5 Ways to Connect with Customers Using Microsoft Excel

Most of us are familiar with getting driving directions, mileage info, and driving time estimates from websites like Google Maps or MapQuest. But what if you have to estimate shipping costs for all your customers, or design the daily routes for your delivery fleet? Processing lots of data like this is ideal in a spreadsheet format like Excel, and the route calculation functions of CDXZipStream makes these and other routing tasks easy.

One critical function that CDXZipStream now provides is route optimization, where the optimal order of stops along a route is determined based on the shortest driving time. Just list the stops in an Excel worksheet, and CDXZipStream returns the list in optimal order, and can calculate driving time, distance, cost, create driving directions and even a route map. Optimizing sales calls, delivery routes, even the order of real estate showings can save you fuel, time, and money, and its a great way for businesses of all sizes to help the environment, as covered in the EarthTimes.org article Businesses Go Green and Save Money Using CDXZipStream Driving Route Optimization Software. Also see the YouTube video Route Optimization in Excel for a quick tour, or check out how to solve a real-life route optimization problem in the article Route Optimization Using Microsoft Excel.

Geocode simply means to find the latitude and longitude of an address. Geocoding provides businesses with very exact location information, important for a variety of functions such as address verification, product routing, even demographics analysis. In one cutting-edge example, location-based advertising for mobile devices (such as the iPhone and iPad) can tailor the advertising message using latitude and longitude coordinates provided by the device GPS, and then point consumers to the nearest store of interest. Please read the Directions magazine article Connecting the Dots: Why Geocoding is Critical for Businesses for more information on how geocoding can help your organization.

CDXZipStream, working in conjunction with Microsoft MapPoint, can provide latitiude and longitude information for long address lists, with just a few clicks in Excel. CDXZipStream can also "reverse" geocode, providing the closest address for a given latitude/longitude combination. Our YouTube video Geocoder in Excel is a quick and simple tutorial showing both geocoding and reverse geocoding in a simple Excel worksheet, and the article Geocoder as Business Tool discusses in detail how geocoding can target customers and increase market share. Considering CDXZipStream costs a fraction of other geocoding systems, it's an easy-to-use and economical solution that can deliver big dividends for your business.

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Doing a demographic analysis based on zip codes often requires generating lists of zip codes for a particular city, county, or state. These lists are available from various websites, such as the U.S. Postal Service, but in a form that can't be easily copied into a spreadsheet. With CDXZipStream, you can generate lists quickly and easily using our CDXZipList function. Just right-click on any cell in a worksheet, and select the location where you need zip codes. Within seconds you'll have your list of zip codes, along with any other available city, state, and county information. The data is formatted and ready to use immediately. Watch the short YouTube Video Zip Code List in Microsoft Excel to see how easy it is.

CDXZipStream has received numerous awards including the prestigious "5 Cow" award at Tucows.com. You can get a fully-functional, 30-day trial of CDXZipStream absolutely free. We provide complete technical support for both trial and purchased versions. If you decide to buy, pricing starts at $39.95 and the premium package (which includes eight demographic data feeds) is $299.95. Quantity discounts and site licensing are also available. Keep in mind CDXZipStream is not a subscription service - you buy it one time and purchase data updates only if you need them - and if you aren't happy for any reason within 30 days after purchase, you'll get a full refund.

Sometimes you simply need demographic data for a single zip code, and CDX Technologies is proud to introduce our new, free on-line demographic tool. Just input the zip code of interest and select the kind of data you need. Your data request is displayed as a web page, but can also be exported to Microsoft Excel for further analysis, or to a presentation-quality pdf file. We'd like to incorporate your comments and suggestions as we add more features, so please feel free to contact us at support@cdxtech.com.