MapBusinessOnline newsletter – May 2013

Your Business Map is a regularly published newsletter designed to update and assist the users of MapBusinessOnline. We encourage the sharing of actual map success stories because it is you - the growing MBO user base - that is exposing the true power of business mapping. Please send us your stories and we will share them with others.

Introducing MapBusinessOnline 3.0!

This week SpatialTEQ Inc. released the third version of MapBusinessonline.com with a series of brand new features developed at the request of our user base. The enhanced functionality, for the same incredible price, includes new territory design and management features, multi-stop optimized routing, and advanced data filtering. Not to mention many other smaller features.

Territory Design – MapBusinessOnline 3.0

MapBusinessOnline (MBO) is used by a variety of professional businesses across many industry verticals including healthcare, retail sales, banking, and insurance – to name just a few. Most companies use MapBusinessOnline to supplement their sales and marketing activities. One key use of MBO is the design and management of sales territory maps. MapBusinessOnline 3.0 adds some pretty robust improvements to territory mapping capabilities.

Search Your Territories – MBO now allows users to conduct territory searches of their imported business data. This functionality is easily accessed in the Data Window. An example application is identifying customers or prospects in a master database that are located within a specific territory. Perfect for communicating targeted account and prospect responsibility to sales people.

Filter Your Data - And while you’re in the Data Window, check out the new filtering tools that allow users to conduct filtered searches of your data and MBO included Census data. Apply modifiers to all your searches. You can now search your customer list within MBO for names that equal “Smith” or for account sales greater than $30,000 but less than $75,000.

New filtering MBO functionality allows users to filter demographic data by county, state or zip code. You can create filtering criteria of the demographic info. For example, filter all counties with population greater than 25,000 but less than 50,000. You can then, of course, export the list of counties that fit those criteria for use in other applications. Or you could use that information to justify territory decisions and save that information with your sales data.

Create Territories On The Map – You no longer have to import a spreadsheet to create a territory. Now, if you feel like building territories using your cursor and the map – go right ahead. Using the zip code, county, or state map layers. MBO 3.0 users can conduct a radius search encircling a group of zip codes, counties or states, choose a new territory name or add to an existing territory. The user can cursor select to add or delete zip codes to the territory.

Build Census Filtering Queries - Further, MBO users can now Filter Census Data by state, zip code or county. For example, by creating and selecting a zip code territory, MBO users can use the Data Window to define the demographic query by zip (Put your cursor in the Name Column and click the Pencil Icon.) Viola, you now have an exportable file showing population by zip code.

Create Territories Directly from Data Import – Now sales managers may import a list of sales people and their assigned territories by county, zip code or state into MBO and create the territories all in one step. This new button on the tool bar, located second from the left, provides a preview of how your data should be arranged to make the process work smoothly. Then just follow the dialog boxes to import data and create a territory map.

Add to Existing Territories – With MBO 3.0, sales managers can add new zip codes, counties or states to their existing sales territories. Add and edit features are accessible from the Data Window or when viewing the Territory itself. With your mouse select a zip code, county or state. Look for the “Add Selected Geographies” blue button to appear. Now create new, or add to, and edit existing territories.

Manage Map and Data – With MBO 3.0 your data and map layers are now controlled by a side bar tab called “Map & Data” and located to the middle left of your Map screen. MBO lets you control territory transparency and intersection allowances in addition to standard map layers – zip code, county, and state. Map & Data also filters data on map – for instance to show just one state as your map view.

Legend control! – MapBusinessOnline 3.0

One of the most common customer requests we’ve fielded over the last year has been to add Legend control to MapBusinessOnline. With MBO 3.0, users now have much more control of the legend. In addition to being able to move the legend, users can now turn it on and off, and select which datasets they would like to reference. And finally, users may edit the legend labels. It’s legendary!

A Map of Just My State – MapBusinessOnline 3.0

Regional Map Views – Many of our customers have asked to be able to limit the map view to just their state or a group of states or counties. Well, now you can. Open the Map & Data Tab on the middle left of your map screen. Look for funnel button. Now choose states to show.

Filter by ZIP Code & County – You can also choose to show one zip code or county. In the example presented here, I created a territory map of just Ohio and then using the New MBO 3.0 Data Window filtering capability, I showed zip codes with populations of 5 year olds running between 1000 and 5000.

More ZIP Codes! – MapBusinessOnline 3.0

New with MapBusinessOnline 3.0, ZIP Codes are now displayed at all zoom levels. This means for map images of the entire USA you can include a zip code view. Additionally, you can use the Radius Map Search or Polygon Map Search tools to select a group of zip codes and export that list for use in third party applications. That’s right – select a group of zip codes and export the list. This “spatial search” functionality also applies to counties and states.

Lower Fuel Costs & Increase Productivity with Multi-Stop Optimized Routing

MapBusinessOnline has always offered point-to-point vehicle routing, but with this release of MBO 3.0 the product now includes vehicle routing covering multiple stops. That means an MBO 3.0 user can import a list of addresses and build an efficient street route from the first address to the last with all the other addresses included as stops. And it gets even better.

We’ve expanded the Routing Window which shows you the most efficient or optimized route order. Route users can choose to route based on the spreadsheet order or based on MBO optimization. You can also delete stops or add stops as required. MBO Routing let’s you decide whether or not to create a round trip route.

MBO Field Force customers in healthcare, energy, or delivery services will love the new multi-stop route feature. And remember, you add a list of stops from the Data Window, which means you can query a dataset of customer locations on the map using the Radius Map Search tool and then create multi-stop routes to those customers.

Application Examples

Case Study: Insurance Exchange Extend Health Plans Event Campaigns with Mapping Software

Extend Health’s client services group used to spend up to six hours a month analyzing zip code footprints to target a list of cities when preparing a training session on Medicare insurance coverage for the organization’s customers and prospects. Extend Health, a Towers Watson company, operates the nation’s largest Medicare insurance exchange. The company sponsors regular information sessions in major cities across the USA to inform Medicare eligible retirees about Medicare supplement options and other ancillary benefits. Read more…

Visualization of Your Customer and Resource Locations – What’s It Worth?

Based on actual customer MBO applications, the value is significant.

For example, one field force company found they were spending hours each day tracking down the location of their field service representatives and customers.

On occasion it was an emergency, and they needed a fast answer, but most of the time there were regular and routine reasons they needed to be aware of where reps were working today. For example:

• A new customer called and needed a preliminary review today.
• An existing customer called with a manufacturing break down which required a visit today.
• The VP of sales was in Tulsa and wanted to visit at least ten customers on a specific day and within 25 miles of the Tulsa International Airport.
• A new training program was being tested across three pilot metro regions. Three quick marketing campaigns were required to notify customers of the time, date and place of training.
• A field reps’ mother had suffered a heart attack. That rep will need to be replaced by the closest free rep immediately.

Each time a field rep or customer location was required, administrators and business managers began making phone calls and sending text messages in an effort to track people down. This got expensive. Several times a week the company would require all hands on deck to track down people for at least an hour per episode. “Finally, we got smart and started considering web mapping software,” reported the office administrator.

With MapBusinessOnline the company simply established a workflow that included importing a list of field reps, their scheduled locations for the day or week, and a list of active customer locations. Once these locations were highlighted on a web map, the task of identifying representative locations was achieved in minutes. Savings per week were upwards of $250 and people were able to focus their time on more productive activities.

So the value in this case could be $250 x 50 weeks = $12,500 per year. Think about that.

Site Analysis with MapBusinessOnline 3.0

The boss says he wants to open up three new locations next year and you’re in charge. Yikes! What to do first? Try using MapBusinessOnline 3.0 to develop a multiple site assessments.

Your Business On a Map – Import a list of your sales transactions by location that represent the past few years’ business. Now import your existing store locations. Identify the highest densities of customers by zip code or county and see if you have business locations in those areas. Import a list of your competitor locations and see where they are located.

Census Data – With MBO 3.0 you can now show population by age group, population density, and household income on the map. And you can also add additional criteria to Census data searches, so you can refine your Census data filter. Pick existing locations and apply MBO Census data queries to get a sense of its market profile. For example you can determine that your existing locations currently service areas that average over $100,000 in annual household income. Seek out new areas with commensurate income levels.

Filter Census Data – Use the Data Window filtering tools, new with MBO 3.0, to show zip codes in targeted states with house hold incomes greater than $100,000 and where you have no stores. Now show just those zip codes on the maps. Print the map and hand it to your boss – take the rest of the day off.

On the Road Again with MapBusinessOnline 3.0

Loretta is a traveling sales person we know who covers the northeastern USA selling packaging services to large and small bakeries. She’s a true road warrior and tries to cover her territory by visiting all her clients at least three times a year, traveling by car. She uses MapBusinessOnline to display a complete territory for her coverage area by state. She exported a list of her clients and prospects from SalesForce.com and imported that list into MBO.

After color-coding her active customers, prospects and inactive clients, Loretta is able to decide which clients require more visits. On a quarterly basis Loretta re-exports her SalesForce.com account list and re-imports into MapBusinessOnline. She keeps the previous quarter’s account list on MBO for reference and deletes any previous data.

Loretta plans her travel a few weeks in advance based on customer requirements, and prospecting pressure from management. She chooses a metro area to visit and conducts a radius search of the target area for her critical active clients. This list is generally around 25 customers. She builds an MBO multi-stop optimized route to establish a preliminary and efficient driving route to her clients. She then refers to her key prospect list and adds those potential clients to the route list. After calling and confirming appointments, Loretta adjusts the route to match her client visit appointment schedule.

Following turn-by-turn instructions Loretta travels to her clients over a period or one or two weeks. Each night she can access MapBusinessOnline on her laptop to study the next day’s area for additional prospects to add to her schedule as time allows or to fill cancellation holes. She can do this in a general radius search, or by filtering her customer map data in the Data Window by zip code or filtering by specific names. Sometimes she adds notes to the map call tags describing her visits and then sends a map URL to her boss updating her on progress.

Loretta’s favorite feature about MapBusinessOnline is the marketing list generator. “I use it almost daily to generate my lists of clients and prospects to contact. The geographic perspective fit’s my needs perfectly.”

Share Your Map Story

Let’s face it, the only reason we publish MapBusinessOnline is to support customer applications of MBO in their work flow. We need to know more about how you use our product. That’s how we make MBO better. And your fellow MBO users benefit from understanding your creative application of our mapping tools. So please, send us your examples of how you apply MBO to your work situation.