This is our official ODL Studio launch press release:

A UK-based start-up, Open Door Logistics, has just launched a free software solution for sales territory design, management and mapping – Open Door Logistics Studio.

ODL studio allows managers to optimise and balance their sales team's territories either manually using advanced digital-map based visualisation or automatically using a powerful optimisation algorithm. Detailed territory maps can be printed out or put on the web.

There are many benefits to optimising your sales territories. Travel costs can be reduced by ensuring territories are geographically compact. Team morale can be improved by ensuring an amicable balance of workload. Customer satisfaction can be increased by ensuring your sales team have enough time to properly cater for their customers's needs.

Open Door Logistics are taking on established vendors by applying an open source business model – where the software is available for free and the developers charge only for support and training – to a market currently dominated by expensive proprietary systems. Current systems can cost thousands of dollars or pounds (see http://www.allbusiness.com/company-activities-management/sales-selling-sales/14630117-1.html), far beyond the reach of the IT budgets of many small and medium sized enterprises. Philip Welch, the lead developer of ODL studio, says "Open Door Logistics aims to bring the benefits of computer-assisted sales territory design to all companies, both big and small."