly considered other suppliers, but Kingswood were offering exactly what we wanted, so frankly we didn’t need to look any further.”

Because it is purely a Web browser-based system at the user end, Travelshare can be deployed extremely quickly and easily over the largest organisations. Users simply access it through their organisation’s own intranet. And since it is normally hosted externally by Field Business Solutions, there are no costly or complex set-up requirements. Organisations are linked to the system by a secure Internet connection. Apart from any optional customising of the interface for each organisation, and initial agreement on aspects such as the amount and nature of personal data that will be stored, the system is ready to run almost at once.

Moreover, where there is operational or geographical logic (such as co-location on the same business park), staff in two or more organisations can participate in the same sharing scheme, widening the potential for finding cost-saving travel matches. They simply use a secure extranet accessed via the Internet.

Once a user enters a journey start and end point (currently geocoded from postcodes), GeoConcept Internet Server presents the route on a full-colour a map that is automatically scaled to include both points. The user can then vary the journey interactively by clicking on “must travel via” intermediate route points.

When the user presses the command to find matches, the map shows the pickup points for all potential car-sharers on the route, with details of any necessary diversions. They are drawn from a centrally-held database of other participants’ regular journeys, or one-off journeys that they have entered in advance.

A “hover” facility in GeoConcept pops up brief details of each passenger when the mouse is held over a pickup location. The user can accept or ignore possible matches, and even elect to suppress his or her details from matches offered to other specific participants. It is also possible to drill down to see more details about the matching people.

The next version of Travelshare is expected to take the interactive mapping theme further, allowing users to set up their start end points by clicking on screen maps, and adding pan and zoom capabilities for greater control.

Field Business Solutions wrote the core Travelshare application in-house using GCSM, a rapid application development tool which coincidentally is the product of one of its directors. It is built round an Oracle database, and uses Capscan for various functions including postcode lookup.

Field Business Solutions is linked with Cosmic Solutions, a long-established software house producing advanced strategic analysis applications that are used by many large corporates, especially for range and category planning in the manufacturing and retail sectors.