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Date: June 14, 1995

Location: Parsippany

Title: On-Track Consulting”s Way With Numbers

Author: Laurie Corbin

Subject: Mapping software helps companies process detailed geographical data

Spread sheets and graphs are fast and affordable. But these days, the big cheeses of the corporate world also want data to be vivid and easy to read. Enter computer mapping and On-Track Consulting based in Parsippany.

In 1990 at the age of 24, Mark Chinsky saw a niche in New Jersey”s business world. He thought he could build a company that would help major corporations like Automated Data Processing and AT&T put their data on the map. Businesses often need detailed information about particular geographic areas and, until recently, isolating such information electronically required an expensive procedure involving a mainframe computer. Alternatively, the work could be accomplished by using wall maps and executing the tedious labor by hand. Now, however, effective mapping software is available that works on inexpensive microcomputers.

Three trends have been at work in computer mapping: software has become more effective and easier to use; hardware performance continues to improve; and relevant data files are becoming available. Sales of mapping software for microcomputers were estimated at $60 million in 1990, but in the past five years they have sky-rocketed and will reach $300 million this year. The three top firms are Strategic Mapping, which makes Atlas-Pro and Atlas GIS; Environmental System Research Institute, which makes AroInfo and Aroview; and MapInfo, with the eponymously named product, MapInfo.

After extensive research, Chinsky decided that MapInfo was the most comprehensive software, and he started working his niche. “On-Track is one of 400 partners we work with,” says Lisa Jacobson, public relations manager of MapInfo in Troy, N.Y. “Chinsky and our other partners take our product and customize it according to a particular firm”s needs.” On-Track buys the software from MapInfo and then resells it to clients, often after adding additional features.

According to Datatech, a research company in Cambridge, Mass. that rates computer-aided design and computer mapping firms, MapInfo is the leader in computer mapping. Founded in 1986, the firm is now publicly held and trades on the Nasdaq.

One of On-Track”s first clients was 1-800-DENTIST, a Saddle Brook service that gives people from Massachusetts to Pennsylvania a local referral to a dentist. “On-Track has helped us incredibly,” says office manager Andrea Roth.

“When I first visited 1-800-DENTIST,” Chinsky recalls, “There was a line of cubicles with maps all over the place.” An operator would answer a call and then have to sort through maps pinned to the wall to locate the caller. Since dentists pay for the referral service, all must be referred equally. So the operators then had to refer to a listing to see how many times each dentist in that area had been given a referral. Finally, after several minutes of frantic sorting and searching, the operator would return to the caller with the information.

The company”s president, Dr. Gabriel Golan, asked Chinsky to find a better way. Using the MapInfo software, Chinsky created a program to simplify the process. “Now we can pinpoint a caller very easily by simply putting his or her zip code into the mapping system,” Roth says. From there, Chinsky”s mapping program goes to work to show the dentists in the caller”s area within a four-mile radius and the next one who is due a referral. Chinsky has been working with 1-800-DENTIST for four years, and during that time the company”s business has tripled.

For a company like 1-800-DENTIST, mapping is absolutely essential. But for many other corporations, mapping expresses tabular information that appears on a spreadsheet in a way that is easier to grasp. Bell Atlantic/New Jersey is a heavy user of computer mapping. “There”s no doubt about it, computer mapping adds the gloss and the glitz,” says Steve Gnyra, MapInfo systems coordinator for Bell Atlantic/New Jersey. “But that”s what our execs want.” With Chinsky”s help, executives at Bell Atlantic/New Jersey can look at mapped tabular data and pinpoint the key conclusions, rather than spending time sifting through tables and charts.

Chinsky has helped Bell Atlantic/New Jersey salespeople, for example, to persuade potential customers to choose Bell Atlantic”s services over that of a competitor by producing a map that shows the location and number of Bell Atlantic”s telecommunications cables near the customer”s office as compared with those of its competitors.

Another big user of MapInfo is Automated Data Processing in Roseland. “It”s difficult to come up with the business benefits of mapping,” says Matt Miksic, project manager of sales force automation at ADP, which has almost $2 billion in annual revenues from handling more than 1 billion transactions a year dealing with paychecks and payroll information. Miksic says mapping is basically “just another way of looking at data.” But it”s a way that has helped ADP thrive. “Computer mapping helps us manage sales territories and determine whether a geographic area in New York City that looks good on paper, for example, is contiguous or is really distributed all over the place,” says Miksic.

Could ADP have conducted territorial analyses without computer mapping? Probably. Says Miksic: “It”s not something you”ll be able to justify, but it makes looking at data easier.”

Mark Chinsky started in business with Ernst & Young, the accounting firm, in Manhattan in 1988. He was fresh out of Drexel University, where he got a degree in finance. He began doing computer consulting with a specialty in accounting systems. After three years there he says, “I realized I could do what I was doing there on my own.” That was in 1990.

His first client was Spring Point, a Manhattan-based company that recycles printer toner cartridges for businesses. With Chinsky”s help, Spring Point uses computer mapping to plot delivery routes and has grown from a staff of three to 50. Its clients now include Chemical Bank, Solomon Brothers and Chase Manhattan.

It wasn”t long after he started On-Track Consulting that Chinsky met his business partner and wife, Rose, through America Online. Rose, who lived and worked in Pennsylvania, logged on to America Online one day to find a message saying, “Are there any normal females out there who are into computers?” She answered yes, and she and Mark began conversing via computer. After a month, they sent photos to each other. “Of course, he made me send mine first,” she says. A year and a half later, they were married.

On-Track Consulting now consists of four people: Mark and Rose along with Julie Sheridan, a certified network engineer, and Ken Cook, who sells the networks. Mark is responsible for mapping, while Rose does the accounting.

The company now has 250 clients. It will not reveal its sales revenues but claims to be growing at about 35% per year.

Are clients skeptical about the computer mapping company”s young experts coming in to re-work their businesses? Bell Atlantic”s Gnyra admits he was at first. “I thought, ”Here we go. This young kid is going to tell me what to do.”” But in a matter of moments Mark Chinsky demonstrated his expertise. “He may be younger than many computer consultants, but who cares? He knows his stuff inside and out.”

Mark Chinsky says the biggest market for computer mapping will be large companies. The uses for mapping will soon include tax mapping or mapping for crime prevention. He also envisages a day when the owner of a New Jersey electronics store can refer to a computerized map to show a customer that the part he wants is currently traveling east on a truck from Oregon and that he can expect arrival in two days. u