Maporama has gained wide acceptence in Europe as one of the premier suppliers of location-based services and consumer mapping navigation. We asked Maporama to provide a more in-depth undertanding of their technology and to elaborate on the differences between acceptance in the U.S. vs. the European marketplace for such services.
1. What is the core platform for Maporama technology?
- Maporama's back-end is developed
in C++; the front end is ASP/XML-XSL based (see Figure 1)
- Web Service (SOAP) - Q103
- Migration to .NET (In progress)
- Targets
- Data synchronization (PartnerHUB).
- Enhanced Geocentric services (Routing, Mapping).
- Direction Search and Fuzzy match
- Highly customizable to fit all countries and all types of addresses
- Reverse geocoding is also available.
Future technology in development:
- Geocoding component:
- Mapping component:
- Fully Maporama-made
- Works with vector-based databases.
- Allow full customization of the map style to fit client requirements
- Generates bitmap (GIF/JPG/PNG)
- Generates vector (Flash, SVG)
- Multi-language roadbook
- Fully Maporama-owned
- Unique feature on the market: mix several transportation modes (car, public transport, foot)
- Routing component:
- Proximity search component:
- Yellow pages
- Points of interest
- Mix of cartographic and directories databases
- Advanced search engine, fully Maporama-owned, allowing a search by name, category, meta-category, proximity information, corridor search...
- The development tools are an off-the-shell
toolkit containing programming interfaces to all Maporama's core functionalities
(MAPIL Toolkit), that is totally XML based.
- Locator Products: most Locator solutions provided are customizable packaged solutions.
- Retail Solutions: all solutions in this category implement the core functionalities and are ready to be integrated within the corresponding system on the client's side; concierge services for optimized personnel management and higher productivity
- Neither. Maporama is an ASP-based
provider of location-centric solutions. These include subsets of both LBS
and GIS functionalities, while offering new ways to exploit location-centric
information (in a VERY simplified way, location-centric information=address
data linked to mapping technology) through enterprise-wide applications.
GIS is mainly desktop software targeting the expert application market.
LBS is currently a predominantly B2C market.
- Undoubtedly, on the mobile side,
the most widespread technology is not yet ready to offer neither the precision
required by both companies and end users nor the ease of use (speed, screen
size and colors, functionalities). G2.5 and G3 are changing this, and there
will definitely be a boom of mobile LBS among consumers within the next
year. The market is still awaiting the "killer app" that would be really
user-friendly and extremely useful. In other words, not a "tekie" application
for early adopters. The right business model(s) and pricing are also a
key component for LBS to boom.
- Attitude: the US market is overall more mature as to the adoption of new technologies. In Europe, companies move on to this field a little bit later.
- Structure: the US (plus Canada) is a large and rather homogeneous market offering many advantages to companies: unified legal system (eg 911), customers operating across the whole continent, operators offering national solutions (eg cell phone operators offering the same service from NYC to L.A.), one language to be handled.
- Technology: localization technology is not deployed in the same manner in the US as it is in Europe.
- We are concentrating on two distinct
market sectors: Location-Based Services (LBS) addressed by our Locator
Products (address finding, proximity search, and itinerary generation)
and Business Support Systems (BSS) addressed by Maporama Enterprise Solutions.
These two sectors transverse many industries, which can be classified in
two major groups: a) retail and services and b) portals and telcos. (See
below for a customer list)
- Maporama currently collaborates
with more than 20 map & data vendors to offer the most detailed and
largest geographic coverage available on the market.
- International interurban networks and city level maps are provided by AND Mapping
- Street-level (street names, house number ranges, POI, one way-streets) coverage is provided by local providers in each country.
- For Eastern Europe and Middle East
- Czech Republic: CEDA
- Romania, Hungary, Slovakia: Geo Strategies
- Poland: Emapa
- Estonia: Regio
- Middle East (Kuwait, Bahrein, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Oman): Navigation Technologies
- As location technology will become
increasingly accurate and also more widely adopted (from Cell ID to GPS,
decreasing costs of silicon hardware, miniaturization of the necessary
equipment), companies in the retail and service industry will more and
more integrate geocentric functionalities in their information system in
order to optimize their operations. Location technology will finally enable
the mobile enterprise; thanks to efficient management of their sales and
field operations, logistics, marketing, and human resources. For example:
- real time tracking of vehicle fleets
- field and maintenance technicians’ follow-up/tracking
- location based and real time voucher discounting policies
- customer delivery real time information