IMAP--Inventory Mapping and Planning Software

IMAP is the highest quality cemetery mapping system available today.  Created by MBS specifically for cemetery property mapping, it has served as an industry leader and has been in use internationally for over 15 years. 

Created specifically for cemetery mapping, it is designed exclusively with the needs of the industry in mind.  As a Geographical Information System (GIS), database information on each location on the map is within the reach of mouse click.  Designed for the industry, convenient tools such as space location, quick map generation and property status maps are readily available.  Based on world class technology, IMAP contains exceptional query abilities including report writing, graphing, data manipulation and map editing.  Customized to each client, IMAP purchases include complete map generation specifically for your facility--the location information for each space is even entered ahead of time.  As the corner stone of the MBS Enterprise Solution Suite, IMAP is very compatible and easily converts records supplied through Nexus.  It can also be adapted to convert data from other office management tools directly into the custom maps of our clients.

Consider IMAP to increase the efficiency and quality of your Sales, Management, Maintenance, Accounting and Customer Service Departments. 

NEW!  Consider adding cemetery maps to your cemetery's web site.  Click here for more information.

IMAP Features

Consider Mapping Technology to Improve the Performance of Every Department

• Sales: Ever have a day that was so rainy you couldn't possibly take a couple up on the hill to show them an available plot?  Why not do it on your desktop?  Or better yet, take it to their homes on your laptop.   With IMAP our clients can pull up maps of each location with readily available links to views of and from the space.  How about a family that wants to buy a space near their relative?  With IMAP's lot locator function, a sales team member can locate a grave and print a list of all the available plots within 15 feet of the starting point or print section maps shaded on availability. 
• Management: Consider maps for your reporting.  Maps clearly enunciate the status of entire lots, sections or gardens with a quick glance.   Through shaded maps of availability, our clients have a quick and easily understood view of what areas are selling and which are not.  Also, with existing tools, tasks such as data selections, reporting, graphing, status reports, counts and planning have never been easier.  Customize your databases to include and report on counselor information, space costs and contract statuses.  Looking to the future, consider IMAP for your planning.  With quick and ready map editing and database manipulation, use IMAP to draw test spaces or roads while keeping constant track of your existing locations. 
• Maintenance: Maintenance has never had it easier.   With basic map printing and layering, maintenance departments can have ready access to utility line maps, garden features and service needs.  Manipulate the section maps to shade or label your maps by cutting or watering schedules.  Mark all veteran spaces for up to date flag placement or mark flower program participants for holiday placement.  Lists of participants and their actual location in your cemetery are as simple as a basic selection or thematic map. 
• Record Keeping: With IMAP, record keeping is accurate and up to date.  Searching through piles of paper maps for updates or locations is a thing of the past.  Paper maps can be replaced with custom, digital maps for safekeeping of the paper originals.  Easy data updates and quick data searches are at the ready.   Even locating individuals or specific spaces is only a few steps away.   Information keeping can also broaden to new levels.  For example, with IMAP, databases can be manipulated to include any type of needed data associated with spaces, lots, sections, gardens, plantings and utility lines.  Multiple layers can be added or removed for ready access to any degree of information.   
• Customer Service: Ongoing customer service is always a key to any cemetery's business.  With IMAP our clients have the ability to print ready made locator maps showing current location and space destination within the cemetery.  Add a layer of landmarks and your visitor is well on their way.  IMAP has tools to help visiting tours or genealogists.  Use simple SQL selections to find individuals based on names, parts of names and date of birth or death.  Manipulate your data with famous people flags and print  maps or location lists of these individuals for visitors.  Any element of your map can be readily accessed for reporting or mapping.   After hours visitors have a resource now through Kiosk based IMAP solutions, which allow your visitors to type the name of their loved one and readily receive a map to that space. 

Customized to the Client and to the Industry

• IMAP is customized specifically to each client.   Part of any IMAP purchase is the initial digitization of our clients' maps.   This is the exact conversion of paper maps to digital format.  This means that:
  • Each installed map set is customized to individual clients in terms of shape, size and orientation of every element.  The maps either match exactly or improve on the quality of your existing paper maps.
  • Location information for each space is included with an installed map set. There is no need for you to add in location information such as space, lot or section number.  Combine this with Nexus or custom front end packages and IMAP can automatically import your existing data.  Data entry is also a breeze through complete access to any database information in a map layer.
  • User's have the choice to add additional fields to their data or to have MBS add them before the data is even installed. Consider having combined visual and data records for each space, section or lot showing service information, watering schedules, important dates or any other type of information.   Ask us to add new fields of information for you, or customize your own system at any time.
  • Each map is made of many transparent layers.  Each map layer lets you add more visual and textual data to your system.   With IMAP's customizability by MBS and our clients, you choose the layers you want at the outset, or use IMAP's editability to add new layers of your own.  User's have the option to choose layers including space, section, road, lot, landmarks, plantings, labels and even utilities.
  • Once you have a map, edit it as you need to or have MBS do the work for you.  IMAP maps are always editable so you can choose to add new spaces one at a time or have MBS add complete new sections.  The choice is always up to you.
• Industry needs are covered through mausoleum, columbarium and niche inclusion, deed and contract viewing, convenient printouts, and kiosk mapping. 
  • Mausoleum, columbarium and niche wall spaces are handled exactly as are ground spaces with top and front views of the structure. Through this, these spaces are also can be fully searched and reported upon.
  • Scan contracts, burial orders, obituaries etc. to reduce your paper storage. These images are then available on-screen for viewing and printing with only a couple of mouse clicks.
  • Printouts are customized to the needs of today's cemeterian.  Able to show sales information such as available sites nearby, shading based on availability and client space locator maps, IMAP is ready now to meet your printing needs.
  • Touch screen kiosk based maps are also available in indoor and outdoor models to assist after hours visitors find locations.  Through convenient placement of kiosks, your visitors can type in the name of a loved one and readily receive a map to their location.  With this, the quality customer service every cemetery hopes to offer, extends beyond their hours of operation.

A Pure GIS Tool

• IMAP is a pure Geographical Information System (GIS), which means that your database is an integrated part of the map.   Data and maps are interwoven to form a single, rich source of information and analysis. This can be looked at in three ways.
  1. The database and map are connected and as rich with information as you want them to be.  Use your database to perform sophisticated data searches and receive your results in both quantitative tables and visual maps.  
  2. As a geographically based system, IMAP can handle the complexities and geographic relationships of a real map. With this, IMAP handles complex map features effortlessly. It is also able to use the physical geography of your map to perform searches and analysis.
  3. The connection of these two elements means that edits are preformed in both the map and the database simultaneously.  An edit in one element edits the other.
• As a mapping system, IMAP offers observably higher quality and more professionally appealing maps then our competitors. With space rotation and curving features, IMAP renders circular and arched areas that are genuinely fluid in appearance.   
• As a traditional mapping product, navigation commands and tools are straight forward and familiar to most of our users before they have their first peek at IMAP.  Work is simplified.  As a windows based tool, command are traditional and easy to adapt to.
• IMAP maps are easily manipulated and edited.  Edit or add spaces and data through easy cut and paste methods or custom drawing tools--dependent only on your need.
• Unlike paper maps, IMAP is constantly up to date and information rich.  With IMAP, feel confident to know exactly who is where and every detail of that where including marker, liner and client information.
• IMAP is designed for cemetery mapping.  Unlike CAD systems, GIS packages are designed for mapping.  IMAP takes this a step further to be fully adapted to cemetery use. 

A True Database Management Tool

• Traditionally considered time-consuming, reports and graphs are now quickly  created.  When saved and recalled later, the reports are automatically updated to show any changes you've made to the data.
• Updating records through IMAP is a straight forward process and can be done manually or automatically through hundreds of database tools inherent to IMAP. 
• Database searches and data selections are exceptionally flexible through the use of Standard Query Language and Logic found built into IMAP's SQL selection window.  With this strength users have the ability to customize searches specifically to their needs and receive lists AND maps showing the result of their selections.  Use SQL selections for a host of needs including: selections of all the spaces in a section, or counts of spaces that are available, interred or sold, or searches for individuals with a specific last name or part of a name.
• With built in these SQL selections, database management and editing capabilities, MapInfo Professional (the mapping engine within IMAP) is rated as one of the top 25 database tools in the world.  With IMAP you can move beyond pretty pictures to total property analysis. 
• With any database information system, the integrity of the data is paramount.  IMAP has three levels of security passwords to limit system use (and abuse). 

Software Linkages

• Through a host of database connection and conversion options, IMAP clients know up-to-the-minute status of all ground, mausoleum and niche spaces anytime they need it.
• IMAP works hand in hand with MBS's office management and accounting system Nexus.  Through this, a host of information in Nexus can be transferred directly into IMAP maps.  Through this and other conversion options, IMAP is constantly kept up to date. 
• IMAP can be linked to a host of database programs.  This feature includes direct Object Database Connectivity (ODBC) linking IMAP to Oracle and Access databases for even the most advanced linkages. This means if your data is in a different database system, you have the option of leaving it there.   Simply work with MBS to use the advanced connection tools found in IMAP to link your data to your maps. 
• Custom conversion programs are an option for easy data inclusion in IMAP.  Should a client have office management tools other than Nexus, MBS will work to make the data in their system be available in IMAP.
• Basic front-end packages exist in IMAP for easy data entry and manipulation allowing IMAP to provide stand-alone freedom.  
• Data and map exports are also built into IMAP for easy map import into a multitude of other applications.  IMAP will export map images to Bitmap, Windows Metafile, JPEG, PhotoShop, TIFF and other formats.  Queries and reports are also exportable to dbf and txt formatting for inclusion in external reports and even web sites. 
• NEW!  Consider adding cemetery maps to your cemetery's web site.  Click here for more information.

Download an IMAP feature sheet in Microsoft Word Format

Or Download an Online IMAP Product Demo

Looking for additional Information?

If you are a current IMAP Client and need to reach our Mapping Services Department for the status of your project or to understand the information that we need from you to complete your project, please visit our Contacting Mapping Services Page or click the button below. 

For additional sales contact information, please click the contacting sales button below or instead, visit our staff pages for a company directory of names and email addresses.

For user support on this program, please visit our support information page.  Many of the items you may be looking for information on, may already be covered in our web site through these pages.

If you would like to learn more about MapInfo Corporation, visit our business partner's site at www.mapinfo.com.