Blog Archives - Page 66 of 70

Streamline Operations with Mapping

Written on September 2, 2015. Posted in Blog, Use Case Scenarios.

Mapline makes it simple for you to streamline operations by identifying backup supply options. Let’s say that you own some gas stations, and there are occasionally supply outages from your fuel supplier. You want to find some backup supply options so that your operations aren’t affected. This is simple to do with mapping. Just plot your gas stations and suppliers in Mapline. This can be added with a simple paste from your Excel spreadsheet. Once the gas stations and suppliers are on your map, just go to the Distance Calculations option and select these two data sets. Once you hit download, you’ll get a spreadsheet showing the gas stations along the left rows and the suppliers along the top columns. Where the Row and Column intersect is the distance between the two points. Now that you have a huge distance grid spreadsheet, you can easily run a =SMALL() formula in Excel to identify the first, second, and third closest supply locations to evaluate your options!

And that’s how you can streamline operations using Mapline! Sign up to start streamlining your operations with mapping.

Create Sales Territory Boundaries with Mapping

Leverage Sales Territory Mapping for Your Business

Written on September 2, 2015. Posted in Blog, Use Case Scenarios.

Visualize Your Territories with Territory Mapping Software

Well-defined sales territories directly impact sales results. But how do you take the data you have and visualize it, so you can view your current sales territories and identify new opportunities? This is where Mapline’s quick and easy sales territory mapping feature can help.

Territory Mapping with Mapline’s Drawing Pad

Let’s say your business has grown to the point where you need to restructure your sales territories so they can be more effective. There are two ways to build sales territories, and they are both super simple. The first way is to leverage the drawing pad to draw territories on your map. This is easy if there aren’t too many territories and you aren’t looking for perfection.

Create Sales Territory with Overlays

The other way to build sales territories is by mapping territory overlays. This method is best if your sales territories consist of groupings of zip code, county, or state boundaries, and you’d like to color each territory (such as zip code or county) according to the sales territory it belongs to. Let’s assume you’d like to do this with zip codes.

Steps for Sales Territory Mapping

Go to your Excel spreadsheet and make the first column header “Territory.”
Below that, enter all the zip codes you have.
Make the second column header “Color.”
Next to each zip code, enter the color you would like it to appear on the map. (Perhaps you want Clark’s zip codes to be “Blue” and Peter’s zip codes to be “Green” and so on.)
Then, just paste those two columns into Mapline and you’re done!

That’s how easy it is to build sales territories with mapping. There’s so much more you can do with Mapline! Check out all of our features to make sure you’re getting the most out of your account.

How to Draw Shapes on Your Territory Maps

Written on August 26, 2015. Posted in Blog, Features and Training, Getting Started, Support.

Customize Your Territories for Your Specific Needs

If you have territories that are unique to your company and don’t quite match up to existing shapes, you can plot shapes on a map to meet your individual needs. With Mapline’s Draw Pad feature, you can quickly draw custom territories and shapes on your map. Once shapes are created, you can get a list of locations inside the shape and export them for deeper analysis.

Steps to Draw Custom Shapes in Your Territory Map

To plot shapes on your map:

For circles and squares, just click on the map to create the shape where you want.
For polygons and other custom shapes, click on the Draw Polygon button.
Click to begin drawing your shape around the pins on your map.
Click around all the pins you want to include to make the shape bigger.
Click on the first pin you’ve drawn to close the shape.
To include pins outside of your shape, click on the Edit button.
Hit Save when you finish creating the shape.
To change the color of the shape, click on the Paint Bucket.
Click on the Fill Color and choose the color you want from the color spectrum that appears.
To get more information about the pins within your shape, click within the shape.
After clicking, you’ll see square mileage of your shape and a summary of all the data points inside the shape.
Download the summary and location reports to use for further analysis.

Using Radial Heat Maps

Written on August 20, 2015. Posted in Blog, Features and Training, Getting Started, Support.

Visualizing Your Data with a Geographic Radial Heat Map

Radial heat maps look like weather radar and show color coded concentrations of your data. With radial mapping software options you’re not only able to visualize your data on a map but you can also easily and immediately understand where the majority of your activity is located. By presenting more densely populated areas in one color and sparser locations in another from the gradient, Mapline makes analysis of your data simple, whether you’re mapping customers, sales or other calculations from your spreadsheet. You can view heat map overlays with your data pins and you’re also able to hide the pins for a clearer picture.

Steps to overlay a radial style heat maps

Open your map.
Click the drop down menu next to your dataset.
Select “Heat Map.”
Select whether you would like to apply the heat to the area around the pins or the overlapping radius areas.
Define the radius (miles or kilometers).
Select whether you would like the heat map to be based on location density or the sum or average of your data.
Click on the “Styling” tab to set the opacity and blur. You can also remove the legend and fade the edges of the heat map.
Click “OK.”

If you want to hide the map pins so you only see the heat map, here’s what you can do:

Click the pin icon on the left sidebar.
Select “Style.”
Select the “Hide Pins” option at the top right.

Ready to use our radial mapping software? Check out our plans and pricing to find the right option for you.

How to Share a Map

Written on August 20, 2015. Posted in Blog, Features and Training, Getting Started, Support.

Trying to share files through email chains becomes confusing and disorganized. What if you’re sending multiple versions of data sets, and your colleagues or clients happen to open an older version? After you create a map with Mapline, you can also share those maps in real time with your teammates, colleagues, clients, and customers. No back-and-forth emails, no tracking down the “latest copy,” and no special software or downloads are required! Follow our step-by-step instructions on how to share a map online.

Steps to share a map

Open your map.
Click “Options.”
Select “Share.”
Enter the email address of the person with whom you would like to share your map.
Click “Share.”
Select if you would like to share the dataset information with that person.
An email will be sent to the user inviting them to sign in to see the map you have shared with them. If they are not a registered user, they will be required to register using the same email address as the one you shared your map with.
Add more email addresses if you want the same map to be shared to more recipients.

That’s how easy it is to share a map with your team. Just enter their email and let them enjoy the map themselves. Sign up now to give it a try!

How to Create a Color-Coded Map

Written on August 19, 2015. Posted in Blog, Features and Training, Getting Started, Support.

Add Multi-Colored Territory Boundaries to Your Maps

Creating a map that is color-coded allows you to distinguish your territory boundaries and see trends you may not have been able to before. Take an example of viewing a map of the United States. You want to better distinguish your territory boundaries, but how? Just use our color-coded feature to group states by different colors to make your boundaries stand out and help you gain deeper insights about your territories.

Follow our step-by-step instructions to make a color-coded map from Excel data.

Steps on How to Make a Color-Coded Map

Open your map.
Click “Add.”
Select “Boundaries.”
Select the boundary you want to add to your map.
Choose “Paste Colors from a Spreadsheet.”
Click “Download a Sample Spreadsheet.”
Open the template in Excel. You’ll see the shape name in the first column and the color you would like it to appear in the second column. Make any updates you need in the spreadsheet. Delete any rows of shapes you don’t want to appear on your map.
Copy and paste the updated spreadsheet into Mapline. Be sure to include the column headers (Shape Name and Color)
Click “OK.”

View Our Mapping Software Plans

Mapline offers a wide range of territory boundaries which can be added to your color coded map. Check out Mapline’s Available Territories to see what is offered as well as step-by-step instructions on how you can add them to your map or build heat maps with territory colors.

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Mapline Blog

Visualize Your Territories with Territory Mapping Software

Territory Mapping with Mapline’s Drawing Pad

Create Sales Territory with Overlays

Steps for Sales Territory Mapping

Customize Your Territories for Your Specific Needs

Steps to Draw Custom Shapes in Your Territory Map

Visualizing Your Data with a Geographic Radial Heat Map

Steps to overlay a radial style heat maps

Steps to share a map

Add Multi-Colored Territory Boundaries to Your Maps

Steps on How to Make a Color-Coded Map