REDMOND, WA — Microsoft Corp.’s MapPoint Business Unit released Microsoft MapPoint Fleet Edition 2004 on March 22, providing new licensing options for customers who locate, track and manage their fleets with MapPoint 2004. Customers are only required to purchase a MapPoint Fleet license for each desktop and or laptop that is used to directly locate, evaluate or modify data from vehicles that are being tracked. Fleet Edition licensing was created so Microsoft development partners and customers could cost-effectively incorporate MapPoint 2004 location acquisition, visualization and data analysis capabilities into their fleet solutions and business processes. The end result is a more effective fleet management solution that helps companies improve decision-making, increase efficiency, and reduce risk and cost. Customers managing fleets require location-based services, applications and intelligence. The MapPoint Fleet Edition 2004 enables development partners to meet a wide range of customer needs and develop innovative solutions for the fleet industry. Baka Trak-IT Inc., Complete Innovations and GEOTAB and are among the Microsoft development partners that have used the MapPoint open standards-based platform to quickly and easily incorporate fleet management into their customers’ business processes.
Baka Trak-IT Inc. and Corporate Express Canada. Corporate Express is a business-to-business supplier of office essentials and furniture solutions. Corporate Express Canada uses MapPoint 2004 in combination with a Baka Trak-IT to create routes, sequence deliveries from its eight distribution centers throughout Canada, and track its fleet throughout the day. In addition, the Corporate Express sales force uses MapPoint 2004 to manage and analyze its sales territories.
Complete Innovations and Cardinal Couriers Ltd. With a fleet of 135 vehicles, Cardinal Couriers provides courier service to customers in the aftermarket automotive, farming, industrial supply and healthcare industries across Ontario and Quebec. Cardinal Couriers uses a vehicle and mobile resource location management solution called Fleet Complete from Complete Innovations that takes advantage of MapPoint 2004 to visualize real-time vehicle tracking, historical playback and reporting on maps. With this solution Cardinal Couriers has been able to dispatch and track its fleet, thereby creating greater efficiency and reducing costs.
GEOTAB and Orkin Inc. As a wholly owned subsidiary of Rollins Inc., Orkin provides essential pest control services to approximately 1.6 million residential and commercial customers. Orkin operates a fleet of about 6,000 vehicles in the United States, and uses Checkmate 4.6, a MapPoint-based GPS solution from GEOTAB, to plan efficient routes and monitor driver compliance with safety regulations. Following Orkin’s implementation of the solution in 1999, driver efficiency has increased, enabling drivers to make an average of two extra stops per day, and Orkin’s vehicle casualty claims are down 33 percent.
