Map Program

Dibs

Hi there,

Anyone know of a map program that I can download that I can link to an excel database?

I just started a new job and have a lot of accounts spread out throughout the southeastern United States. I was hoping there was some program that would display a map, and I could click on a city to to open up a list of any account that is listed as being in that city.

Anything spring to mind? I figure there has to be something like this out there, and my google-fu has been weak.

Grizzled

This functionality sort of exists in Google Earth, which is free. Depending on how detailed you want those pop-ups to be, you might need Google Earth Pro, which costs money. Do you want that list of accounts to in turn be linked to further information about the accounts? If not, I think it should be doable in Google Earth.

If you want it to be more involved, there are a variety of GIS (Geographic Information Systems) programs that will allow you to store, work with and change these sorts of databases (the whole point of GIS being to integrate spatial and tabular data). However, these programs tend to cost money and/or be relatively complicated to set up - you would probably want to hire/contract someone to put together your map for you, although this stuff can be learned with online tutorials.

Programs:
ArcGIS is the industry standard, costs a lot and is a pain to use.
GeoMedia is pretty good and a little more user-friendly, still costs money.
QGIS is open-source, free, not as well supported and a pain to use.

I know there are other solutions out there but these are the one I am familiar with. I've seen at least one other GIS person post on these forums, so maybe they can suggest some alternatives.

Feel free to PM me if you need more info, I occasionally do some work as a GIS consultant but my advice is free.

Dibs

Thank you, perfect answer.

I'm only looking for the simplest of information... although now that I think about it, linking revenue to it would be pretty cool so I could easily find the 'hotspots'. Hmm.

GIS - I have some knowledge of the systems and I know a guy who has done a lot of work with it.

I'll check out qGIS and play around with it. I'm one of many people with the same job (I'm a sales rep), so this is entirely for my own use / brownie points if it works and I can show my manager.

I appreciate the help, and I will PM you if I need anything that seems simple.