Every rooftop in Osaka, seen from above
Takumi runs a small solar installation company in Osaka. He puts panels on factory and warehouse roofs.
Listen to the story:
The challenge
He drives the streets by Osaka Bay, squinting up from the van. From the ground, he cannot tell how big a roof is, or which buildings are new. Half his quotes go to roofs that are too small. And each new warehouse hears from another installer first.
How the flow works
With xMap Flows, Takumi built Skylight. Skylight is an AI employee: a flow of 6 blocks.
Every Monday at six,
Every Monday at 6 (Schedule)
across Osaka Bay and Higashiosaka,
Osaka Bay and Higashiosaka (Area of interest)
Skylight searches the maps for warehouses and factories,
Warehouses and factories (Map business scan)
keeps only the ones it has not shown him before,
Not shown before (Only new)
takes a fresh satellite picture of each roof,
Each roof from above (Satellite images)
and lays them in his inbox, roof by roof.
Roofs in his inbox (Email)
What it solves
- Roofs he cannot see: solved by Map business scan and Satellite images
- Half the quotes wasted: solved by Satellite images and Email
- Others get there first: solved by Schedule and Only new
The result
On Monday, Takumi scrolls through thirty-one roofs over coffee. He picks the nine widest, on new buildings, and calls only those. By Friday, four owners want a quote, and every roof is big enough.
Takumi used to look up at roofs. Now he looks down on them.
An illustrative scenario: the figures are modelled to show what the flow produces, not a customer's results.
The flow, block by block
- 1
- 2
Osaka Bay and Higashiosaka
Sets where the flow looks: countries, cities or specific places, or areas you draw on a map.
- 3
Warehouses and factories
Finds businesses on online maps live: name, category, rating, address, phone, website and whether it is open.
- 4
Not shown before
Lets through only the items this flow has not found before, so a daily flow sends only what is new.
- 5
Each roof from above
Recent satellite pictures (Sentinel-2, about 10 m per pixel, a new pass every few days) of each incoming place, a point or the Area of interest: when it was taken, how cloudy, and the picture itself.
- 6
Templates to build it
Ready-made flows with the same blocks. Open one, change the city and the kind of place, and run it.
- Watch new competitorsCompetitors that opened in your city since yesterday, every morning.
- What opens near my storesNew places opening within 1 km of each of your stores, every week.
- New places every morning, only newNew places of your type in your city every morning, only the new ones, ranked by xMap AI.
- Who lives around new placesThe new cafes in your city with the people living around each.
- New restaurants for pest control contractsNew restaurants each weekday, with a pest control offer.
- New restaurants to sign up the week they openNew restaurants each weekday, with a first-month offer.
Industries
Learn how it works
- POI data (points of interest)Records of places such as shops, clinics and offices, with their category, position and details.
- Outlet universeThe complete list of points of sale a brand could sell through.
- Data enrichmentAdding details to records you already have.
- Enrich a list onceA CSV of addresses or companies back with phone, website, rating and an AI score.
- Map business scanA live scan of online maps by type or your own search words.
- Satellite imagesThe latest clear picture of each site.
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- A new rival station, known the next morningAli manages forty fuel stations across Bahrain for a big energy company.
- Hotels where electric car guests have nowhere to chargeJordan is an electrician in Denver who installs charging points for electric cars.
Build this flow on your own city
Run a live search on the home page without an account, or let Ask xMap build the flow from one sentence.