Analysis: GeoAnalytics / Geo Data Analytics

Tableau -

• Overview: Tableau is a large company (over 5000 employees) that helps businesses analyze and visualize data to make better decisions. Designed to make the most of geographical data, so you can get to the “where” as well as the “why,” Tableau enables instant geocoding, and automatically turns the location data and information you already have into rich, interactive maps. There are many sales applications to being able to give your sales analysts and sales operations team access to powerful mapping tools, from analyzing where you should apply more focus and uncovering opportunities, to analysis on how you could serve your customers more effectively, to better understanding your customers and their businesses. 

Tableau enables you to evaluate performance against quota, better understand the impact of changing sales incentives, build dashboards that enable faster and better decisions, account tracking, quarterly results, top accounts, opportunity overview, opportunity tracking, and marketing leads.

• Reference Customers: AMAG Pharmaceuticals (case study here), LinkedIn (case study here), MillerCoors (case study here), 

• Potential Issues: Tableau is a large and well reviewed company. It does a lot of analytics for a lot of applications, but may take some expertise and work to get used to it. It is among the most powerful analytics tools available. 

• Demo: demo of mapping capabilities here. 3rd party demo here. Full youtube channel here 

• Published price: here 

Salesforce Maps (MapAnything)

• Overview: Salesforce Maps (MapAnything) enables users to visualize and analyze their Salesforce CRM data on a map. It features Heat Maps, and deep analysis tools so that you can get map-based insights about your customers. This enables leaders to tailor their marketing efforts to their target audience.

  Salesforce Maps also helps Dispatchers and Fleet Managers determine where to allocate their assets in the field, allowing them to dispatch the team member with the right training, tools, and inventory, to the right place at the right time. 

  Mapping apps on Salesforce reports on the latitude and longitude of your assets as they make their deliveries, and will inform managers policies aren’t followed automatically with notifications and geofencing.

  There is a little confusion about what Salesforce Maps does because Salesforce purchased a B2B Sales Mapping App named MapAnything, and MapAnything had previously purchased a Territory Building and Design App named Terralign. So their offering can be a little confusing to analyze because they’re calling them both Salesforce Maps, but if you keep in mind that they are two apps that both integrate with Salesforce seamlessly and just do two different things, it makes perfect sense. The MapAnything half of Salesforce Maps is what we’re focused on in this category (we’ll cover Terralign in the Territory Building and Design App category). 

• Reference Customers: Modern Star - video can be played from this page. While there aren’t many case studies available, Salesforce is one of the largest software companies in the world so we can assume there are a lot of companies using this successfully.

• Potential Issues: Salesforce Maps is among the strongest software in the GeoAnalytics section. The most common criticisms of Salesforce Maps are actually centered around misconceptions about what Salesforce Maps does, and are not a reflection of Salesforce Maps’ GeoAnalytics. While Salesforce Maps is great for analysis, it isn’t optimized for usage by a Field Salesperson on the go. As a result, their mobile app does not seem to be a focus. The focus is the web version of their product, which is perfect for someone in Marketing or Sales Operations who works from their computer. However it appears that the confusion and mixed reviews about this product arise from field salesperson who try to use this on their mobile device,. Salesforce Maps’ ratings on the Apple App Store is 2.2 and their rating on the Google Play Store is 1.7 which are much lower than their ratings on Review Sites that are less mobile-centric like G2 Crowd where they are rated 4.4. This shows that people that use this at their desks are happy with it, but people who use it on their mobile device sometimes have complaints. So depending on where your users will use it, this may or may not be the right sales mapping software for you. We suspect there is some confusion that can occur when this is bundled in with Salesforce overall. People think that they are getting something that they aren’t getting which leads to expectations not matching with reality which can drive bad reviews. But that is really not a reflection of Salesforce Maps’ extremely strong analytics tools, it's more just market confusion about what this product does. 

  There was some other dissatisfaction with the lock-in with this product, as people sometimes seem to commit to it without knowing exactly what they are getting but then commit to a 5-year contract. But that is once again not really fair feedback, more of a similar misunderstanding to the one above. It was not published if you can try this out month to month, and then switch to annual and get an annual discount once you know you want at least 12 months of the product, a strategy which we believe substantially lowers the risks of a purchase to the buyer. Perhaps this is available though. 

• Demo: You can talk to a rep and get a live demo and, their partner made a great video of the web version of Salesforce Maps available here. We could not find a video of the mobile version. Here is the Salesforce YouTube page. 

• Published price:here

eSpatial -

• Overview:  eSpatial is cloud-based mapping software built for businesses to enable fast, easy, and powerful mapping. Users can easily upload, visualize, and analyze multiple layers of data in an intuitive geographic environment. Business data can be accessed whether it is stored in spreadsheets, CRM or ERP systems. In addition, eSpatial also has capabilities that belong in the Territory Building and Design Category, but since they are a more general tool not just focused on territory building, we included them in this category. eSpatial has solid reviews.  

• Reference Customers: Thermo Fisher (case study here), LivaNova (case study here), The Kafafian Group (case study here), Henkel (case study here), NAS (case study here), Starkey (case study here), Engel & Volkers (case study here), Seco (case study here), All case studies available here. 

• Potential Issues: In general, eSpatial is positively reviewed and basically across the board, the feedback is that it is a great choice for your GeoAnalytics. It's noted in the reviews that this is not built with frontline sales reps in mind, but instead built for Sales Leaders and the Rev Ops team, Marketers, and other Analysts that need to work with geographic data. We think that is generally true of everything in this category. This review was a particularly important story for companies rebuilding or rebalancing their territories. Although it doesn’t necessarily say anything bad about eSpatial, its lessons are relevant about this whole category, as well as the Territory Building and Design Category. 

Also important to note that this is not a mobile product, but focused on desktop use. 

• Demo: Full Demo here. Full youtube channel here

• Published price: here

Geopointe -

• Overview: Geopointe location-enables Salesforce to help you geographically visualize and manage your accounts, contacts, opportunities, and CRM data. Sales, Marketing, Operations, and Service teams can improve efficiency and streamline processes using features such as geographic analysis, routing and scheduling, territory optimization and management, and more. Geopointe can help provide actionable insights about your geographic data to make better decisions. 

Geopointe can improve Marketing strategy by taking into account density of good target markets and then enabling more targeted marketing for trade shows, email blasts, and traditional mail campaigns. This can also be helpful for Marketing departments that are holding events for fundraising or outreach, enabling Event Planners to customize their messaging based on geographic location. Also helps decide the best places to hold an event with heat mapping capabilities.

GeoPointe can also help paint the Big Picture for Executives by taking the data from salesforce and visualizing it, making it readily accessible for meetings and strategic planning sessions. 

Geopointe has basic capabilities for territory design and rebalancing, and also some basic capabilities in the Sales Mapping App (both B2B and B2C) categories, and also in the Trucking and Fleet Management category. We put them in the GeoAnalytics section because that is the primary focus, and the apps in the other categories are only focused on those other areas. But it's important to note that they do have some capability here too, although if you have a more than basic problem you want solved in any of these other areas you are probably better off going to the app that specializes in that particular area. It's unclear if this is a case of marketing creep, or if they purposely tried to be broader as opposed to specializing, or if they were so threatened by Tableau in the GeoAnalytics space that they started to go in different directions. The good news for a buyer in this space is that you can get Geopointe for your Marketing team or Analysts, get a specialized fleet management solution for the people managing your trucking assets, and a Sales Mapping App for your sales team, and get a Territory Building Solution for your Sales Operations team.   

• Reference Customers:  Rational AG (case study here), Trader Interactive (case study here), 3M (case study here), Quincy Compressor (case study here), Paycor (case study here), ClassPass (case study here), DenMat (case study here), Doctolib (case study here), HFO Investment Real Estate (case study here), ISN (case study here), Shoptech (case study here), all references here.

• Potential Issues: There have been some complaints about speed and usability of the application, but other people have reviewed it very positively. There are some complaints about the additional charges for their optional add on features and the way their pricing is laid out, so make sure you understand that the functionality you need is included in your quote. Geopointe is also not a standalone mobile application, but works within Salesforce’s mobile app. So there are no ratings on the apple or Google play stores. This is for use on the desktop in the browser, and is delivered as a SaaS solution. 

Some of their marketing is a little confusing because they talk about being for mobile teams like field service and field sales teams, but given that they don’t have a mobile app, they are likely referring to the analysis and management of those teams as opposed to the end users on those teams. We suspect this is marketing creep more than anything else, as when you look at their site they basically say that they are in every category in this analysis, but they are a small company. In addition to GeoAnalytics, they say they do territory building and alignment, Routing for Delivery drivers, Sales Mapping and territory management (both for B2B and B2C). However, this shouldn’t reflect poorly on what the product actually does, as GeoPointe is well reviewed for its GeoAnalytics capabilities. We suspect that Salesforce has put them under a lot of pressure over the last few years as GeoPointe only works on Salesforce, and Salesforce bought Tableau for $15.7B in 2019. With this level of investment and the Marketing and buzz around it, Salesforce has probably sucked a lot of the air out of the room for GeoPointe. But it's worth including GeoPointe on your shortlist of companies in this category to try out, because they may be able to solve your GeoAnalytics problems with a lot more simplicity and at a lower cost than Tableau.

• Demo: Full demo here. Full youtube channel here.

• Published price: Here

Mapsly

• Overview: With Location Intelligence, Automation, interactive maps for websites & dashboards. Perfect for store locators, service zones, and real-time map charts with live data. Maps enable visualization and analysis of your data at a low price point with rich features and functionality. This includes over 40 types of charts and graphs to beautifully display your data.  Mapsly brings its broad mapping capabilities to CRMs with connectors and enables direct SQL access to your data.

• Reference Customers: AT&T, GE, McDonalds, FedEx, MARS, Lenovo. 

• Potential Issues: Although they have large customers on their reference customer list, this product has not been reviewed much across review sites, so you should do a trial before you buy. This will ensure that the product satisfies your use case, as the reviews are often at the extremes, which can indicate that people sometimes do get what they were expecting, while other people do not. While the mobile versions of the app are not well reviewed (Apple App Store here), that should be taken with a grain of salt because the users of an analytical mapping tool tend to be desk based with little need for a mobile app. 

• Demo: Web version here. Mobile version here. Here is full youtube channel.

• Published price: here

Maplytics by Inogic -

• Overview: Maplytics does geographic analytics and visualizations to bring business value. While GeoPointe is focused on the Salesforce CRM ecosystem, Maplytics is focused on bringing mapping to the Microsoft Dynamics 365 ecosystem whether you have an online, on-premise, or partner-hosted deployment. Maplytics has capabilities like geocoding, mapping your CRM data, radius search, auto-scheduling, finding nearby places, route optimization, geo-analytics and dashboards to better understand your data, and heat mapping. With Maplytics, your Marketing team can better target their ad spend with personalization and localization. 

• Reference Customers:  Trefor Infrastruktur (case study here), Performance Brokerage Services (case study here), T-GREX (case study here), Data Sciences International (case study here), Strong Spas (case study here), Vert Bleu (case study here), all customers stories here

• Potential Issues: While Inogic has 77 employees, Maplytics is a small part of what they do. It's unclear how well this has been resourced, and there are very few reviews of the product from customers. But if you have Microsoft Dynamics 365 for your CRM, this is certainly worth doing a trial to check out to see if it would fit your GeoAnalytics needs. 

• Demo: here. Full YouTube video here

• Published price: Not published.