Published on
May 5, 2010 in
Events.
Get yourself over to the PBInsights Cafe!
I thought I’d promote a few sessions we have coming up from the LI team over the coming weeks. Make sure you head on over to the pbinsights cafe area to register for sessions on MapInfo Professional and MapInfo Stratus:
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May 12th- Knowledge Cafe: Tips & Tricks for MapInfo Professional
Join this 20 minute session as MapInfo Professional Tech Support presents the most frequently asked questions regarding MapInfo Professional. Learn how to become more proficient in MapInfo Professional with these simple solutions to everyday problems. Click for more info
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May 19th- Knowledge Cafe: Introducing MapInfo Stratus
Are you interested in delivering online interactive maps, with address-based searching, across your enterprise? In 20 minutes, learn how MapInfo Stratus is the answer. – Click for more info
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May 20th- Creating Oohs & Aahs – Generating Amazing Maps with MapInfo Professional
Join this basic level session to learn how to take your maps to the next level using tools and techniques that are guaranteed to add the “wow” factor. This webinar will make you and your maps look better, and help you get more from your investment in MapInfo Professional. Click for more info
Enjoy,
Chris M
PB - 90 Years old today - Another fine example of Anglo American relations!
*If you’re in Conneticut that is. Yes I’m not actually making that up, Govenor Jodi Rell has declared April 23rd 2010 as Pitney Bowes Day. Why you are pondering (the picture might be a clue here) – well we are 90 years old today. In 1902 Arthur Pitney patented the first postage meter (a “double-locking” hand-cranked postage-stamping machine for those who need to know). It was a few years later when an English emigrant Walter Bowes joined forces. Bowes had devised a system for wrapping postage payment, postmarking and cancellation. On April 23rd 1920 the two companies merged forming the Pitney Bowes Postage Meter Company, with the goal of bringing these two technologies together. By August 20th the US Post Office had approved their postage meter.
Pitney Bowes day, as declared by the Governor of Connecticut
Our current CEO who will be ringing the closing bell at the NYSE tonight reminds us that 90 years is a milestone that not a lot of companies make. Along that road there has been constant investment and innovation.
PB is obviously still a growing company both organically and by acquisition. The effective purchase and merge of Group1 and MapInfo to form Pitney Bowes Business Insight is just another example of this. The merging of data quality and Location Intelligence into the PB family further enhances the companies vision of the end to end mailing solution. Speaking from a MapInfo point of view, it was only a few years ago we celebrated out 20th birthday, today we’re celebrating 90 – maybe this is how the dog feels?
Pitney Bowes also shares its birthday with a notable William Shakespeare. I once read that William was born and died on the same day – and you thought you had a busy day? I think that writer omitted the 40 odd years in between.
Either way, raise your glass for Mr Pitney and Mr Bowes, maybe even send them a birthday card – franked of course!
Chris M
Congratulations to our Where 2.0 winner!
For those of you lucky enough to have attended the Where 2.0 conference this year in San Jose, did you stop by our booth? If you did you’ll have seen there was a little modern day “pin the tail on the donkey” game going on. Visitors were invited to click on a Map to try and find a hidden location. Using MapInfo Stratus technology for the visualisation, customers were then SMS’d (texted) a message from PBBI’s e-messaging technology to thank them for participating. The winner of this little competition would get a brand new shiny Apple iPad. Personally I haven’t heard of these iPads, but my colleagues tell me they are all the rage in the gadget world.
So a big congratulations to Dave Jacobus of RBF Consulting. Your iPad should now be winging its way over to you. Dave got within 8.0 Kilometres of the hidden location!
Coming in the next couple of weeks our MapInfo Stratus customers will be fully supported on Safari too, so happy browsing!
Chris M
Published on
March 29, 2010 in
Events.
Are you going to the Where 2.0 Conference this week? If you are then make sure you stop by the PBBI booth. Unfortunately I’ve had to sit this one out but several of my colleagues will be there to answer questions and talk to you about all we are doing in the LI/GIS space. There are a couple of Stratus experts there so make sure you look out for Jessica krokowski and Tom Citriniti. Above all, have fun, I’m very jealous if you’re heading out to San Jose!
Chris M
Cafe Stratus - serving layered cakes or Danish pastries?
So a little short notice but I will be attending the Danish PBBI user groups that are running today and tomorrow. Those of you who attended yesterday had the pleasure of Tom Probert talking about MI Pro. Today Tom is back in Blighty, but those of you attending will hear me talking about Stratus in the afternoon. Todays meeting is in Randers, and tomorrow in Glostrup.
However when I landed in the home of lego yesterday I was pleased to see how diverse the Stratus business has become.
The full agenda for the Danish event can be found on our new PBBI Danish blog
Hope to see you there…
Chris M
Well, we’ve had quite a year, and through the blog we’ve brought you quite a few screenshots of previews, demo’s and from customers. But imagine my surprise when I opened my email this morning to recieve another screenshot and letter from another happy customer.
“I’ve been a MapInfo Pro customer for many years, it’s helped me with my distribution targets at my busiest time of the year. However now I can share all my information with my helpers – who to be honest aren’t so skilled in the GI department.
Yours, Mr S. Claus”
Can’t argue with that can you! Happy Christmas to all our readers from everyone on the Stratus team,
Chris M.
“Remember, remember the 5th of November” (at 2.00pm)
We are running a webinar on Stratus Connect and Stratus RIA controls. The webinar will cover the following
- Understand the benefits
Details on the capabilities
See the product in action
Learn about the future vision
A chance to ask questions
Register for the complimentary webinar
Thursday November 5th (2.00pm – 3.00pm)
Learn how you can immediately gain efficiencies and benefits with Stratus Connect and explore how web mapping enables your organisation to rapidly gain insight from spatial data, by integrating Location Intelligence across the enterprise.
It should be great session, but I can’t promise fireworks 
Hope to see you there.
Mark
Bad Comedy Act
Chris, Tom and I decided to “perform” at the AGI Soapbox. We went with for a stand up comedy routine, based on bad geography jokes.
– What do you get if you cross a cowboy with a map maker?
– A Cow-tographer
Most all of the jokes were pretty bad, but the soapbox was a fun end to the day. But I’m hoping the video never gets released.
Jon Winslow - Day 2 Keynote
The Keynote – Jon Winslow: Making the move to become a wholly location intelligent organisation
Jon Winslow – Global Portfolio Director for Location Intelligence. Had some excellent examples of how Location Intelligence may be everywhere, yet is often not always intelligent. Examples such as the classic EU report that printed a map without Wales. He also set out PBBI’s strategy and vision and talked about future product line-ups, and reiterated that the MapInfo brand will continue to live on in the products.
Click for Slides
Ian Broadbent – Crime on the increase as the recession takes hold
After accusing the audience of all being criminals, Ian Broadbent went on to do a great job explaining with examples how the current recession is affecting crime patterns. Referring to privacy concerns, he talked about how we are all at risk to organised fraud. There also some great examples of how Location Intelligence has been used to help combat crime.
It was a great presentation delivered with Ian’s usual witty style. The judges agreed and the presentation made it into the top 8 having beaten 158 other papers, well done Ian!
Data as a Service – Scott Robinson
Scott Robinson gave an insight into how the most important part of GIS – the data is also changing in the way we want to consume it and the ways in which technology is helping us gain more from our data. Ranging from the need for full digital distribution of data, thankfully an end to the days of shipping 20 DVDs of worldwide date, to buying the exact data you want in the format you want, when you want it. When you then throw in the ability to add significant value by appending other data records at the same time as performing a geocode – with the obligatory postal correction, the old adage of “rubbish in, rubbish out” becomes a thing of the past. Scott has shown us quite the opposite, that you can start to put rubbish in, and get out high quality value added insight. Hopefully those with archaic licensing restrictions were paying attention
The Inspration Hub
I posted a couple of pictures on day 1 from the stand. I’d also like to mention the Inspiration hub on the day before the conference. We had all the kit on show and it was really well attended. We had a lot of interest in Stratus Connect and a couple of people had dropped in just for the day to see us, so many thanks for taking the time to do so. The Oracle Spatial SIG was also running at the same time and a quick thanks to them for working with us to share delegates! Also you might have noticed we had some interesting coloured polo shirts – rather unbelivably one of the customers asked if we had any spare (they probably have some DIY projects or garnedning in mind)
Inspiration Hub
Competition Time
Rob Salmond put together the Stratus demo for the competition. As mentioned in an earlier post it was a “pin the tail on the map” competition with the prize going to the closest guess. It thought it was for the whole of the UK, but the guess needed to be within a bounding box of the midlands. A neat addition was that the system was tied into our e-messaging software and each entrant was SMS’d a personal thank you for entering.
Rob (on the right) setting up the competition demo. Pete in the background ready to demo Stratus Connect
We announced the winner on day 2 & congratulations to the Paul Horton from Bristol City Council who guessed to within 7 miles of the mystery point.
The winning guess displayed on Stratus RIA controls
Mark
