Client: ESRI
Client Business Need: ESRI desired a desktop mapping product addressing the needs of sales management and marketing professionals utilizing current geospatial technologies, presentation methodology and an extensive database. All of this within the Windows environment and having high interactivity and response.
Technical Challenge: Build a shrink wrap product that runs in Windows environment and offers full functionality to view city, state and national maps, overlay users’ data to perform spatial analysis, include a very large database without heavy storage requirements, ensure high response levels, ease of use, ability to customize maps and spatial presentation, provide ability to route and find addresses nationally.
Technical Response:
The software was developed using C++ and MFC and runs on Windows platform. Many leading edge technologies constitute the core of the product.
Spatial Data Compression Technology, allows large amounts of spatial information without large storage requirements. Compression ratios up to 1:50 achieved for efficient data delivery, capable of compressing all USA streets network (30+ million streets) with all attributes necessary for routing and geocoding, supporting extremely fast data queries and several cosmetic layers on a single CD.
Map Drawing and Data Visualization Engine, renders quality maps with rich symbols and uses advanced techniques such as color-coding to enable visual data analysis.
Routing Engine, capable of calculating nationwide door-to-door driving directions and rapidly displaying the route on the map using highly compressed network data structures. It also provides capability to solve traveling salesman problem (TSP), optimizing the order of route stops.
Address Locator Engine, capable of locating any street address or postal code either entered by user or when plotting a database of addresses. This technology uses fuzzy matching methods to allow user errors, as well as provide multiple candidates for more accurate results.
Client Result: As result of successful software development effort, ESRI has shipped five major versions of BusinessMAP software and established itself in the desktop sales and marketing tools marketplace.
