Coolers in the shops four days before the heat

The challenge

When a heatwave hits, every dealer wants coolers on the same day. Ananya sends stock by last year’s sales, so shops in crowded colonies run out while quieter towns sit full. Trucks take three days, and a sold-out week is a lost season.

How the flow works

With xMap Flows, Ananya built Oracle. Oracle is an AI employee: a flow of 7 blocks.

1. Every morning at six,

   Every morning at 6 (Schedule)

2. Oracle takes her three hundred dealers,

   Her three hundred dealers (My data)

3. checks the next ten days at each one,

   Ten days ahead at each (Weather forecast)

4. keeps the dealers facing a heatwave,

   A heatwave coming (Filter)

5. counts the people living around each,

   People within 3 km (Demographics)

6. works out the coolers to send,

   Coolers to send (Calculated field)

7. and adds them to the truck plan.

   The truck plan (Microsoft Excel 365)

What it solves

• Stock by last year: solved by Weather forecast and Calculated field
• Crowded shops sell out: solved by Demographics and Calculated field
• Trucks take three days: solved by Schedule and Filter and Microsoft Excel 365

The result

Today, Oracle sees forty-six degrees coming to east Delhi next week. Dealers in Laxmi Nagar, with six hundred thousand people around them, get six trucks now, four days before the heat. Last year, those shops sold out in two days.

Ananya used to chase the heat. Now her trucks get there first.

An illustrative scenario: the figures are modelled to show what the flow produces, not a customer's results.

The flow, block by block

1. 1

   Every morning at 6

   Schedule

   Starts the flow on a timetable.

2. 2

   Her three hundred dealers

   My data

   Brings in a table you uploaded or a list you saved on the My data page: your stores, customers, target accounts or sites.

3. 3

   Ten days ahead at each

   Weather forecast

   The weather forecast (Open-Meteo, from national weather services) for up to 16 days: temperature, rain, wind and UV.

4. 4

   A heatwave coming

   Filter

   Keeps only the items that match a rule.

5. 5

   People within 3 km

   Demographics

   Who lives in an area: the number of residents, men and women, and nine age groups, from xMap’s population grid (hexagons of about 0.1 km², about 100 countries).

6. 6

   Coolers to send

   Calculated field

   Adds fields worked out from the others: a number, a text or a yes/no.

7. 7

   The truck plan

   Microsoft Excel 365 · Excel

   Spreadsheet software by Microsoft

Templates to build it

Ready-made flows with the same blocks. Open one, change the city and the kind of place, and run it.

• Stores competing with each otherYour stores that sit within 1 km of each other, with the people around them.
• High UV days: advice for my clinics' patientsOn high UV days, a short sun safety tip for each clinic's patients.
• Heat stop for outdoor work, every hourA WhatsApp heat stop to supervisors when a site reaches 45 degrees.
• Wind alert for crane liftsA Slack alert to stop crane lifts when strong wind is forecast.
• Frost warning for my farmsA WhatsApp frost warning to farm managers when nights get cold.
• Weather-driven promotions per storeA promotion idea for each store when heat or rain is coming.

Learn how it works

• How to score candidate store sitesCompare sites on residents, competitors and neighbours, with an AI score and a reason.
• Location intelligenceUsing where things are, and what is around them, to make business decisions.
• Catchment areaThe area a store or service draws its customers from.
• Ask the map a questionHow many of a kind of place, how many people for each, and where the gaps are, answered on the spot.
• Count what is around each of your placesCompetitors, footfall magnets or services within a distance of each site.
• Weather forecastUp to 16 days for each place or city.

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