The MapStore on Route 9 has closed, but the Online MapStore remains open. We also take phone orders at 1-800-627-7123 or 518-899-5091.   Long-time employee, Sherri Odell, will continue to manage the online and phone order systems.

We would like to thank all our customers, dealers, suppliers, and friends for 50 terrific years!  And we wish  the best of luck to our intrepid employees who move the business into it’s next chapter.

GOOD NEWS – the fact that we can get just about any information we want on our mobile devices is awesome! Social connections, on-the-spot answers, tv, data, weather, videos, schedules, maps, directions — you name it, it’s there.

BAD NEWS – the access is phenomenal, but for some things, the size is tough. Trying to THINK BIG when you’re looking at a small screen can be a real challenge. Try to visualize relationships, distances, or alternatives when you’re peeking at an image that fits into the palm of your hand. Ouch! It  can cramp the brain.

GOOD NEWS – Let’s be clear, we like (OK – WE LOVE!!!) maps on smartphones! We design and create mobile map apps for many of our clients. As navigational tools, maps on phones can’t be beat.

BAD NEWS – But, when it comes to thinking, strategizing, seeing relationships and developing solutions, mobile maps have one big drawback. They can’t show us the BIG PICTURE and if you’re going to be a BIG THINKER, you need the BIG PICTURE.  Critical questions, like ‘What is near here”, or “how far is it to a larger city” or “what does my entire sales territory look like?” are the sorts of questions that require THE BIG PICTURE.

GOOD NEWS — What’s old is new again!  More and more businesses, executives, sales people, vacationers, and general  travelers planning a road trip, are realizing that the BIG PICTURE helps them to THINK BIG!  Looking at the BIG PICTURE — on wall maps that can reside in 3 foot x 3 foot glory beside your desk, or paper maps that can fold up in your car or lay out on the kitchen table to plot a vacation, provide the essential “rest of the story” backup to the handy, nifty, and terrific map apps.

JIMAPCO makes online maps. We make maps for iPads and other tablets. We make maps for smartphones. In fact, we provide some of the most state-of-the-art mapping solutions you’ll find anywhere.

And we ALSO make those awesome BIG PICTURE paper maps —  to read while you’re riding in the car. To put up on your office wall. And to lay out on the kitchen table and show the kids what a fantastic summer vacation they have in store!

Our mobile-first/responsive map technology does just this. We design our web-based maps so they work easily on smartphones. No more trying to click on teeny buttons. No more squinting to read names. We don’t just take a desktop map and squeeze it down to fit on a smartphone screen. Our maps are made to work on any device: smartphone, tablet, laptop, or desktop. Easily. Effectively. Optimally.

Oh, and we make paper maps, too!

If you need to present your information in the form of a map, we have the technology, experience, and know-how to do it right.

A good example of this is our current series of maps we’ve developed for the Saratoga Builder’s Showcase of Homes. This event occurs each fall in Saratoga County, NY and is a great way for the public to explore new home sites and learn about area builders and associated services. Showcase participants tour the homes located throughout the county, so it’s critical to offer accurate information in the form of maps to the public.

We do this using several methods:

• An interactive web map accessed through the Showcase of Homes website – a great way to learn about the homes, plan your route, and get excited about the tour
• A mobile map optimized for smartphones that shows directions to each site from your current location – important as your tour from home to home
• A downloadable PDF file that users can print at home showing site locations with printed directions – great for taking in the car
• A printed map with directions included as part of the Showcase of Homes Brochure

So, no matter what method you use to plan your visit and get from home to home . . . using a computer, a mobile device, or a printed map . . .  we’ve got you covered. With these series of maps the Saratoga Builder’s Association delivers their message across all platforms.

Our goal is to make our maps simple to use, easy to understand, and packed with useful information. It’s harder than you think, because the “simple and easy” part of our goal can directly conflict with the “packed with information” part. So we draw upon our years and years of experience when we design our maps. (we’d been making maps for over 30 years when Google was born)  We think about things like who is using the map, how will they find the information, and are there any confusing elements or ambiguous functions?

So it’s great when someone notices what we do! This week we read a very nice article about our Washington County Tourism Map. And we appreciate that someone understands the design considerations we put into our maps!

See the article here: http://www.adirondackalmanack.com/2014/07/a-new-interactive-map-of-washington-county.html

The tourism map is a great tool for promoting Washington County and the many resources that are available to visitors, and also to the local population. When you see on this map all the opportunities that Washington County offers, from agricultural tourism, the visual and performing arts, outdoor recreation, as well as the many local businesses that are ready to welcome visitors to this scenic county, it brings it all together in an easy to comprehend and useful way. An especially handy feature is that the map can be used across most platforms, from desktop to mobile.

Washington County has taken the lead in promoting tourism with this informative, simple-to-use, and comprehensive state-of-the-art map. The map will benefit not only those tourists who have the good fortune to visit the county, but also the scores of businesses and organizations who will now be able to reach these visitors in a new and exciting way.

Anyone that uses maps knows that information is always changing. Having a wall map or a computerized map of your customer locations is only accurate until that first change. And that usually happens before you get the map on the wall or turn on your computer. Then what do you do?

Our map programmers have come up with a solution: our Interactive Pin Map. This computerized map enables customers to modify their map in real time. Add or change locations, update information, or stylize locations according to data, all at the touch of your keyboard. It’s simple to use.

Each Interactive Pin Map is custom designed for our client. See exactly what you want to see, and when your data changes, the map changes, too.

Our Interactive Pin Map – easy, efficient, and economical!

Learn more, or take a sample map for a test drive, at www.jimapco.com/interactive-pin-map.

Our field sales representatives travel to over 3,000 retail outlets throughout the northeast US selling and supplying our map products. Recently, we had an opportunity to hire a new member for that team. One of our cartographers, Rich Doll, volunteered to hit the road and fill in while we took the time to find the right candidate for the job.

Rich usually spends his work days updating our retail products and creating custom maps for businesses, organizations and government clients. He has never held a sales role in any organization. Once he volunteered, we arranged training with one of our top reps and in a few short days, they felt he was ready to take on the job. Rather than just fill orders, Rich took ownership of his territory. He listened to store managers, took note of the needs of their customers and offered solutions to them that they hadn’t considered before.

As Rich said recently, “I have been amazed by the number of positive comments I’ve heard in the field about our products. People love them and trust them.” Additionally, Rich learned first-hand how things change on the roads of America, “We use several sophisticated methods and software programs to ensure our maps are up-to-date but I have to say, I found one or two roads that had changed names or were closed that even our sources hadn’t noted yet. I made notes in my atlas so I could make the changes to our products right away”. He even came up with a few new customized products that we will put into development.

At JIMAPCO, we all help out in a time of need. This time not only did Rich help out, he learned things from the experience that will help him to be an even better cartographer. You may even see him on the road now and then just to keep learning what our customers may need next! Imagine that.

Remember, “If you can imagine it, we can map it!’

Like many people who enjoy their work, we often toss ideas around the office for fun new projects.  We look for ideas that can satisfy what we think is a need out there. Sometimes these ideas lay on the drawing board, and other times they take on a life of their own.

Last year, one of our team members thought it would be useful to have a map of snowmobile trails, both in paper format and online. We had never done such a map so the production team thought it would be both fun and challenging. Our sales team thought “Wow, people could really use a map like this!” So, after gathering the data, generating the map and soliciting sponsors we went to press with our first New York State Snowmobile map. Then an unusual thing happened during our upstate New York winter of 2012.

It didn’t snow.

No Nor’easters, no prodigious dumps of lake effect snow, no Alberta Clippers, nothing, zilch!  The paper maps sat on store shelves and in our warehouse with hardly any movement. It appeared to be a gamble that we had lost, or did we?

The online version of the New York State snowmobile map available in our Map Room at https://www.jimapco.com/maproom/snowmobile/nys/ started receiving visit after visit that winter as frustrated snowmobilers dreamt about their next ride. As winter turned into spring and then summer, traffic to the map actually increased to hundreds of visits a month. This past fall, the map was receiving thousands of visits per month, and once the snow started flying last month, it has been receiving over a thousand visits per day! Today we have two customers who have state snowmobile maps in progress and several others who want maps for their areas and clubs.

Who knew that a recreational map like this would have such a dedicated following? What if your group or business had a powerful tool like this to help manage your team, increase sales or simply guide your customers and constituents? Imagine the power that is in a map, your map.

 If you can imagine it, we can map it!

So you can see why we are surprised here at JIMAPCO when people come up to us and ask “do people still use maps?” YOU BET! And much more frequently than they ever did before! It’s just that the traditional idea of a folded sheet of paper in the glove compartment of the car has been supplemented by technological advances in information delivery. So now a person will see a map on their phone, on their tablet, on their GPS, and on their television screen. And also, in the glove compartment of their car.

JIMAPCO, at its core, is a map-maker. We are still, after 46 years, compiling, organizing, stylizing, and modifying map data to create maps, be they in paper form for distribution to stores or in online form for the zillions of internet-related uses for maps. In fact, we are doing it much more than ever before. So now, in addition to printing those giant sheets of paper and then folding them down into a manageable size, we also make them available online, for iPads, tablets and phones. Mapping is exciting these days, and we’re tackling the new opportunities with creativity and enthusiasm!

Take a look at the samples of our work in our Map Room (www.jimapco.com/maproom). School district boundaries?  We do that.  Real estate maps?  We do those.  Interesting Ancestry maps? They’re in the Map Room.  You can browse to see what interests you. If you have some ideas about a map that would help your business, or need a map display for your store, let us know.  We look forward to working with you.