Business mapping application software house MapInfo Corp is swimming into uncharted waters and plans the release of two web-based mapping applications before the end of the year. Expanding on the company’s experience in the traditional GIS geographic information systems market, the applications are aimed at retail organizations and make use of MapInfo’s alliance with Haht Software Inc and its own SpatialWare technology which enables users to locate graphically coded objects stored in relational databases. MapInfo says that the growing importance of corporate websites combined with industry movement towards big data warehouses and the proliferation of loyalty cards has led to increased need for spatial mapping among financial and retail organizations, and has been a major push behind the company’s technology development. The first product out of the door will be MapXsite in October, which is essentially a nearest location application, enabling organizations to provide graphical details of local offices to website visitors. MapXsite has been developed through the alliance with Haht, which is providing the technology for developing the web pages and managing the connection through its Hahtsite internet development environment. The application also uses MapInfo’s MapX component based mapping tool, which has also been licensed in Microsoft Excel 95 and 97, and provides a point and click interface to information databases. December will see the release of MapXtreme which extends the MapXsite technology for general application development with links to MapInfo’s own SpatialWare technology. SpatialWare incorporates SQL extensions to enable users to locate graphically coded objects stored in Oracle and Informix relational databases and their respective Universal Server object relational offerings. MapInfo sees the technology being used in conjunction with call center technology as well as for the analysis of customer information and performance of dispersed office environments, with geographic imaging speeding customer and corporate trend analysis and planning.
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