Synopsis: With the growing demand for delivery services businesses have become more reliant on their routing and logistics operations than ever before. But how can businesses maximize their efficiency and get the most out of their mapping platforms?
AppGeo is using our expertise in GIS to analyze and improve how businesses use mapping software. This webinar (recorded on June 18th, 2020) brings together David Holmes, Customer Engineer at AppGeo, and Aaron Doucett, Sales Engineer and GIS analyst from AppGeo to discuss how to get the most value out of Google Maps Platform.
Top 10 Challenges in Logistics
Holmes: “We’ve had a lot of conversations with our clients, we have quite a bit of experience in addressing logistics and routing applications, and these are the top 10 challenges. Hopefully some of these will resonate with some of your operations…I suspect you are just as amazed as I am that you can place an order on Amazon one day and it shows up the next day. Amazon has raised the bar around logistics and what can be accomplished. That’s had an effect on everybody that is involved, whether its delivery of goods, whether its transportation of people, or whether its fleet of repair vehicles or inspections. Any type of logistics there are very high expectations.”
Delivering service at the increased speeds that customers have come to expect while still keeping costs down is a tremendous challenge. While technology is helpful to solving these issues, it can also be a source of complication and confusion. Managing technology correctly is key to the increased efficiency and performance that customers demand.
The webinar recording speaks to each of the following Top 10 Challenges in Logistics:
- Rising customer expectations
- Reducing fuel costs and time
- Managing labor costs and relations
- Improving customer service
- Traffic delays and wrong addresses
- Passenger management
- Inventory management
- High data volumes
- Communications with drivers
- Managing fleet performance
The Google Difference
Holmes: “Google has been very much invested in the world of logistics for several years. The Android Auto product captures live data from onboard navigation and onboard systems in vehicles. Waymo self-driving cars use Google Maps for navigation purposes… So Google has been and continues to be well invested… Google is all about scalability. If you watch anything on Youtube you’re on the Google Cloud, that gives you an idea of the reliability and ability to scale up to handle incredible volumes of data and do it at a performance that is second to none.”
Despite the need for logistics and routing operations, not all logistics operations are created equal. The cost and time it takes to create in-house routing and logistics from scratch is prohibitive to many companies. Even if your company can afford, or already has, in-house operations supplementing them with Google Maps Platform can dramatically increase efficiency and impact for a small cost.
Google Maps Platform has the advantage of vast investment in their roadway networks, transportation data, and cloud infrastructure. They also have unique access to huge amounts of places and basemap data that other individual companies cannot easily replicate. Additionally, because Google Maps is so ubiquitous it has a familiarity for most users that enhances and streamlines the customer experience. These assets give Google Maps a decisive edge over other routing and logistics software and make them a vital tool for any business.
AppGeo’s Role
Holmes: “We’ve been in this game for 29 years, many of those years serving the state, local, and federal government. In the last 6 years, we’ve added a focus on corporations using the Google Platform. We’ve been a Google Premier Partner since 2014. We have somewhere around 25 individual certifications between our development teams and our sales teams on both Google Cloud and Google Maps Platforms, and we have earned Google’s Partner Specialization Certification in Location Services. So deep skill sets, lots of years of experience, and ready to assist clients in using the Google Maps Platform.”
While the Google Maps Platform provides you with the tools to improve your logistics and routing operations, working with a Premier Partner like AppGeo is the best way to maximize the value of the Google Maps Platform. AppGeo can help you streamline your operations and save you money by reducing API usage and integrating your applications within the platform. AppGeo can take your Google Maps use to the next level and build applications that use the power of the Google Maps Platform to full effect.
Continued Reading: Is Google Maps expensive? How to Manage Costs on the Google Maps Platform
