MapQuest®Business Solutions Leads Location Based Services Industry as Provider of Enterprise Applications
Q1 2005 Update Demonstrates Continued Leadership in Travel & Hospitality, Retail and Automotive Markets
May, 5 2005
Dulles, VA, MapQuest, a wholly owned subsidiary of America Online and a premier location-based services company, today released a business update for its MapQuest Business Solutions segment, including customer wins in Q1 2005 and a performance overview of 2004.
MapQuest Business Solutions is the industry's leading provider of enterprise software and platforms for location based services. New customers during this period include industry leaders in key verticals including Travel and Hospitality (Intercontinental Hotels Group), Retail (Kroger) and Automotive (Nissan North America). These businesses license MapQuest's suite of applications to help their customers find their locations around the world.
"MapQuest helps people find places. Leading businesses are coming to MapQuest because they want to partner with one of the best known brands on the Internet," said Tommy McGloin, Senior Vice President and General Manager of MapQuest, Inc. "We are the clear leader in a number of important verticals because our enterprise products empower organizations to build innovative solutions that drive business to their offline channels and even help convert online purchases," added McGloin.
Q1 2005 and FY 2004 proved to be an important period of growth for MapQuest Business Solutions. MapQuest added nearly 200 Business Solutions customers in FY 2004 and increased its leadership in three important vertical markets, including:
- Travel and Hospitality
- Retail
- Automotive
New customers in Q1 2005/FY2004 using MapQuest Business Solutions platforms include:
TRAVEL AND HOSPITALITY:
- Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG) - Intercontinental, Crowne Plaza and Holiday Inn (3,500 Hotels)
- LaQuinta Inns (550 Hotels)
- Hilton - Hilton, Hampton Inn, Doubletree and Embassy Suites Hotels (2,133 Hotels)
- Quikbook.com (online hotel reservations)
Fifty percent of the Top 10 Travel and Hospitality businesses, according to individual company revenue, use MapQuest's enterprise offerings, constituting more than 12,800 locations worldwide. These new customers join an impressive existing customer list, which includes: Starwood Hotels (Sheraton, Westin, W, St. Regis) and Orbitz, a division of Cendant Corp.
"Orbitz makes travel fast and easy with tools such as the Hotel Neighborhood Matrix, which offers travelers the unique ability to compare hotel search results on a detailed and user-friendly map," said Kurt Weinsheimer, VP of Hotels, Orbitz.
"MapQuest provides us with an extremely flexible platform on which to build innovative search technologies such as this," added Weinsheimer.RETAIL:
- Teleflora
- Kroger
- IKEA
- CITGO Petroleum Corporation
- Mothers Work (A Pea in the Pod®, Motherhood Maternity®, Mimi Maternity®)
- Omaha Steaks
- Wendy's.
These new customers, using MapQuest Business Solutions' offerings, include an impressive list of current customers that include 6 of the top 10 retail businesses, according to the individual retailer's total revenue.
"As one of the nation's largest retailers, Kroger needs more than just a basic online store locator. Our requirements are twofold: To provide customers a way to find the store that is most convenient for them and help them find a location with the right mix of products and services," said Bill Pitzer, E-Commerce Project Manager at Kroger.
"The MapQuest Business Solutions platform enables us to deploy advanced locator services and even lets us target our customers with local advertising, which is key to customer retention and satisfaction," Added Pitzer.
AUTOMOTIVE:
- Nissan North America
- Subaru of America
- Harley Davidson
- These manufacturers license MapQuest Business Solutions' software to build and support advanced dealer locators.
About MapQuest
MapQuest helps people find places. Headquartered in Denver, Colorado and Mountville, Pennsylvania, MapQuest offers Web, Wireless, Business Solutions, and Published products worldwide. MapQuest.com, both the top mapping and directories site on the Web according to comScore Media Metrix, served 38 million users in February 2005. MapQuest also empowers more than 1,400 businesses with software solutions to location-enable Web and wireless applications, and is a leading provider of custom mapping content for publishers and corporations, producing more than 1.5 billion pages of printed maps every year. MapQuest.com Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of America Online, Inc.
About America Online, Inc.
America Online, Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Time Warner Inc. Based in Dulles, Virginia, America Online is the world's leader in interactive services, Web brands, Internet technologies and e-commerce services.