3 things to look for when choosing an indoor mapping provider

Imagine a life without Google Maps… 

Almost impossible, right?

Outdoor maps and navigation are an integral part of everyday life and without it we would - quite literally - be lost. But it is not only when we are navigating the great outdoors we need mapping.

As facilities are increasingly expected to accommodate employees, facility management, and visitors by offering a smart, integrated, and personalized experience, the need for location-aware solutions connecting people and facilities has never been greater. Indoor maps are a key component of indoor location services. Without a base map to visualize data, the information has no value. This includes both location data, but also other dynamic data such as temperature, air quality, waiting times, and occupancy.  Presenting all relevant data in one visual experience provides valuable information  that empowers people to make informed decisions.

Indoor maps come in all shapes and sizes, depending on your budget and needs. There are, however, a few things you should look for when choosing an indoor mapping provider:

• Easy integration
• Scalability
• Live data

Easy integration

As indoor maps usually serve as a basis for a number of indoor location services, easy integration is key when picking an indoor mapping platform. The platform should also be able to integrate with almost any third-party data system, including IoT devices and sensor systems. This empowers you to tailor a solution that matches your specific needs and lets you address multiple use cases with one single platform. As an example, corporate offices often need to show available and occupied desks and meeting rooms, but employees should also be able to book spaces directly through the maps. To make sure employees book a suitable room for their next meeting, they also need relevant information about each room - how many people can fit in the room, AV equipment, air quality etc. 

Scalable maps

When choosing your indoor mapping provider, you also want to make sure that the maps are easy to scale. The idea of a location-based solution is to maximize your business, not to limit it. Whether you want to add to existing buildings or add new locations, a scalable platform ensures that your solution grows with your business.

Live data

A lot of location-related business questions, such as “where are my mobile assets?” or “which desks are occupied in my office?”, requires live data and real-time asset tracking to be answered. That is why you should make sure your mapping platform can ingest live location data from a variety of different technologies, so everyone has easy access to the data they need when they need it.

At MapsPeople we have extensive experience working with indoor mapping and indoor location solutions. We create state-of-the-art maps and were recently recognized as one of the vendors with the largest footprints in the commercial building map space by Gartner. We are proud to be a trusted partner of 45+ companies worldwide who rely on our dynamic mapping platform, MapsIndoors, to leverage their own indoor location technology.

If you want to know more about what mapping platform to choose for your solution, use Gartner's expert insights to explore the competitive landscape and to compare indoor mapping platforms.