News
MapInfo Releases Java Tool for Spatial Analysis
- By Scott Bekker
- October 28, 1998
Pete Petruccione, director of product marketing for MapInfo Corp. (Troy, N.Y.,
www.mapinfo.com) believes that there's a distinct market group that can obtain a competitive advantage by displaying their data spatially, by mapping the information already in their database. To this end, the company last year released MapXtreme for Windows NT, a tool to make mapping spatial data easier.
In order to integrate with multiple platforms, the company has now released MapXtreme Java Edition, a 100 percent pure Java tool for deploying spatial analysis via the Web.
Petruccione says MapInfo customers range from telecommunications companies such as Skytel Communications Inc. (Jackson, Miss., www.skytel.com) to retailers such as Kmart Corp. (Troy, Mich., www.kmart.com) or Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (Bentonville, Ark., www.wal-mart.com).
Using the NT-version of MapXtreme, Skytel developed a map so their in-house representatives could see where their systems had coverage across the globe. Just by clicking on a map, reps could see where they had coverage and where they did not. Using the Java-enabled version of MapXtreme, Skytel can put that map onto the Web for use by the general public.
Retailers could use the NT-version to give their associates a better idea of where they have stores and what the population is like in those areas. The Java Edition would allow those retailers to post maps on the Web for customers to find a store in their area. Insurance companies could use the application to perform threat-assessment procedures. Banks could use MapXtreme to locate ATM machines. --Brian Ploskina, Assistant Editor
About the Author
Scott Bekker is editor in chief of Redmond Channel Partner magazine.