I have been using Map Point and Streets and tripps since 2003. And I cannot believe they have still not fixed what seems to me a MAJOR annoyance, Actually its quite a serious flaw in my opinion; I import large lists of addresses for field service rollout projects. Recently with 2009 I imported a list of 300 addresses. It could not place 57 of them.
Now I admit its not 100% Mappoints fault it could not place them because you also have to verify the quality of the data imported but heres where mappoint sucks and has not improved 1 bit since 2003: when you go through its reconciliation process to manually select the address from its best guesses it is completely inept in function and logic;
For example; If you give it an address like 123 Wendle St, Redmond, WA 99999 (Note: wendle should have been spelled wendell) rather then assume you got the city and zip correct and find the best street matches in that city/zip it assumes you spelled the street correctly and offers you an address in a different state where the street name is spelled the way it was entered. Seriously, where is the logic in that. On a functionality side there are a host of things they could improve, I just hope I can remeber them all;
1. If the proper choice does by some miracle appear in the suggeted list and I accept it, allow me to save that address to my data and when I export my list I would have a good list.
2. If there is no good choice, give me a dialogue where I can correct spellings or change data on the spot and rerun the search on the fly for that location. If its good also save it to the "Mappable" data list.
3. If all else fails allow me to go to the map, zoom in on the area it should be and select where I want the pin.
4. Sometimes the data for a certain area just isn't good but perhaps you physically know where a site is, say on a certain curve in the road but if you where to click that spot on the road it will only give you the road name and it has no addresses for that section of the road. well in that "mappable List" feature we just created allow me to use Lat long. For the record I know MP can use lat long but its a one or the other proposition. Which brings us to my next request;
5. Allow me to use a mix of street addresses and lat longs; there should be a few options here;
1. Use Street address as first option but if address is not mappable use Lat Long. OR vice versa
2. Allow me to have a key field in my dataset that indicates whether to use address or lat long for that record. Infact you could develop a list for mapping preference such as:
1. Lat Long
2. Address
3. City
4. Zip
