Latest map data sets add invaluable functionality for planning and market analysis

15 January 2014 ---- Organisations involved in market analysis now have a selection of new digital map data sets at their disposal from MapMechanics, the leading supplier of digital map data and related geodemographic and business data.

Height information, railway stations and ceremonial counties are all featured in the new versions of MapMechanics own ForGIS postcode data files.

MapMechanics has also added another useful map data set to its portfolio, CRESTA Zones, which delineates areas treated as single entities by the insurance business. They include both high-resolution and low-resolution versions, each offering users new ways of identifying data relating to areas with widely-recognised boundaries.

All these new data products can be obtained direct from MapMechanics, or through the company s fully transactional web site, allmapdata.com.

MapMechanics ForGIS is a long-established product range providing latitude and longitude for all UK unit postcodes, giving map coordinates to within 1 metre of the centre point of each postcode.

As its name suggests, ForGIS was developed specifically for GIS activities, which often involve processes such as market planning and catchment analysis. Along with current postcodes, ForGIS data includes historic postcodes dating back to 2001. These standard ForGIS elements are included in the new data sets.

ForGIS Heights for postcodes, UK adds a new field containing height above sea level in metres for each unit postcode offering an invaluable new resource for infrastructure planning, risk assessment and accessibility evaluation.

ForGIS Nearest rail stations for unit postcodes, GB adds new fields indicating name of the nearest railway station to every unit postcode in Great Britain (not including Underground stations), and the distance in metres from it. This information is likely to appeal strongly to users such as estate agents marketing properties, and to people operating car pools.

ForGIS Unit postcode points with Ceremonial Counties, UK provides an invaluable and often intriguing insight into the historical county in which each unit postcode falls. Such counties may not coincide exactly with current metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties, or even exist at all any longer in an official sense (for instance, Cumberland or Middlesex), yet they can still evoke strong loyalties, and might for instance influence which league team a player should join, or which local town consumers regard as their natural shopping centre.

Ceremonial counties often have other practical uses too, since their boundaries may help delineate logically cohesive areas that cannot be described by more modern boundary data. They are often used in the milk industry, and to identify an area of provenance (lettuce from Suffolk, for instance).

CRESTA Zones data offers users an alternative way of identifying, visualising and analysing data relating to those parts of a country that are regarded as discrete units by the insurance industry. The zones are based on standard postcodes and administrative areas, but the data sets group these together into areas that are specific to the insurance market.

The boundaries are available at two resolutions. The high-resolution data is ideal for identifying areas that fall within a particular zone, and for natural disaster modelling. The low-resolution is useful for functions such as accumulation control and data visualisation.

Data for nearly 140 countries is available, containing 250,000 CRESTA zones in total. Because the boundaries are recognised internationally, they have relevance that extends beyond borders.

About MapMechanics

MapMechanics has been providing innovative solutions in sales and marketing, digital mapping, geographic analysis and logistics planning for over twenty five years.

• MapMechanics distributes a wide range of data products including AA, HERE and Ordnance Survey digital mapping, as well as leading business and demographic datasets from many sources throughout the world. This data is listed on MapMechanics’ intuitive new transactional data web site, www.allmapdata.com, which is probably the most extensive and up-to-date listing of its kind in Britain.
• MapMechanics is a distributor of the Geoconcept geographic information system, which is used extensively in a diverse range of fields such as depot planning, retail planning, marketing, healthcare, environmental planning and management, transport and logistics, site selection and territory allocation, telematics and command and control applications, policing and broadcasting, and central and local government.
• MapMechanics develops, supplies and supports TruckStops, one of the world’s best-established routing and scheduling solutions, and its portfolio includes a wide range of optimisation solutions. Examples include specialist systems for optimising transport of full or part loads, for servicing a high density of calls on the same streets and for optimising use of pallet networks.
• MapMechanics also uses digital map-based technologies to offer an extensive range of Web, desktop, paper and component solutions for a variety of business applications, from atlas production to business analysis, site selection, customer profiling and vehicle routing and scheduling.

Backing up its extensive product range, MapMechanics offers a comprehensive service of implementation support and training.


Contact: 

Katy McKenna
MapMechanics
Canal Court
155 High Street
Brentford
London
TW8 8JA
Tel: +44 (020) 8568 7000
Fax:+44 (020) 8568 7400
Email: Email Contact
Web: www.allmapdata.com