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Mapping software, once thought frivolous at best, is carving a niche in corporate America. It ranges from under-$100 presentation-only products that come with prepackaged data to high-end geographical information systems (GISs) that cost thousands of dollars and come with full-featured internal databases attached to customizable maps.
In this comparison, InfoWorld looks at four midrange GIS packages capable of much more than making pretty maps. Strategic Mapping Inc.'s Atlas GIS, Version 2.0 for DOS, Mapping Information Systems Corp.'s MapInfo for Windows, Version 2.0, Tydac Technologies Corp.'s SPANS GIS, Version 5.0 for OS/2, and Tactics International Ltd.'s Tactician, Version 2.3 for Windows are sophisticated databases first and foremost. However, unlike traditional databases, these and other GIS programs tie their data geographic coordinates. They put regional face on what is an otherwise amorphous collection of names and addresses, so that when you query the database you can not only pull up a numeric answer, you can see at a glance where the results are located on a map.
Say, for instance, you needed some information about a certain portion of the population living a certain distance from a major U.S. city. In a traditional database, such a calculation would be nearly impossible. In a GIS, you would simply highlight the city on the map, drag a circle 50 miles around it, and ask the program what percentage of the households within the circle earn $30,000 or more--or, perhaps, how much of the farmland within the circle is devoted to corn.
Until recently, the complexity of GIS programs restricted their use to highly technical fields, such as land-use analysis, geology, or climatology. This was because the programs not only required specialized training, they usually needed expensive minicomputers to run effectively.
The increasing power of personal computers, however, has encouraged many GIS vendors to simplify their programs enough to make them accessible for more horizontal applications, such as marketing. For instance, many companies are using GIS packages for such chores as tracking sales and assigning sales territories, selecting sites for new businesses, and planning direct-mail and other advertising campaigns.
Each program in this comparison lets you create multiple overlays, or layers, containing map "objects"--such as ZIP code borders, highways, cities, restaurants, and shops. Instead of modifying existing layers to...