It's all worlds away from the Xs and Os that were used to indicate topography in the first commercial application of GISs -- and if the predictions of some industry analysts prove correct, geocoding will eventually become such a basic feature of the business landscape that no one will think twice about it. "At some point, people are going to stop calling GIS 'GIS," says Brian Webster, director of marketing com-munications for Space Imaging. "GIS functionality will be widely incorporated in products, and people will become GIS aware as they become computer aware. When you open a spreadsheet to run a linear 'what if,' you'll instinctively run a spatial 'what if' as well."
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Kazumi Tanaka writes pseudonymously on business and technology.
High Trails, a retailer of hiking and other outdoor clothes and equipment, is looking for the most promising storefront of three available in downtown Des Moines. The owner has done her homework. She knows that her average customer is 18 to 60 years old and earns more than $50,000 a year. U.S. census data covering those and other categories are available in inexpensive list form, but High Trails' owner, a hiker herself, feels that a map showing the geographic relationships of demographic and other pertinent data would be more helpful in making the space decision.
The map on the left was created with Caliper Corp.'s Maptitude 3.0. Notice the three circles (one for each site) superimposed on top of a simple plot of the city, each circumscribing a four-mile radius. The background areas are census "tracts," an arbitrary unit for displaying demographic values; here the tints represent median household income. In every tract the software creates a pie chart whose size represents the total population and whose wedges indicate age distribution. At the left of the screen, two sites are shown in larger scale. Most GIS programs can zoom in on a single block; some go farther, delineating buildings in precise shape and position. A single map could accommodate any number of layers -- digitized "acetates" -- revealing information like bus lines, college campuses, fastest routes between points, real estate values, and for the sake of employee-benefit planning, locations of health-care providers. For alphanumeric contrast, typical demographic statistics in conventional rows and columns are displayed across the bottom of the map.
Direct-marketer Archadeck (see text) searches for new customers through GIS depictions of unexplored territory like this map of Greater Cincinnati. As designed by marketing specialist GeoDemX, the quest begins with a rudimentary rendering that compares income and other household data (called HH) taken from updated U.S. census information with a profile of the ideal candidate as defined by Archadeck's experience. The census tracts shown in yellow most closely match the ideal. From here it's a simple GIS procedure to zoom in and compile the names and addresses of promising prospects.
RESOURCES
For more information on specific off-the-shelf GIS packages -- all of which come with basic maps and databases -- you can contact the applications developers. Here are some of the leading players and their products:
Company: Caliper; Newton, MA; 617-527-4700; info@caliper.com; http://www.caliper.com
Basic Product: Maptitude 3.0; $395
Company: Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI); Redlands, CA; 800-447-9778; info@esri.com; http://www.esri.com
Basic Product: ArcView 2.1 (also available for the Mac); $995
Company: GeoDemX; Southfield, MI; 800-711-LIST; geodemx@aol.com
Basic Product: GeoWizard 2.2; price varies
Company: Geospan; Minneapolis; 800-436-7726; lutnicki@geospan.com
Basic Product: City Tours software/CD-ROM; price varies
Company: Intergraph; Huntsville, AL; 800-345-4856; http://www.intergraph.com
Basic Product: Mapping Office four-module software bundle; price varies
Company: MapInfo; Troy, NY; 800-327-8627; sales@mapinfo.com; http://www.mapinfo.com
Basic Products: Mapinfo Desktop, $349; Mapinfo Professional, $1,295
Company: MapLinx; Dallas; 800-352-3414; http://www.maplinx.com
Basic Products: MapLinx 3.0 (also available for the Mac), $99.95; $179.95 bundled with zip-code boundaries; $99.95 for zip-code boundary add-on utility only
Company: PlanGraphics; Frankfort, KY; 502-223-1501; plang@ix.netcom.com
Basic Product: Custom GIS applications; price varies
Company: Space Imaging; Thornton, CO; 800-425-2997; info@spaceimage.com; http://www.spaceimage.com
Basic Product: High-resolution digital satellite imagery on CD-ROM; price varies
There are dozens of suppliers of customized products to beef up the database, mapmaking, and vertical-application capabilities of off-the-shelf GIS packages. For a comprehensive list, see the Buyer's Guide published each October by Business Geographics (155 East Boardwalk Dr., #250, Fort Collins, CO 80525-9945). Subscriptions are free to qualified individuals and include the guide. Call 970-223-4848 for a form, or fill out one on the Web at http://www.gisworld.com. The Buyer's Guide can be purchased separately for $11.95.
