Microsoft MapPoint Alternatives: What Makes Upper Route Planner The Best Choice?

A decade ago, planning a regular workday was a task for sales and delivery people before heading out. This led to spending hours of time that could have easily been spent covering more orders or leads.

But things took a turn with the arrival of Microsoft MapPoint. MapPoint was the go-to option for mapping and planning to manage territories.

After all these years, Microsoft MapPoint is not available for use. But there are some excellent MapPoint alternatives to this mapping software that can help salespeople, field service technicians, and delivery drivers tackle various daily challenges.

What is Microsoft MapPoint?

Microsoft released MapPoint, a featured mapping application, back in 1999. MapPoint allows one to manage sales territories, explore new markets, and manage the company’s logistics. It was built specifically for sales reps & delivery teams to visualize their routes, plan road trips, and target potential customers. Outside salespeople could also track customer data within a specific territory or geographic region. 

Microsoft MapPoint was one of the initial GPS systems. MapPoint proved to be a game-changer for salespeople and professionals in trip planning. This gave salespeople more time to do what mattered the most to them – closing deals and maintaining customer relationships.

Why Do You Need MapPoint Alternative?

Microsoft MapPoint is a business mapping application that provides map-based business data visualization to help salespeople & delivery drivers understand location-based or demographic information. 

Over the next few years, until its discontinuation in 2014, MapPoint’s toolkit grew into a comprehensive suite. Microsoft MapPoint 2013 was the last updated version of this popular software. 

Without the necessary automatic updates, the focused software would lag the technological curve for the growing sales and routing needs. For this reason, salespeople and other MapPoint users with routing needs have started to look for a custom solution that works to replace MapPoint. 

Most businesses and their delivery teams have used apps like Google Maps. This led to frustration in planning and in executing those manually prepared routes.

This is why businesses need a new-age route planning software like Upper Route Planner that will help them with:

1. Advanced route scheduling
2. Instant route optimization
3. Easy driver management
4. SMS & email notifications for customers
5. Reports & analytics for generating valuable insights

What Makes Upper Route Planner The Best Alternative to MapPoint?

1. Optimized Route Schedules

   

   Using Upper Route Planner for scheduling and optimizing routes helps create the most efficient route possible. For example, Upper Route Planner creates routes with up to 500 stops in less than 2 minutes. 

   Businesses, like food delivery and pharmacy delivery that use the comprehensive route planner to plan and optimize the fastest routes save up to 8 hours of planning time and boost driver productivity by 20-30%.

   Businesses are able to plan and schedule routes months in advance. The software helps them stay a few steps ahead of their schedule doing this.

   Moreover, Upper Route Planner helps you plan your entire day instantly without spending hours in scheduling. By saving time and resources with quick scheduling and optimized routing, business users deliver more orders and drastically improve customer interaction.

2. Excel Import

   

   Dispatchers can plan and schedule routes with more than 500 stops at once. Forget manually adding each address to the software. Upper Route Planner allows you to upload 500 addresses using an Excel/GPX file. 

   Upper Route Planner identifies duplicate addresses. With such quick address input capabilities, you can plan and schedule sales routes in less than 5 minutes. All you need is a list of addresses.

3. Cloud-based Software

   Upper Route Planner is a powerful tool that is 100% online. This means you can access it anytime and anywhere. There is no software to download or install. Simply log in and start routing. This makes it easier for business owners and dispatchers to plan routes for their delivery drivers, no matter where they are.

4. Record Proof of Delivery

   

   Equip your drivers with the best drive-time tools to help them with routing and keep a record of all their package or service deliveries. Upper Route Planner helps your driver capture pictures, customer signatures, or customer notes for each product or service delivered.

   Recording proof of delivery helps you ensure that the delivery was fulfilled successfully. So if a frustrated customer comes to you with complaints, you can present them with the proof of service or delivery that is signed.

5. Keep Your Customers Informed

   Upper Route Planner offers customer notifications feature to all businesses that need to keep their customers informed with delivery notifications through SMS or email. 

   Customer notifications help keep your customers in the loop at each stage of the delivery process. Letting your customers in on the delivery process and improving their visibility elevates the overall customer service and brand image of any delivery business.

6. Generate Reports & Analytics

   

   Using Upper Route Planner, dispatchers and business owners can generate daily, weekly, and monthly reports for their delivery operations. Upper has an intuitive user interface to visualize sales opportunities and easily compete in the advanced market. 

   With detailed reports for each delivery route and driver, businesses get insights into how they are functioning and whether or not the delivery process needs any improvement.  Advanced reporting features help businesses improve and make informed decisions.

Microsoft MapPoint vs Upper Route Planner

Features	MapPoint	Upper Route Planner
Find addresses
Archive routes
Share routes with others
Route scheduling
Route optimization
Driver management
Save customer profiles
GPS guidance
Proof of delivery/service
Customer notifications
Reports & analytics
Customer Support
Android, iOS, PC, Mac
Pricing	$300	$80 per month for up to 3 drivers

Conclusion

No doubt MapPoint was a great way to plan daily routes for businesses around the world. It was used to save routes for various businesses such as food or meal delivery businesses, field salespeople, courier delivery businesses, and repair businesses.

But, Upper Route Planner is a more advanced and user-friendly route planning software. It is more than just route optimization and comes with additional benefits like- detailed multi-stop routes, driver management, route scheduling, proof of delivery, and report & analytics.

Are you still wondering why Upper Route Planner is the best alternative to Microsoft MapPoint? You can book a demo to experience the benefits of Upper.