York based software company Beacon Dodsworth have developed the first desktop market analysis Geographical Information System (GIS) for the Republic of Ireland. The system brings to the country the ideal business tool for a variety of market analysis tasks including: Sales Territory planning, Retail Location Analysis, Media planning and buying and Direct Marketing. The software was developed in response to a gap in the market identified by Prospex client Royal Liver Assurance. Darren Cudlip, Market Analyst at Royal Liver visited the GIS96 exhibition looking for a Republic of Ireland system. He was unable to find a ready-made product and turned to Beacon Dodsworth to develop one. Windows Prospex was launched in 1994 at the Direct Marketing Fair in London. It was originally a UK market analysis system used largely in the Automotive, Media, Utilities and Financial Industries. Royal Liver are using the system for strategic and tactical marketing activities. Prospex for the Republic of Ireland was derived from 3 datasets: District Electoral Division (DED) and ward polygon boundaries (of which there are more than 3,400, with an average population of 1,000 people. Other administrative geography, such as counties, are created by combining these.) DED/Ward census counts for 1,750 variables including age, sex, marital status, socio-economic group, lifestage, occupancy, employment, car ownership etc. AA cartography including roads, place names and urban sprawl. (Postcode geography is not available for the Republic of Ireland.) The job was done using specialist software going through various stages of data cleaning and reconstruction. Because the AA road network is installed Prospex sophisticated drivetime analysis module can also be used. This brings a more accurate picture to how consumers see a journey - in minutes rather than miles. -ends- For further information and images contact: Simon Perry, Beacon Dodsworth on + 44 (0)1904 701020