See more clearly

Does your company have a database that contains location data?  Perhaps you track where your products are shipped to, or where employees live, or where retail sales of your products take place.  If your company collects location-specific data of any sort, then you are a candidate for Corda Technologies’ mapping product OptiMap.

OptiMap is a charting software product that quickly and easily creates dynamic Web-based maps from your data.  OptiMap can operate behind corporate firewalls to graph sensitive business intelligence data, or outside the firewall for less private data.  The software connects directly to a database, or to a database through a Web application server, allowing it to support any database that the Web application server can support. 

The software provides Flash, SVG, JPEG, PNG and TIFF images that have drilldown and pop-up features to assist in navigating through data.  There is wireless and handheld support using BMP output.  OptiMap works with any database and any browser.

Perhaps the biggest value of this product is the ability to connect to multiple databases simultaneously without migrating the data into one business intelligence database.  In essence, you get the advantages of data integration without the cost.

So say you have sales data from your various geographic regions, and each region keeps its own database.  Let’s say the Americas region uses SQL Server, EMEA uses Oracle, and Asia Pacific uses DB2.  Without integration work, OptiMap can pull data from each source and collectively map it to show you a global perspective of sales.

The “locations” that you track and map don’t have to be cities or zip codes.  They could be something like seats in an airplane or a stadium, or GPS positions of drilling rigs or commercial fishing areas.  Whatever you’re tracking, OptiMap creates a data visualization solution that makes the data come alive.

Need proof?  Visit http://www.corda.com to see OptiMap in action.  Corda has a sample database that contains real data from the National Cancer Institute on the mortality rates of various types of cancer throughout the U.S.  Select your age, gender and type of cancer, and see what the death rates have been in various locations.  Scroll your cursor over the map to see how the rates change by location, or click on a state to drill down to a county by county perspective.

I’m also pleased to see that Corda has made OptiMap charts fully compliant with the federal government’s requirements for accessibility (i.e., Section 508).  The software provides the ability to have the full descriptive text of the map available through an audible screen reader.  Kudos to Corda for making online maps accessible for the visually impaired.

Corda’s other product, PopChart, is a complement to the newly released OptiMap.  PopChart gives you charting and graphing solutions on any database.  Both products are quite scalable and can support thousands of simultaneous users.

Databases can contain a treasure trove of information.  Tools like OptiMap and PopChart help you visualize the data in many ways.  Looking at a colorful chart or map is certainly more fun than scrolling through pages of text and numbers.

Linda Musthaler is vice president of Currid & Company.  You can write to her at mailto:Linda.Musthaler@currid.com