SQL Server Reporting Services 2008 R2 Map Tip: Address Geocoding with SQL Server 2008 Spatial

This post is just a pointer to a great blog post on Spatial Ed’s blog that addresses (pun intended) one of the most common questions I get regarding the map in Reporting Services which is, “In my database, all of my store locations, customers, etc. are just addresses. Can you map that?”

The answer to this question is that this data is no different than the other attributes that should be managed using traditional data warehousing techniques.  You likely have a customer dimension table with an address, and you should already have in place a set of processes for managing the attributes of your customer through the lifecycle of your data warehouse. Geocoding of addresses should be integrated into this process and you can use the techniques in Ed’s post to accomplish this.  Then, when your report runs, all of the geo-coding will be done, you won’t need to make a million web service calls to find out how many customers are within 100 miles of your store.