Microsoft has demonstrated its continued commitment to transforming the way that business people analyze and communicate information with today's introduction of MapPoint 2001, the latest version of its business mapping software.
"MapPoint 2001 responds to what we've heard from our business customers - they want familiar and easy-to-use tools to help them visualize and communicate their information more clearly," said Michael Graff, MapPoint's Product Unit Manager. "Our goal is to improve the daily productivity and decision-making for business people where location is an important factor in their work. We provide them with detailed geographic and demographic information that helps customers see their business data in a whole new way."

MapPoint 2001, a member of the Microsoft Office family of applications, allows customers to visualize their business data effectively by using high-quality maps and demographic information that seamlessly integrate with work done with Microsoft Office. Because MapPoint incorporates familiar Microsoft Office tools, menus, and features, customers find it easy to use right out of the box so that they can begin projects right away, without a lot of time spent in training.

"In our market research, we've found significant enthusiasm among businesspeople for using maps and geographical information on a daily basis," said David Sonnen, president of Integrated Spatial Solutions, Inc. and International Data Corporation's senior analyst for spatial information management. "With its high-quality data and easy-to-use functionality, MapPoint 2001 has the potential to tremendously increase the use of spatial information in the business community."

Microsoft MapPoint 2001 provides users with a complete set of geographic and demographic data, eliminating the need to purchase additional information in order to begin work right away. Highly accurate address matching is accomplished through the use of street map information licensed from Geographic Data Technology, Navigation Technologies, and Compusearch Micromarketing Data and Systems—leading providers of digital map data for the United States and Canada.

New MapPoint 2001 features include a fast routing feature that allows users to get detailed maps and driving directions with multi-destination routing; increased programmability allowing for customization of the application for specific business solutions; and detailed street address information for Canada, including data for every postal code in the country.

Jeff Bergman is the national sales manager of Danfoss, a company based in Denmark that manufactures speed controllers for industrial electric motors. Bergman, who works out of Atlanta, uses MapPoint to determine where, based on population, it makes sense to locate new sales operatives. Since growing municipalities are the most likely to build or upgrade their water and waste water facilities, Bergman merges location and demographic data from a variety of sources, including the Claritas data that comes with MapPoint, to identify growing municipalities. "MapPoint allows me to put on great presentations and to get great hard data very quickly," said Bergman. "It's also easy to use—I probably picked it up within an hour."

"Essentially, MapPoint turns information into insight," added Graff. "It gives people an entirely different way of looking at data."