Two for the road

Entrepreneur, July, 1997 by Cassandra Cavanah

Those of us who travel a lot can only hope teleconferencing will soon take the place of hopping on an airplane to fly across country or jumping in our cars to drive across the state. Of course, we have a while to go before that technology is a viable alternative. Still, if you own a business, it's likely travel has become a large part of your life, whether it's meeting clients, making sales, doing promotions - whatever it takes to keep your business growing. Mapping programs can help you get a grip on your customers' whereabouts, both by mapping out the best route to them and by working in tandem with your database to chart where your clients are across the country.

This column looks at two mapping programs for assisting you in your travel needs and also notes other interesting ways to use mapping products.

* WAY TO GO

Based on the AAA TourBook series, DeLorme's AAA Map'n'Go 3.0 lets you map a route from point A to point B, choosing between the quickest and most scenic routes. Once a route is determined, a map is laid out giving you a clear picture of the highways, roads and landmarks you'll encounter on the trip.

AAA Map'n'Go is a 16-bit program capable of running under both Windows 3.1 and Windows 95. Because it's chock-full of data, this program requires a CD-ROM drive so it will take up only 9MB of space on your hard drive. A color monitor is required as well. The routing itself takes just moments to complete. I requested the quickest route from my hometown (Studio City, California) to New York City, and in a flash, I was viewing a map of the United States with a light-blue highlighted line running from point A to point B. To view the areas in which you'll be driving in greater detail, click with the left mouse button to zoom in. Along with the map, Map'n'Go prints out a set of directions that will no doubt prove incredibly useful when you hit the highway.

My favorite feature is the "Along the Way" icon. Click on it, and Map'n'Go creates a list of restaurants, lodgings and attractions you may want to visit en route to your destination. By inputting a "user profile," you can select the types of establishments you want to view. For example, you can choose to view only restaurants that serve your favorite cuisine in a specific price range.

Lodgings and attractions are also broken down into all sorts of categories to fit your needs. Find a restaurant or place you want to visit, and you can view a description of it complete with phone number. You can then opt to add it to your map as a stop.

Map'n'Go includes I million miles of roads and detailed maps for 240 urban areas in North America. It also offers a number of interesting features you wouldn't otherwise have thought you needed. For example, you can find local radio stations by clicking anywhere on the map - that means no more radio surfing as you cruise through barren lands.

Map'n'Go also works with DeLorme's Tripmate Hyperformance GPS Navigation tool, which uses satellite navigation technology to show users their exact locations on the map. DeLorme's Street Atlas USA also works with Map'n'Go to offer street-level map details for cities nationwide. Additionally, it allows users to look up demographic information for U.S. cities and to import database information to pinpoint locations of clients and customers.

* HAPPY TRAILS

Rand McNally TripMaker 1997 and Map'n'Go are fairly serious competitors. Both products are priced right at $39 and both have extensive maps, though the AAA product includes 1 million miles of road to Rand McNally's 640,900 miles of roads. Otherwise, the biggest difference between the two products lies in their functionality.

Rand McNally strives to set itself apart from the competition by incorporating Web links to travel information (such as weather and road conditions) and extensive help functions. Rand McNally's Personal Profiler Guide takes users through the process of setting up the program, including preferred driving speed (to accurately estimate driving time) and preferred driving hours. Mapping a trip is easy: Just input starting and ending destinations, and TripMaker begins the process. It takes you through step by step, day by day, asking where you want to stay at the end of the driving day, how far out of the way you'd like to go to find a hotel that meets your criteria, and so on.

TripMaker's directions are more extensive than Map'n'Go's. They include not only the road on which you'll travel but also the number of miles you'll be on that road as well as the estimated time you'll be on each highway.

Because Rand McNally is the pre-eminent U.S. mapping company, this product also comes with its 1997 Road Atlas, which will no doubt be of assistance while traveling without the aid of a computer. Rand McNally's hotel and restaurant information is not as extensive as Map'n'Go's; however, its Attraction Pack features a more impressive list of attractions, including High Adventure, for travelers who enjoy taking on the challenges of the great outdoors; Scenic Tours, with 88 pre-planned scenic tours; and National Parks, a listing of 440 parks, monuments, rivers, trails, historic sites and more. Another plus for TripMaker users is Trip Summary, which provides a summary of a trip's approximate costs, including lodging, food, entertainment, fuel and so on.