The Smart Guide To Selecting A Location Platform

The smart guideto selecting alocation platform10 key considerations to helpyour business navigate locationtechnology providers

If you are searching for ways to improvebusiness outcomes by infusing youroperations with location intelligence,it’s easy to get lost.Perhaps you’re trying to understand whatdata, tools and services are the right fitfor your company, or which vendors willhelp you differentiate your products andaccelerate your time to market. And, allthe while, total cost is a constant concern.These considerations are important, alongwith the dozens of questions you mighthave around implementation barriersfor location technology, application andcloud platform integration, data accuracyand regulatory compliance.With the right knowledge, you can avoidsolutions that don’t scale, harm yourdata integrity or require skills yourorganization doesn’t have.This guide features ten areas everyinnovator and executive should considerbefore selecting a location solution.

Assess your needs forlocation intelligenceMany organizations respond to problems and driveshort-term ROI by focusing their investments andresources on mature technologies such as cloud,applications that automate tasks and analytics.Depending on the industry and the businessproblem at hand, a location technology platformneeds to give access to the right level of tools fordata or service consumption.Understanding data has never been moreimportant yet, for many, location data remains anuntapped reservoir. Adding the context of locationshines a spotlight on areas you couldn’t seebefore, enabling process efficiencies, enhancingemployee satisfaction and improving customerexperiences. Location-based data and servicescan also be used to connect and supply contextto disparate data sets and tackle commonbusiness challenges.There are a tremendous number of potential usecases for location data. First, you must determinewhich business challenges you’re looking to solve.If you’re still experimenting with location data,focus on established use cases.A fundamental objective of a location technologyplatform is to “shift right” the focus of customers.This means when you solve location-relatedproblems, you unlock new insights that allow you toovercome larger business problems down the line.Location technology can address a wide range of pressingbusiness challenges, including:3Reducing the risk ofa data privacy breachfor users when sharinglocation dataCreating richercustomerexperiencesImproving operationalefficiencyEnhancing businessmodels through cloudplatform capabilitiesBreaking downdata silosImprovingdata qualityAccelerating innovationand development oflocation-centric productsGaining actionableinsights fromyour dataWant to talk? We do, too. Get in touch here.

Completeness, flexibilityand scalabilityTaking location intelligence to the next levelrequires increasing both the volume of data andthe types of tools that you have available fordata analysis. But, sourcing accurate and up-todate location data with enough depth, detail andgeographical coverage to scale can be difficult.A one-size-fits-all or a take-it-or-leave-it offeringfor software developers will not suffice. Instead,you must look for a platform that enables easyaccess to external data for users and allows maps,algorithms and services to be customized to fitspecific business needs.Buying teams need to carefully assess thecompleteness of the location data neededto enable a use case or meet the projectrequirements. For enterprises that want todifferentiate their products and services,flexibility is needed for the design anddeployment of maps, services and applications.Last but not least, scalability is crucial. Why?Because scale is important for expanding theapplicability and geographical reach of a productor service along with advanced analytics andmachine learning.“Our vendor provides a platform with scale that gives usaccess to new types of information that we can use toimprove the weather forecast. The combined technologiesof the platform and the GWC RoadWX, offers customersa solution that scales to meet their global requirementsfor accurate road weather forecast data.”Mark Flolid, CEO, Global Weather Corporation4Want to talk? We do, too. Get in touch here.

Data and servicequalityEnsuring data quality is undeniably fundamental.Bad data leads to poor decision-making which canthen diminish brand value and customer trust.Gartner’s Magic Quadrant customer referencesurvey shows that organizations estimatethe average cost of poor data quality at 12.9million every year. This number is likely to riseas business environments become increasinglydigitized and complex. As data quality is seen as amandatory aspect of every business, data qualitysolutions are in greater demand and are oftenembedded into critical business applications suchas CRM and ERP.1As organizations start to make sense of data fromconnected devices, the accuracy and reliability oflocation services is critical. Big data presents anopportunity, but only for organizations with thecapacity to aggregate, understand and leverage it.For location data in particular, the notion of qualityis multi-dimensional. A few things to ponder:1. How accurate is my location-centric data?Is this object on the map at the right location inreality? Does it possess sub-meter accuracy?2. What variables, such as who, where, and when,need the most accurate information? Howaccurate is your current data? Does the dataoriginate from a source you can trust?3. What is the specification of the location-centricdata sets? If location data is coded against astandard specification then it is more userfriendly. By using a good quality data set,users can bypass the issue of low accuracyand inconsistent coverage.4. Events such as weather or traffic may impactthe movement, behavior or functioning of aperson or device over time. For this reason, it isimportant to assess how often the data is updatedand if the location-based services meet enterprisegrade service level requirements.86%86% of executive believe thatwithin three years using externaldata will be a critical competencyfor any enterprise.21Gartner: Magic Quadrant for Data Quality Solutions, July 202025Want to talk? We do, too. Get in touch here.IDC, Data as a Service Survey, 2019

Data privacy, securityand complianceEnsuring data security, privacy and regulatorycompliance is paramount, but how do youknow that you’re doing it effectively?Regulatory compliance isn’t only about GDPRand CCPA. Data sources and ecosystem partnersare central to an organization’s data governance.Location data should come from a vendor youtrust and the data or services should meet legaland regulatory requirements.Select a vendor that adheres to “privacy-bydesign” principles and proves that their dataand services can be trusted. Capabilities suchas anonymization, consent management, dataprivacy and risk quantification should be integralelements of any location platform offering.For organizations that don’t get it right, theconsequences of privacy breaches go beyondmonetary fines to reputation damage and aloss of customer trust.Vendors elevating their trust credentials canuse this to differentiate. Give enterprisesand consumers more control over theirdata, whether or not regulations requireit. Transparency and simplicity are key –navigating data privacy should not be alabyrinth for customers.336Want to talk? We do, too. Get in touch here.Omdia, 2020 Location Platform Index

Data exchange and monetizationthrough a marketplaceAs digital transformation fuels the demandfor data across industries and ecosystems,business leaders are seizing the opportunity tocommercialize or monetize their data. Conversely,for organizations that are seeking to acquire datato augment or enrich their own data sets, thebreadth and depth of Data as a Service (DaaS)offerings have never been this vast.Without a common denominator such as location,these data sets may lack contextual relevance andcannot easily be merged or mashed with otherdata. This is especially relevant for organizationswhere location is key.51%Business leaders need to move quickly to form,or at least participate in, ecosystems to monetizetheir data. To begin, organizations need toestablish the right tools, processes, architecturesand governance to ensure quality, usabilityand IP management.To save time, resources and investments, youcan leverage the tools, capabilities and marketreach of an already established locationdata-centric marketplace.In 2019, 51% of global dataand analytics businessdecision-makers reportedselling or sharing their data,up from 32% in 2016.447Want to talk? We do, too. Get in touch here.Forrester, Data Commercialization: A CIO’s GuideTo Taking Data To Market, March 2020

Ease of useand deploymentUsability is different for every company. Therefore,businesses should thoroughly assess their team’slevel of knowledge and expertise. Developers of allkinds – from novices to experts – require differentsolutions for success.Businesses should aim to use a location platformthat can solve their specific location challengeseasily and provide the collaboration tools requiredto help facilitate processes, streamline workflowsand improve user performance.A platform’s ease of use wouldn’t be completewithout considering its availability to open sourcecomponents such as Python, Apache Spark, Jupyternotebooks and more. The advantages with opensource components are undisputable; from lowercosts, to access, to innovation and a cultureof collaboration. But perhaps one of the mostimportant benefits is extensive customization.Through open sourced software, developerscan easily customize the software, add extrafunctionalities or remove unnecessary parts tomeet specific business requirements.“The infrastructure provided through the location platform isa big part of the value we deliver as a partner. The platformsaved us a lot of time, effort and resources we’d otherwisehave to expend developing everything ourselves.On the security side, things like the integrity of the data andthe monitoring of the computational resources, are definitelynot our core competence. We depend on our partner for that.”Predrag Pucar, CEO, NIRA Dynamics8Want to talk? We do, too. Get in touch here.

Total cost ofownershipWhen it comes to location technology platforms,there are many ways to reduce your total cost ofownership. Streamlining your development effortsis one of the most impactful ways to reduce costs.Most current development approaches arefragmented and time consuming and customersneed multiple vendors to get what they need.Accessing diverse data sets and services throughone unified platform can reduce the application’sdevelopment costs significantly.Examples of location-centric capabilities in thiscontext include data enrichment, development,mapping, data analytics, data visualization,service and application creation, monetization,data privacy and security.70%The total cost of ownership can also be keptin check when teams continuously work withopen source tools and components within thelocation platform. Examples include open sourceprogramming languages (e.g. Python), notebooks(e.g. Jupyter), data management platforms (e.g.Apache Spark) and frameworks (e.g. SparkML).Another option is the monetization of data andservices. Many businesses are shifting from a“build from scratch” to an “off the shelf” mentalitywhen analyzing revenue margins and looking tominimizing development costs.By 2023, 70% of G2000 companieswill have metrics in place toevaluate value realized from data,enabling them to optimize internalresource allocation decisions acrossthe enterprise.559Want to talk? We do, too. Get in touch here.IDC, Worldwide Data Integration and Analytics 2020 Predictions,Doc # US44802519, Dec. 2019To Market, March 2020