Why Do We Need Location-Based Solutions?

Location is the key to market-intelligence and real-time awareness. As companies strive to fulfill customer needs, set strategic direction and boost revenue; Location-based solutions give insight to the following questions:  

1. What opportunities we are missing?

2. Which section is boosting sales?

3. What are the upcoming threats?

4. Process of optimizing the movement of assets for cost reduction.

And more..
Tech giants have understood the role of location-based software as a business intelligence tool and leverage it to optimize the workstream of risk analysts, service technicians and executives. So, it’s not going to be long before you will require this solution catering your organizations’ needs. And as a CEO you have to make this decision after a lot of planning. But, Don’t Worry! Here we have jotted down the list of traits present in a  location-based software company, Scroll Down!

11 Factors CEO’s Must Consider Before Hiring a Location-Based Software Development Company

1. Portfolio
2. Timeline of Project
3. B2B Rating
4. Programming Standards
5. Location is Important
6. Interaction Level
7. Affordability
8. Size of Team
9. Project Maintenance
10. User References
11. Non-Disclosure Agreement

1. Portfolio

To evaluate a company’s strengths and weaknesses, assess the portfolio. Check out the past records as it will give you sneak-peak into their creativity. Portfolio will give you insight into their quality of software and will present a clear picture as to whether they have developed a similar level of projects or not.  All of these inputs will have a direct impact on your choice of company.

2. Timeline of Project 

A development company is expected to establish a project timeline and adhere to it.  Usually, a location-based solution development company is working on multiple projects in a particular period. Therefore, it is essential for sustaining the quality of software, one needs to deliver the product on time. A simplified way to ensure this is by allocating experienced and skilled team on the project.

3. B2B Rating

Thousands of search results from Google make it really tough to which company you should hire. In these circumstances, take the help of different B2B review platforms like Clutch, GoodFirms and check out the list of development agencies in various regions. Compare their ratings and make wise decisions.

4. Programming Standards

Whichever platform you desire to get your solution developed, one needs to ensure that the company they are going to hire is proficient at it. The coding standards should match your project requirements. Also sign a copyright document which claims you as the only holder of solution plus, incorporating source code and other designs.

5. Location is Important

You may question this one, but the location is a prime factor influencing the choice of company. It is so because there are some regions with skilled developers offering cost-effective Location-based solutions. Whereas, on the other hand, there are some locations with expensive software solutions by not so proficient coders. 

6. Interaction Level

So many CEOs believe that communicating with the development team in the initial and final stage is enough. But that shouldn’t be the case. Companies have interns, freelancers apart from the developers. And you never know when your hired firm passes on your project to freelancers or interns. This may hamper the quality of your solution. Hence it is not recommended to abort the communication level in the middle stage of development. Pick the company that keeps you at the same pace throughout the journey.

7. Affordability

The Human tendency is to strive for the deal which is monetary favorable. But in the case of Location-based software, it doesn’t stand true. Because usually, most of the inexperienced vendors tend to keep the prices lower for attracting more clients. Therefore, never base your judgment solely on the cost of development, since it may result in the poor quality of software.

8. Size of Team 

While some development firms dedicate a complete team for your business solution, others assign multiple projects to an individual team. In such situations, quality and communication ability of the project gets really compromised. So to avoid these circumstances, prefer a company that assigns a dedicated team to your project.

9. Project Maintenance

Once the software is released, the hiring firm should release updates, fix bugs, errors or may even add more features timely. A trusted Location- based company stays with their clients throughout the software development cycle, unlike other firms that choose to leave once the development phase is finished.

10. User References

Reference is the best method to begin with software development. Start by enquiring family, friends, and colleagues in case they know some skilled coders. Create a list of potential vendors and start sorting as per your needs. Check out the reviews and feedback of these firms. Meet the sorted ones in person and decide which one fits your requirements. And most importantly, don’t forget to look at the service and conditions provided by the company.

11. Non-Disclosure Agreement

Eventually, an NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement) is the determining factor in the selection of a Location-based software development company. It is a legal document that helps in identifying a fraud company easily. When a firm denies signing it, then it indicates the lack of morality and one should simply ignore partnering with such a firm. Instead, opt for the company that introduces the same in the very starting phase itself.

Conclusion

Hiring a reputed, reliable and experienced Location-based software company can decide the fate of your organization. A good partner will engage in all phases of the development cycle and update you about every change occurring. The development team will not only provide a feature-full solution but also aid in the marketing of software. With rising competition, it is quite strenuous to spot the right organization suiting all your company’s needs. To ease the voyage, make use of the above-mentioned steps and take your business to new heights.

The post Top 11 factors CEO’s Must Consider Before Hiring a Location-Based Software Development Company appeared first on Matellio Inc.

Playing with data, it delivers no results. Without the proper integration, display, and analysis you might end up with an enormous amount of data but no information. An Enterprise GIS app development integrates and weaves together the disparate business functions within organizational boundaries, which ultimately depends on the spatial relationships.

What is GIS?

Come back to the ground level question. As per the definition, the geographic information system is the powerful decision making and business intelligence tool for businesses and industry that delivers real-time and location-based insights. The tools allow the analysis of environmental, demographic, and topographic data where the integration with data intelligence helps industries and consumers to make informed decisions. The location-based information is the tool for better operational intelligence and real-time awareness. The decision makers strive to boost revenue and set the strategic direction for the companies where the GIS provides insight into the sales trends, opportunities, and probable threats.

Benefits of GIS

The Geographic information system is helping the business executives for targeting higher goals across the industry verticals. The manufacturers are using GIS and Spatial Analytics for spotting the customer preferences and spending the budget efficiently whereas insurers are getting help to price the risk more effectively. The entry of commercial off the shelf solutions for information management was addressed against the demand for the development and maintenance of custom software. The commercial off the shelf solutions are tailor-made for closely matching the existing business requirement, processes, and associated tools.

The development of custom software for integration with the existing tools is the time and money consuming option. Therefore, it is necessary to make adjustment and tweaks in the existing tool to improve efficiency. These ways, it becomes easier to develop the workflow and implement the best practices to provide information whenever needed by the users and additional efficiencies. Practically, the businesses devise to modify the current business processes in accordance with the custom solutions. The successful GIS integration ultimately depends on the participation of the management team.

Real world examples of GIS integration:

Organizations incorporate the geographical data into the planning and maintenance activities for generating better information and empowering the customer relationship management.

Banking is the entire market drive approach where success strictly depends on customer satisfaction. GIS plays an important role in planning, organizing, and decision-making.

GIS applications help in gathering weather data, which is helpful in conserving natural resources.

The efficient GIS system helps in protecting the environment and predicts the risks, whereas the geolocation-based information always works tremendously when integrated with the tools.

The benefits of GIS:

Location based app development is oriented to analyze the data in the context of time and geography, which is leveraged by decision makers to visualize the information. Many companies are pushing GIS into the new business realms along with core business problems for making informed decisions.

Here are the ways GIS can be used in everyday life:

1. Google Maps: When it comes to finding the navigation across the map, Google Map stands at the first choice. The tool by Google is used on a daily basis by almost everyone for daily navigation, finding the best route, searching for nearby restaurants and many more general tasks.

2. Advanced Networking Services: Incorporating the geographical data into complex network designs and maintenance activities result in better customer satisfaction.

3. Urban Planning: GIS data can better be used in perceiving what human eyes can’t. For constructing the infrastructure, road development, urban expansion, rail route set up the GIS offers a more detailed approach to work upon.

4. Agriculture and Natural resource management:

• The power of GIS can be leveraged for efficient farming techniques, increase food production, and soil analyzing. Through GIS, the water reservoirs can also be preserved along with the adequate management of forest land.
• Water Irrigation management: GIS eases out the task of identifying the water-rich regions and the level of underground water resources. This helps in taking right decision for crop management and involving efficient techniques.

5. Disaster Management and Damage estimation:  For the remote areas, natural calamities are hard to cope up with. A GIS helps in assessing the risks for disaster management and map the flood risk areas, land erosion impacts, and other mishaps.

6. Financial Transactions:

• Banking services are directly dependent over the up and downs of the market and the success of the banking system is affected by customer satisfaction. A proper planning and decision-making effort can bridge the gaps between the financial decisions and market flow, which is possible with the help of Geolocation based mapping and planning.
• Taxation: Geographical mapping helps in determining the tax and levy slabs for infrastructures and engineering developments. This maximizes the government revenue by demarcating the block areas for a certain tax slab.

7. Utility management:                                                                                                                                                                 

 The collaboration of GIS, IoT, and SCADA is viable too for auto improval of the systems. In power distribution systems, the information of GIS is amalgamated with the Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition system that entrusts the maximum performance by enabling the utility managers to visually monitor critical factors. The operational intelligence with the real-time view drives towards better decisions.

8. Asset tracking: For the companies dealing with the hardware or working in a manufacturing business, it is crucial to keep track of supply chain management. Here, the GIS assists with real-time intelligence for the assets in motion for better deliveries. The time-based delivery and fuel-saving is also possible with the GIs, where it prescribes the route for the driver, and increases driver safety.

9. Block-level insights for investors:

GIS supports the core business activities and helps in maximizing the individual store performance by assisting in site selection. The site selection prior-hand results in minimizing the competition and gain confidence for the business decisions. The mapped data allows companies to know where potential customers are and make strategic decisions.

Verdict

The use of GIS makes a profound impact over the industry, however, merging the company’s databases with sophisticated GIS hardware help businesses had better visualize the relationship between customers and suppliers while augmenting the profit margins. The investment in GIS leads to a significant decrease in expenditure and an increase in the firm’s business plan. Every new tool demands a little adjustment with integration and learning curve to let users make optimum use of the information. Over the coming decade, GIS, SCADA, IOT, CIS, LIMS, and network models will integrate with the machine learning tools for providing the state of the art information system. We anticipate the great growth in ML over the coming decade, which would surely make the impressive growth map for businesses.

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GIS stands for Geographic Information System. Simply put, it’s an information system that help us capture, analyze and present spatial information on a map. Currently, a millions of decisions are made with the help of GIS . As it allows us to make better decisions using geography. Business sector has been benefited the most with the introduction of GIS technologies, as the retailers use to pinpoint the best location to open new stores and stock items that match local customers needs.

Fig [1.1] : GIS is a way to analyze and present geographical information on a map

Once a treat for the upper classes, video games have become an incredibly technologically advanced piece of equipment to have casually laying around your living room.

Now, a new avenue has opened up in the world of GIS: video games. What do these two pieces of advanced technology have to do with each other? For starters, many video games are set in virtual worlds that require some knowledge of real-world geography. Games like World of Craft and SimCity are fantasy worlds while games like Call of Duty and Grand Theft Auto emulate real world places like Iraq and California. Keeping these places geographically correct in the game gives players the ability to immerse themselves in the scenario, making it more realistic.

The most trending product to talk about while we discuss GIS and Gaming is surely the biggest hit of the summer – Pokémon Go. The gaming phenomenon has set all kinds of milestones including over 100 million Android downloads its first month. Behind the scenes Pokémon GO is powered by location based services, GIS, and GPS . The combination of geospatial data and augmented reality has made Pokémon Go a massive hit. It leverages enormous amounts of geospatial data about each user’s location. It analyzed this data to identify locations and features in parks, attractions, PokeStops, and PokeGyms. They had to identify accessible places where people would want to go. Pokemon Go would not be as successful as it is without geospatial data.

Pokevision is a new launch that enables users to find Pokemons on the map, it uses map tiles and geocoding services from Esri [6]. It is already the most popular app that uses Esri technology. The game encourages users to explore the cities and towns where they live to capture. PokéStops are located at places such as public art installations, trails, and historical markers and monuments.

Location is the key to successful development, evolution, and growth of the marketing strategy. From social media to display advertising, coupon optimization, and sentiment analysis, understanding place gives a better view of what’s what and who’s where. GIS based location analytics can help get a game plan that reduces uncertainty, drives
profitability, and improves performance.

Benefits of using GIS based solutions:

• Optimize Sharpen the store network. Provide the best service to the customers as efficiently as possible.
• MaximizeIncrease sales from every outlet. Understand who the customers are and how to
  attract more like them.
• ImproveCreate enviable marketing outreach. Big or small, local or global, put place back into the mix of price, place, and promotion.

Esri Location Analytics

The connected consumer is changing the face of business. To make the most out of e-marketing and social media strategies without cannibalizing existing brick and mortar stores. Location brings meaning to mobile technology and helps you create a winning bottom line.

ArcGIS Platform

ArcGIS is the geography platform for the retail organization. Integrate ArcGIS into existing business systems, improving access to information across your organization. Improve business agility while making the best decisions.

Esri Demographics

Save money by marketing to the right people and knowing where to spend resources to serve those most in need. Gain crucial insights by identifying the best customers and prospects and tapping into the who of lifestyle demography
with the where of location neighborhood geography.

Public transport and Railways

Optimize routes, understand assets in real-time, and communicate with web maps and apps. And in railways it is very helpful in Managing assets, maximize throughput, monitor safety, and communicate with staff and the public.

Airports and Aviation

By using GIS you see more than static maps. Query pavement conditions, track field crew progress, monitor leasing histories, and communicate developing security risks. By this you can streamline planning and operations.

Highways

To build a smarter and safer infrastructure G IS can help you plan, monitor, and manage strategic infrastructure
more effectively. Use the location power of your data to determine capacity enhancements, improve operations,
and identify the most strategic investments for maintaining your transportation infrastructure. GIS can make your stand-alone systems work smarter by connecting them.

Use in Path Analysis, Navigation and Allocation of Resources:

The travel time on alternate routes was used to calculate travel time savings gained from construction of the proposed project. An alternative route is based on the identification of the shortest path between end points where the new roads are to be constructed. Path Finding Module of Arc/info can be used to generate the shortest route between points of the proposed project interactively. This can be a done using the link impedance attribute table which contains link’s travel time calculated in GIS based on speed, length and access penalty factors. GIS is used to identify links for projects where Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) is used as variable for analysis. Arc identifiers can then be used to join the network links in GIS to the VMT data obtained from the travel model output. And that GIS Roads and Facilities Data used for GPS Vehicle Navigation.

Forestry

Forestry is complex, dynamic, and multidimensional. Needs of the forest as well as the pressures of economic efficiency must also be met. GIS technology profoundly and positively impacts the way land managers, timber managers, and forestry specialists manage timber resources. Esri GIS helps understand forest science, economics, and social principles. One will better care for the forest, reach your business objectives, and complete regulatory reporting requirements. Use Esri ArcGIS technology to improve inventory, land administration, sustainable forest planning, timber sales, and more.

Climate, Weather, and Atmosphere

While the earth’s weather patterns are shifting, people are looking for sustainable solutions founded on science. Data, tools, and knowledge come together in GIS to help clearly understand the geography of climate and predict change. Use the powerful GIS based platforms to share data, collaborate, and communicate with scientists across the disciplines.

Mining

From mineral exploration to mine remediation, GIS based technologies support decision making throughout the entire mining life cycle. GIS can be used for project planning, mining operations, transportation management, and risk
analysis. Don’t miss business opportunities because the information is scattered throughout the company. Use the GIS based platform to bring information together so it can be analyzed in a geographic context, discover new leads, and develop prospects.

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