http://ask.metafilter.com/63330/What-is-a-good-program-for-a-travelling-representative/ Comments on Ask MetaFilter post What is a good program for a travelling representative? Thu, 24 May 2007 11:20:17 -0800 Thu, 24 May 2007 11:20:17 -0800 en-us http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 60 http://ask.metafilter.com/63330/What-is-a-good-program-for-a-travelling-representative I am looking for a program that can take customer lists, output route maps and allow for record keeping of sales/customer history. <br /><br /> I work for a small firm that is going to be integrating two divisions in an effort to save money on overhead. These two product lines have very little overlap; their respective uses being scientific research and industrial applications. The markets we cover are relatively small, with a few large players (universities and national labs for the former product line, state contractors the latter) representing the majority of the market. While individually each division was not large enough to warrant dedicated sales staff, part of the integration will be the hiring of at least one salesperson to focus on building up our California client base.<br> <br> 1-2 weeks a month of this person's time will be devoted to visiting current and prospective customers within CA. In order to facilitate this, I'd like to find a program that can take the customer lists we have, generate routes for these excursions, and allow the salesperson to keep running records of their interaction with each customer. While a spreadsheet, Google Maps and a lot of elbow grease could get the job done, I'd like to find a program that could streamline the process. post:ask.metafilter.com,2008:site.63330 Thu, 24 May 2007 11:02:58 -0800 uri software sales recordkeeping http://ask.metafilter.com/63330/What-is-a-good-program-for-a-travelling-representative#952994 Hey! It's the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Travelling_salesman_problem">travelling salesman problem</a>!<br> <br> You might try <a href="http://www.salesforce.com/appexchange/detail_overview.jsp?id=a0330000002WEn7AAG">MapQuest for AppExchange</a>, from Salesforce.com. comment:ask.metafilter.com,2008:site.63330-952994 Thu, 24 May 2007 11:20:17 -0800 GuyZero http://ask.metafilter.com/63330/What-is-a-good-program-for-a-travelling-representative#953023 In hindsight, I should have clarified that outputting routes is significantly less critical than being able to display which customers are located within a specific area.<br> <br> Shorter version:<br> <br> Directions would be great, Maps would suffice comment:ask.metafilter.com,2008:site.63330-953023 Thu, 24 May 2007 11:45:27 -0800 uri http://ask.metafilter.com/63330/What-is-a-good-program-for-a-travelling-representative#953156 Microsoft MapPoint maybe...<br> <br> http://www.microsoft.com/mappoint/products/2004/assistance/excel.mspx<br> http://www.microsoft.com/mappoint/default.mspx comment:ask.metafilter.com,2008:site.63330-953156 Thu, 24 May 2007 13:17:21 -0800 GuyZero