Visual Fusion from IDV Solutions is a platform for creating map-based mashups and applications. Using Visual Fusion, you can combine data from company data stores, web feeds, spreadsheets, and other sources on an interactive, web-based map.
Combining data layers in this way can jumpstart analysis and enable new insights in areas like asset management, crisis management, supply chain visualization, retail analysis and more.
Users without IT expertise can create mashups on demand using Visual Fusion's drag-and-drop interface. This means greater productivity for both the IT department and general business users; once a data source is configured (via an XML file) to work with Visual Fusion, it can be used in multiple mashups, with minimal need for IT resources; SharePoint data sources can be used without any assistance from IT.
Use cases
A wide variety of use cases call for map mashups, particularly mashups that can be assembled quickly and easily. A marketing manager could combine leads from Dynamics CRM with income demographics from the U.S. Census and sales performance data from the company's internal database to pinpoint likely prospecting areas.
Crisis management is another area that benefits from the ability to pull together disparate data and allow collaboration. When Cyclone Nargis hit the Southeast Asian country of Myanmar in May 2008, the United Nations deployed a Humanitarian Information Center (HIC) website, using Visual Fusion to create the site's Map Center. This map, deployed within a week of the disaster, allowed agencies around the world to share information on weather, travel, flooding, incoming supplies, and available resources.
How it works
Visual Fusion leverages SharePoint, Microsoft's widely used collaboration platform, for site building, user authentication, search, workflow, and content management. Within SharePoint is Visual Fusion's "App Hub," where users launch existing applications or begin creating new ones.
Clicking a button in the App Hub launches a SharePoint workflow; the user fills out a short form to give the application a name and select a site template, adds a logo if desired, and sets the mashup's boundaries by zooming to the desired area. In response, a SharePoint administrator assigns a URL for the new application, and Visual Fusion creates the new SharePoint site.
Users add data to the new site by creating SharePoint lists and libraries. Visual Fusion supplies the needed templates and automatically geocodes data. Other forms of data are also handled through templates:
Web feeds: Users enter the links into a SharePoint list.
Excel spreadsheets: Users upload the sheets; Visual Fusion geocodes each table entry.
Photos and documents: Users upload into SharePoint libraries; Visual Fusion geocodes.
GeoRSS, Shapefiles and KMLs: Can be loaded into a SharePoint library.
Data from SQL, Oracle, ArcSDE, the Business Data Catalog, and Dynamics CRM: IT can make these available by editing configuration files.
Configuring with the Composer
Once data is a ready, the business user's primary tool is the Composer, which discovers and lists the available data layers. The user drags layers into a hierarchy, ordering, grouping and labeling them as they will appear in the application.
From onscreen prompts, the user chooses colors, icons, line styles and other attributes for each layer. Visual cues and examples in the Composer mean the business user doesn't need to know terminology like "clustering" or "generalization." The Composer incorporates "fill in the blanks" help for writing (optional) styling rules, so a user could shade areas by sales revenue, for example, or assign icons by asset type, without writing any code.
The visual nature of all the Composer controls means the business user can apply them without technical guidance. Using the Composer, a new mashup can be composed from existing data sources in as little as 20 minutes.
The user experience
The end user interface, Visual Fusion Experience, is composed of a Map Viewer (built on Virtual Earth) and a Feed Control for turning layers on and off. A Details panel in the Feed Control can display deeper levels of information for each item on the map.
Scaling up from mashups to applications
While its interface is geared toward enabling business users to make mashups, Visual Fusion includes tools that allow more technical users to apply filters, data transformations, and complex style rules to any layer. When an enterprise has additional needs, developers can use the SDK to write custom data connectors, request handlers, filters, geocoders and more.
Value for the business user and the enterprise But for business users, such customization remains "behind the scenes." Through the Visual Fusion interface, they retain the agility to respond quickly to pressing business issues without waiting for scarce IT resources. They gain the flexibility to build many types of applications on a single platform while leveraging their existing investments in data stores and SharePoint. Most importantly, they gain insight from seeing all relevant data in a context that allows interaction and collaboration.
