Building supplies · Toronto, Canada · Site selection

The next contractor yard, chosen in a morning

Jacob leads expansion at one of Canada’s biggest building supplies companies, in Toronto. He decides where the next contractor yard opens.

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The challenge

Every lot on his shortlist gets a consultant’s study. It takes six weeks and costs more than a truck. By the time it lands, the best lot is often sold. And twice, a new yard opened far from the contractors it was meant for.

How the flow works

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

  1. On the first Monday of each month,

    First Monday of the month (Schedule)

  2. Atlas takes the lots on the shortlist,

    Lots on the shortlist (My data)

  3. draws what each one reaches in fifteen minutes by car,

    15 minutes by car (Travel area)

  4. finds the builders, roofers and electricians inside,

    Contractors inside it (Map business scan)

  5. counts the people living there,

    Who lives there (Demographics)

  6. ranks the lots,

    Rank the lots (xMap LLM)

  7. and sends the board a short report.

    The board’s report (Make a report)

What it solves

The result

On Monday, Atlas compares nine lots before lunch. The winner, in Vaughan, has eleven hundred contractors within fifteen minutes and a quarter of a million people. Jacob’s offer goes in that afternoon.

Jacob used to wait six weeks for an answer. Now the answer waits for him.

9lots compared in a morning
1,100contractors within 15 minutes
6 wkssaved on every study

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

    First Monday of the month

    Schedule

    Starts the flow on a timetable.

  2. 2

    Lots on the shortlist

    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

    15 minutes by car

    Travel area

    The area you can reach within a travel time (15 minutes by car) or a distance by road (10 km), on foot, by bike or by car, from each incoming place or from places you pick.

  4. 4

    Contractors inside it

    Map business scan

    Finds businesses on online maps live: name, category, rating, address, phone, website and whether it is open.

  5. 5

    Who lives there

    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

    Rank the lots

    xMap LLM

    Tell the AI what to do in plain words.

  7. 7

    The board’s report

    Make a report

    Turns the items that reach it into a clean PDF report with your logo and colour: the summary an xMap LLM block wrote for the whole list, the figures, charts of kinds and cities, a map and the list.

Templates to build it

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

Industries

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