Strategic Mapping's MIS for Windows debuts
Strategic Mapping Inc., Santa Clara, Calif., has introduced a Windows-based marketplace information system called Conquest. The system combines software application modules with demographic, business and industry-specific data sets, and it sports an integrated data-retrieval interface that allows users to access, display and analyze information from a CD-ROM device, hard drive or client/server network. The system is designed for marketing, sales and maket research professionals in advertising, media, real estate, financial services, consumer packaged goods and other industries who need to retrieve and analyze up-to-date, accurate data to determine how to best deploy resources and target customers. The system includes access to SMI's 1994/1999 demographic estimates and projections, 1990 and 1980 Census data and ClusterPLUS 2000 consumer lifestyles data. It also offers four software application modules: Area Analyzer, Segmentation Analyzer, Atlas GIS and Data Manager.
SMI also has dropped the single-user prices and corporate site license fees on its Atlas line of desktop mapping software and development tools. Atlas GIS for Windows 2.0 is available for $495. LAN Packs are $1,195 for three users and $3,495 for 10 users. Atlas Import/Export is $295 for a single-user copy. Atlas Script/VB and Atlas Script/C are $495 for single-user copies.
Census supplement issued
The U.S. superintendent of documents has released the County and City Data Book 1994, a complement to the Statistical Abstract of the United States. The supplement offers current official data at the local level and comparative statistics based on the 1990 census. It covers subjects such as income and income growth, education, employment, population, housing and health resources in 1,078 cities, all 3,141 U.S. counties and 11,097 places of 2,500 or more inhabitants. The 1,100-page cloth-bound book includes city and county ranking tables for selected variables ranging from median income to tax base. Further, the book contains detailed state maps, an updated listing of metropolitan areas and their component counties, and appendices.
Investext expands its database again
Boston-based Investext has added research reports from Janet Matthews Information Services' Quest Economics Database to its online offerings. The reports, selected from the QED for inclusion in Investext's database, provide detailed macro-economic, financial and money market-related information on EC and EFTA countries, plus countries in North America, Latin America, Asia and Eastern Europe. They can be used to assess the political and economic risk of business activities. The reports come from such sources as Banque Paribas, Barclays Bank, Credit Suisse, Dresdner Bank, Lombard Street Research, Lloyd's Bank and Societe General.
Multiuser version of Telef orm released
Cardiff Software Inc., Solana Beach, Calif., has released Teleform Multiuser Version 3 Windows-based forms-processing software for Local Area Networks. The software is a variation on Cardiff's latest Teleform automated data-entry product. When used in combination with a high-speed scanner, a fax modem or a fax server, Teleform Multiuser allows multiple PCs to concurrently access and automatically interpret and verify forms. The software's "Designer" module enables users to create forms for the collection of hand-printed, typed, preprinted or optical mark information. The company says its software can process thousands of forms per hour. Two-and five-user Teleform Multiuser configurations are available for $1,495 per user; upgrades are available for $249 per user.
Trans Union reissues market segmentation system
Chicago-based Trans Union Corp. has updated and reintroduced SOLO, a system that segments markets ac-cording to the spending habits and the behavior of individuals. The product identifies how, not where, people live, and groups folks into 41 clusters; each clusterrepresents certain lifestyle and behavior characteristics.
Interface handles data from SAS and SPSS
MarketPulse, Cambridge, Mass., has released a new interface for its marketing software. The interface allows MarketPulse users to easily and quickly import and export marketing data into and out of the SAS or SPSS statistical modeling systems. The MarketPulse SAS/SPSS interface also automates the posting of model scores back to the marketing database and it features a tagging capability and support for the .DBF export format. The interface's tag query result feature enables users to use a query result in subsequent queries and also allows users to take a random sample of a query result and develop another query to identify specific names or records in the database for use in statistical modeling. MarketPulse's summary files extract feature has been enhanced to support the SAS, SPSS and .DBF formats. In addition, the new interface can create extract files as ASCII files for use with a PC.
Raosoft improves SURVEY
Seattle-based Raosoft has upgraded its SURVEY software package. Version 2.7 of the DOS-based program provides for both data collection and statistical analysis and has an interface designed to be used by both experts and novices. The new version provides additional support for electronic data collection and as a statistical analysis tool is more powerful than version 2.5, introduced last year. Version 2.7 supports network and mail-out or notebook-powered data collection. It also gives designers more flexibility in creating screens.
This version of the program is Windows compatible and contains a special overlay memory-management feature to handle memory more efficiently for Windows users. The company expects this release will be the last DOS-based version of the program; future issues will be Windows based. Raosoft has also upgraded SURVEYFirst, the same program limited to 1,000 records, to a version 2.7. SURVEY'S database can be as large as you want it to be. Both versions can handle an unlimited number of field names. Raosoft SURVEY costs $495; SURVEYFirst runs $195.
Washington Researchers adds directories
Washington Researchers, Washington, D.C., has released Bibliography of Business/Competitive Intelligence and Benchmarking Literature. The publication lists more than 2,000 books, articles, chapters, conference transcripts, miscellaneous documents and audio and video tapes that focus on competitive and business intelligence. The 250-page bibliography groups listings under a number of topic categories: perception and influence of culture on intelligence and behavioral issues; information-gathering tools and techniques; analytical tools and techniques; intelligence in strategic management; benchmarking; international intelligence issues; information security, counterintelligence, industrial espionage; management of intelligence; intelligence and technology; intelligence and government; ethical and legal issues; bibliographies and reference books; and related writings on strategy.
Medical lists issued
Medical Marketing Service Inc., Wood Dale, Ill., distributes a number of different specialized health care-related lists. The company sells the list of the physicians, biomedical researchers and other health care professionals who subscribe to The Lancet, a list of consultant pharmacists and infusion therapy providers from the Bennett Group Masterfile, the U.S. Pharmacist circulation list, the National Association of Managed Care Physicians membership list, the American Association of Physician-Hospital Organizations list, a list of physicians practicing in Mexico, lists of international physicians, and the Healthcare Financial Management Association membership list.
Call center practices conference scheduled
The Institute for International Research is sponsoring "Managing and Improving the Effectiveness of Your Call Center Practices," a two-day series of lectures and an additional day of workshops. The meeting will include presentations by AT&T, Duke Power Co., Avis, New Pig Corp., USAA Insurance, IBM, Toyota Motor Sales and Pacific Gas & Electric, among others. Two optional workshops take place on the final day of the meeting: "Building a World-Class Call Center and Quantifying Its Impact on the Bottom Line" and "The People Are the Magic: How to Hire and Train Calling Center Employees." All events take place at the Hotel Del Coronado in San Diego, January 23-25, 1995. Admission to the conference only is $1,195; the con-ference and one workshop, $1,695; the conference and both workshops, $1,995.
FIND/SVP prepares technology survey
New York-based FIND/SVP has teamed up with Grunwald Associates, Santa Barbara, Calif., to develop a multiclient study of the home market for technology-based educational products and services. The study, "The American Learning Household Survey," is open to charter sponsors, who have the opportunity - until December - to affect the research design. The study will employ focus groups of parents and children and a telephone survey of 1,200 households with kids to explore a range of issues associated with how technology will be used to improve learning at home. Grunwald Associates is a consulting firm that specializes in education media and content for technology firms.
Newspapers Online grows
BiblioData, Needham Heights, Mass., has expanded its Newspapers Online directory, adding 50 new newspapers and information available on CompuServe, America Online, Prodigy, Delphi and Ziff's Interchange service, along with some of the things on the Internet. The 1995 edition of the reference book, compiled and edited by Susanne Bjorner, also contains information on searching consumer online services for 200 newspapers that are also found on professional online systems such as Dialog, Nexis, DataTimes, Dow Jones News/Retrieval. The newspapers included come from the United States, Canada, Europe, the Middle East and Asia and the Pacific. The new edition of Newspapers Online includes the 48 newspapers that have launched electronic services, which often offer unpublished stories and the opportunity to electronically chat with newspaper staff and other users. The directory also contains geographic and demographic information about the area each newspaper serves and tips on searching for articles. Newspapers Online costs $99 plus shipping and handling.
Connecticut Research launches effectiveness-measuring service
A new service from Connecticut Research Group Inc., Westport, Conn., measures the effectiveness of clients' efforts to advertise and otherwise promote personal and home-business technology products. COMMTRAC is a national shared-cost, subscription-based survey research system that evaluates the com-munications value of promotions. It measures consumers' brand awareness, overall rating, share, satisfaction and buying intentions three times each year, in February, June and October. Data for COMMTRAC is collected and processed by ICR Survey Research Group's EXCEL, a U.S. telephone survey research omnibus. A different random sample of 1,000 adults is tapped for each product category. Connecticut Research analyzes the results and delivers topline data seven days after interviewing is completed. Final reports are available two weeks after the topline is issued. An annual subscription costs $19,500 per category.