Microsoft Corp. and Maporama International (Paris:MLMAP), the
European leader of geolocalization and navigation services, today
announced the completion of a major technological and commercial
partnership in the mapping market.
Microsoft's Virtual Earth mapping platform featuring roadmaps,
satellite and aerial imagery, plus bird's eye and 3-D views will be
available for Maporama Intl corporate customers. They will benefit
from increasingly innovative and complete solutions to meet their
business needs: geolocalization, business intelligence, geomarketing,
and mobility.
"It has never been so easy for a company to add value to its
applications and web sites thanks to these new customized mapping
solutions," said Arnaud Gstach, Virtual Earth Business Development
Manager for Southern Europe. The partnership concluded between
Microsoft and Maporama Intl ushers in a new era of services for the
mapping market by offering companies the innovation of Virtual Earth
through Maporama Intl. solutions and service platform.
Developed by Microsoft, Virtual Earth quickly became the leading
corporate mapping platform, used by over 1000 enterprise customers
worldwide. With complete road maps as well as aerial, bird's eye, and
3-D imagery, Virtual Earth is the ideal platform for various mapping
and geo-spatial usages. "Web 2.0 is providing new opportunities and
enabling our customers to re-think their solutions by easily
integrating next-generation mapping services. Now interactions between
maps and data are easy and accessible to all," said Arnaud Gstach.
Leader in the navigation and geolocalization market with over 500
customers worldwide, Maporama Intl develops and markets a broad range
of corporate services based on a multi-platform technological
infrastructure. "Maporama Intl covers all corporate mapping needs and
offers: for marketing departments, turnkey solutions or solutions for
integrating maps, itineraries, and searches and for functional
departments, the solutions connect to business applications (ERP, CRM,
SFA, etc.). For mobile users, Maporama Intl also ensures full access
to information with GPS navigation solutions, trip planning assistance
for sales teams, and fleet management," said Daniele Drahy, Director
of Operations for Maporama Intl.
"Thanks to Virtual Earth, the Maporama Intl service offer now
includes fundamental mapping data enabling our customers to design new
types of applications. Several industries (real estate, tourism,
assistance, retail, call centers, banking and insurance) have
expressed an interest in multi-dimensional visualization (bird's eye
and 3-D views) in additional to traditional mapping", said Daniele
Drahy.
The Maporama Intl platform will naturally and transparently
integrate the Virtual Earth platform for its customers. They will
benefit from a new service and a compelling user experience.
Furthermore, the huge investments made by Microsoft in this market
worldwide ensure that Maporama Intl customers will take advantage of
major future innovations."
About Virtual Earth
The Virtual Earth platform is Microsoft's next-generation
integrated set of powerful online mapping and search services that
utilize unique bird's-eye, 3-D, aerial and satellite imagery. The
Virtual Earth platform powers a variety of consumer, enterprise and
government applications that enable people to learn, discover and
explore a specific location. Virtual Earth also powers Live Search
Maps, Microsoft's online local search and mapping Web site -- this
power can be in anyone's hands too, for customized applications. More
information about the Virtual Earth platform is available at
http://www.microsoft.com/virtualearth/default.mspx.
About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq "MSFT") is the worldwide leader
in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses
realize their full potential.
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About Maporama International
Maporama International is a global player on the location-based
services market offering solutions of store locators, fleet management
GPS navigation as well as a collection of integration and development
APIs. These services are delivered on any kind of devices (PC, PDA,
mobile phones, MP3 players) and using the most detailed and extended
cartographic coverage available on the market. Quoted on the Euronext
Paris stock exchange (ISIN Code: FR0010215202-MLMAP), Maporama
International has more than 500 customers in more than 20 countries,
including Accor, Delphi Automotive, Europcar, MAAF, Hitachi, Renault
and L'Oreal. Headquartered in Paris (France), the company has a direct
presence in Spain, Italy, Germany, South Africa, Canada and in the
USA.