Developing a WordPress Directory

Hi everyone;
I’m new to WordPress and I’m trying to figure out if WordPress can meet my needs. From the looks of it, WordPress is extremely versatile and has the best chance of meeting my needs, so I’m starting here. So, here’s my situation.

I maintain a large directory of contacts within my professional field. It started as a small Excel spreadsheet, but has become larger than I initially imagined and has become unwieldy. This is compounded by the fact that I disseminate the directory through a professional networking association, and making sure everyone gets the latest version is also becoming increasingly difficult.

My solution is to develop a publicly accessible online directory. I can keep it updated and give the link to my associates.

Since I’m putting forth this kind of effort though, I want to make the directory more user-friendly. I’d like to add features that allow me and my associates to search and/or filter the directory. For example, I’d like to be able to search by name, and filter by agency/company and specialty. The results of the search/filter would then show the details of each entry (mainly contact information). A feature that allowed me to search within a geographic radius from a ZIP code would also be useful.

Does this sound like something WordPress is capable of facilitating?

If so, can you give me some pointers as to where I should start? Being new to WordPress, my initial thoughts are a plug-in or utilizing a MySQL database, but I wanted to see if anyone else had any suggestions.

Thank you for your time and help.

-Joe