Leading Mapping Data Now Available for Use in Applications and Web Sites

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C.--StrikeIron Inc., the leading provider of Data as a Service (DaaS), facilitating the consumption and distribution of live data and business functionality over the Web, today announced that MapQuest Driving Directions Data has been added to the Web Services Marketplace. The MapQuest Web Service delivers best-in-class, turn-by-turn driving directions from any starting location to one destination and includes point-by-point mapping for each leg of the journey.

The StrikeIron Web Services Marketplace offers over 100 data services for the eCommerce, Finance, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Data Quality and Business Intelligence markets. With the addition of MapQuest’s data, StrikeIron customers can now find the data they need in a single location to easily integrate MapQuest’s accurate driving directions into a wide variety of Web applications, eCommerce sites, desktop applications, and CRM systems to show people precisely how to get where they need to go. MapQuest is a leading provider of mapping software and platforms that enable organizations to deploy store locators and innovative location based services via Web sites and mobile devices.

The MapQuest service joins other high-quality data services from providers such as D&B, Zacks, Cdyne, YP.com and IDExec. In a recent survey conducted by StrikeIron at the Web 2.0 Expo, attendees were asked to rate the challenges they faced when integrating live data into their applications and enterprise mashups. Over 65 percent of respondents listed “quality of available data” and “relevancy of available data” as the critical challenges they faced when integrating external data.

“The ability to integrate mapping functionality into business processes and Web 2.0 applications like enterprise mashups is an exciting proposition, especially when you can get easy access to many external data sources in the same place to enhance the mapping capabilities,” said Bob Brauer, CEO and president of StrikeIron. “We are thrilled to have MapQuest data available for our customers to implement with their SOA and SaaS solutions, as well as any other need they may have.”

About StrikeIron

StrikeIron is the leader in Data as a Service, facilitating the consumption and distribution of live data and business functionality over the Web. The company’s breakthrough Web Services Marketplace provides a technology platform, micro-transaction management and a consistent interface across many XML-based Web services from multiple, diverse sources. This allows end-users and ISVs to customize and integrate external data sources and additional external functionality into enterprise, Web, and composite applications. Currently, StrikeIron provides over 100 live data sources and business functions as well as a set of products and tools to simplify and accelerate the consumption of data such as StrikeIron’s SOA Express, enabling business users to access live data via front office applications. StrikeIron services over 700 customers and partners such as BEA, Delivery.com, IBM, Honda Europe, D&B, Time Warner, Siemens, Nike, Kenwood, and Exclusive Resorts. For more information, visit www.strikeiron.com.