Oracle's World Wide Web site comes alive with interactive maps from Strategic Mapping, Inc.; SMI and Oracle partner to bring mapping technology to the Internet

Business Wire, Feb 26, 1996

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 26, 1996--Here at the Oracle Developer Conference, Strategic Mapping, Inc. (SMI), the leading supplier of industry standard technology for embedded mapping applications, announced that Oracle has integrated SMI's mapping tools with Oracle7 Release 7.3 to enable interactive maps to be generated on Oracle Web Servers.

Oracle7 Release 7.3 is the relational server component of Oracle Universal Server, a complete information management solution for companies seeking to capitalize on the advantages of accessing any data -- relational, text or multimedia, from any application, over any network.

SMI and Oracle have collaborated to provide optimized, integrated technology for map generation and spatial data retrieval over the Internet. The WWW application created for Oracle's Developer Conference links SMI's AtlasWare Map/SDK to the Oracle7 Spatial Data Option for retrieval of attribute data, such as information on businesses, as well as geographic data, such as points, boundaries and lines. With a simple `point-and-click' on menu items and maps, users can generate specific queries through their Web browser. These queries result in the interactive display of maps with locations of businesses and other useful data.

"Maps offer an easily understood method to display and organize information," said Warren Weiss, SMI's president and CEO. "We believe Oracle chose SMI's leading-edge Atlas-Ware technology because it gives developers a flexible, fast tool to create mapping interfaces to Oracle7."

"The linkage of a mapping interface with the powerful spatial capabilities of Oracle7 Spatial Data Option are tremendous," said Frank Bishop, vice president of Oracle. "With SMI's tools, it took us less than a month to create a map enabled Web site that allows users to interactively search a database in a fun, efficient and powerful manner."

Map-enabled WWW sites provide many useful options for retrieving location-specific information, adding value to otherwise static information. Users can interactively search for the nearest location of a store, facility or office of a particular business based on the user's address. This powerful functionality has obvious benefits for many applications such as electronic yellow pages, customer service, real estate and many other information-based services.

SMI's AtlasWare Map/SDK, which is part of SMI's AtlasWare line of mapping-related tools and objects, is the industry's leading embedded mapping toolkit. Map/SDK is engineered for fast display and a small footprint, making it ideal for WWW applications and Internet deployment. It is available for Windows, NT and UNIX, and can be embedded using virtually any development tool.

About Strategic Mapping, Inc.

Strategic Mapping, Inc. (SMI) is the only company that develops both mapping technology and information products. SMI's wide range of products integrate market data to provide customers the fastest, most accurate method to conduct site selection, micromarketing, targeting, distribution planning and territory design. SMI also provides developers a full line of embeddable mapping tools and objects that support industry standard tools. This enables developers to rapidly deploy a variety of easily maintained applications, including those for the Internet. SMI's products are used worldwide by over 50,000 customers in a variety of industries including more than half of the Fortune 500. Additionally, SMI technology is embedded into applications and systems by companies ranging from SunSoft, to IBM and Lotus. Contact SMI at 408/970-9600 or visit the company's worldwide web site at http://www.stratmap.com.

CONTACT: Strategic Mapping, Inc.

Joan Hammel, 408/970-1882