Google brings Maps to business owners with Maps Engine Pro

Google wants to turn business owners into cartographers with a new mapping tool designed to visualize their companies’ data.

On Monday, Google launched Google Maps Engine Pro, a cloud-based software tool designed to let businesses organize data such as shipping routes, warehouse locations and sales territories when just a clunky spreadsheet or a massive database won’t do.

It’s about solving geo-related problems: Picture a company that wants to better design its shuttle routes by looking at where its employees live on a map, or an insurance company that wants to price out its premiums more quickly by seeing whether a client lives in a high-risk area.

The idea is to help companies get more value out of the location-based data they already have. If that data can be plotted on a map, it will be easier for business owners to make decisions, Google executives said Monday during a media briefing at the company’s offices in San Francisco.

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