AI is Changing the Game for Location of Things Technology
There’s no doubt about it. With the application of artificial intelligence (AI), location has now become an integral part of the discussions surrounding cutting-edge technology like autonomous cars and connected cities. And while this is an impressive advent in and of itself, the implications and advancements for businesses around the globe are boundless.
In a recent article by VentureBeat, “The AI + Location of Things moment is now, Forrester says,” an important distinction is made. It’s the combination of AI, Location of Things and data visualization that comprise the most powerful solution. By layering these technologies, businesses can now generate, track, analyze and determine key correlations that may otherwise have gone undiscovered. For example, as cited in the article, “you can look at traffic congestion in a city and how that links to weather, or big sporting events. That allows you to do predictions around what will happen given certain weather conditions and upcoming games.” It’s from multi-level analysis like this that real-time actionable insights can be drawn and inform future business strategy.
And this reminds me of another blog I wrote, earlier this year, about an article by Louis Columbus.
Forbes’ Louis Columbus Gets Location of Things
Couldn’t agree more with Forbes’ Louis Columbus about the business benefits of Location Intelligence. His February 11th story showcases the trends and statistics that our enterprise customers have been sharing with us over the past few years. Understanding Location of Things (LoT) is essential to knowing how many field reps you need, where they need to be to meet with your customers, tracking their progress and outcomes, and improving overall business performance.
Columbus cited some interesting statistics from Dresner Advisory Services’ 2018 Location Intelligence Market Study. Interestingly, 66% of enterprises rank location intelligence as critical or very important to their revenue growth strategies. Manufacturing, Retail and Wholesale industries are particularly focused on LoC. This is exactly what we’re finding in our customer base.
With MapAnything Guide, our customers are tackling some of the most challenging growth and customer service objectives by meeting more customers and prospects, more efficiently than ever. Every stop matters. Effective route planning adds an average of 13% more stops per vehicle per day. We’re able to help field organizations make more stops, in less time, and do more along the way. Beating congestion can also save millions in fuel costs and wear and tear on vehicles that idle in traffic.
Finally, using MapAnything, teams of field service and sales professionals are able to optimize routes and schedules across multiple days, and multiple geographies, even when considering variables such as time of day or meeting constraints.
We are truly excited about the technical advancements in optimized routing for our customers, and for enterprises everywhere. As customers demand more face time, and field teams are required to travel farther, through more congested streets, intelligent routing can be a key to unlocking greater ROI the team and the vehicles they depend on. But, the real opportunity is greater sales and faster revenue growth by optimizing time with the right customers.
