Software
Review of: |
 I
like mapping programs, and I like this program — XMap Business.
It is DeLorme’s Street
Atlas USA on steroids. It is a mapping program to make money with,
not just to plan the family vacation. There is one problem with this program,
but I will get to that later.
The hardware requirements are: a Pentium 150MHz or higher processor, 32 Megs of RAM, 130 Megs of hard drive, a 800x600 Super VGA card, 16 bit monitor, mouse, printer, and a ISO 9660 CD-ROM or a DVD-ROM. The program runs with Windows 95/98 or Windows NT 4.0 or Windows 2000. (I am running Windows ME and have had no problems.) To connect with the Internet, the program requires Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 (or later) or Netscape Communicator 4.0 (or later). If you wish to use the program with your Palm or Windows CE pocket computers, you will need to download the programs from the DeLorme’s Website. Also, if you wish to hookup a GPS receiver, a connection cable is required. The delights of this program start the minute you open the box. Normally, when you open the box, it is like an exploding black hole, stuff just keeps coming out and out. You can never get it back in the box if you had to return it. Not with this program. It all comes out in one black, 3-ring binder. The only loose piece is the registration card. The binder measures 11.5” by 7.5“, so it can fit nicely in a brief case. The program manual is printed loose leaf-style, so the pages lie flat. The 9 program and data CDs are in vinyl 3-ring holders in the back of the binder. It is a joy not to be looking all over the place for something you need. I could spend the rest of this review writing about the basic functions. These are about the same as those found in DeLorme’s Street Atlas USA, so I won’t write about them (since the latest version of that product is also due to be reviewed). They both work the same. My first project was to make an atlas of Kerrville. This is where the only major problem occurred. When I have worked with other DeLorme’s mapping programs I have had printing problems. Except for not being able to print landscape on legal paper, which the program told could not be done, I had no problems with printing. The manual tells of a program called MuralMaker to print up to a 5x5 sheet map. It goes even farther to show you how to assemble these sheets into one large mural map. This program was to be on their Website, but I could not find it. By not assembling the pages, I could have made this atlas very easy. I was still able to print my atlas, but it took several hours to line up each page and print. Maybe in the future, MuralMaker will be on the Website. Why XMap costs about twice as much as Street Atlas USA is because of the database functions in it. XMap has business names, business types, addresses, and phone numbers in its database. This is where you make money with this program. You can extract the data, and plot it on the map. This can be used to locate potential customers, plan a delivery route, or to map the competition. Say you are going to sell violin bow rosin in Texas. You go to XMap and search for music and Texas. The program will then come back with all the Yellow Page headings that have music in it. You then check those heading that are music stores. That netted over 800 listing which is plotted on this map. Since this map is in full color and printed on an 8”x11” sheet of paper, I took this and the next map and edited them with a paint program. From the map plot you could see it would make sense to drive from San Antonio to Dallas-Ft. Worth making sales calls both on the way to and from. Also, you would see that it would be better to fly to and from Houston. For my second example, say you wanted to start a bicycle hotshot courier service in downtown Kerrville. You figure that attorneys are the ones most likely to use your service. You reason since vultures like hanging around garage dumps, attorneys like hanging around the courthouses. You have XMap search for attorneys and Kerrville, then plot the results; sure enough they are all almost within two blocks of the courthouse. You then figure that the attorneys besides needing to send documents to each other, they would need to send documents to CPA’s and real estate agents. You then have XMap search and plot these also on the same map. You then see that the CPA’s are also close to the courthouse, but the real estate agents are not. (Fact is that they are all over town when you scale down the map to see the whole city.) You could then make your fees reflect that fact. To sum it up, XMap will make money for a small company that does not have the personnel to research and map the results. Because it is all in one black 3-ring binder, it can be taken on the road. I bet if you had to, with cell phones, GPS, and a Palm III, XMap could plot where your sales force is. I tried to find XMap in both my city, Kerrville, and San Antonio and could not find it. I tried Wal-Mart, Hastings and OfficeMax in Kerrville and Wal-Mart, OfficeMax, Office Depot and CompUSA in San Antonio. The salesman at CompUSA looked it up on his computer and they at one time had XMap but had returned it. The price from DeLorme’s Website is $99.95. Their address is Two DeLorme Drive
William Morgan is a self-employed locksmith living in Kerrville, Tx. He has been a member of the Alamo PC User Group since 1995. |