Would you run a taxi service without GPS today?

The benefits of location tracking technology aren’t limited to transportation services. Find out how any industry benefit from a Real-Time Location System.

Location, location, location… as the saying goes, it matters immensely in the real estate business. For the longest time, it was the only industry in which it held such importance. Now, though, even a five-year-old will tell you that it’s no longer true.

Consumer-facing businesses from ride-sharing to food-delivery apps would be far from the behemoths they are today without GPS technology. Uber probably wouldn’t exist, Swiggy would probably be much less efficient.

Where’s your order? Do you not want to know?

None of this means that you can’t operate the traditional way. We still do so on occasion. But imagine how optimised the operations of a digitized player is vis-a-vis its traditional counterpart to build such a sticky platform. Uber, for example, has made countless adjustments to build its ride experience, and will presumably continue to do so. Better drivers, faster routes, more accurate driver-rider matching, it will keep improving.

You can know it all in your business, too!

The same opportunity that Uber has because of GPS is available to nearly every operation today.

It’s called an Indoor Positioning System and it uses a combination of multiple technologies to provide you with accurate information on the movement of all or any of your resources (people and assets) within the facility. And it does so at low costs.

The knowledge it can give an organization can help bring widespread improvement, from productivity gains to compliance improvements. For example, it can:

1. Give you insight into how your employees spend their time, allowing you to optimize production

2. Locate expensive assets in real-time, drastically reducing the chance of pilferage

3. Ensure compliance standards are high by allowing you to specify and enforce reporting rules for all processes

4. Be of immense help in an emergency situation through automatic headcount and information on every person and asset’s last known location.

The technology can help manufacturers analyse and improve productivity, help hospitals improve the patient experience and education institutions tighten security on its premises, to name a few.

The tech is cheap, accurate and delivers RoI quickly when implemented well. For example, a study of the impact of RTLS on a 650-bed hospital in the US was found to be a financially viable decision with a 10.2-month payback period, and an expected ROI of w hopping 327% within three years.

American majors have been sold on the concept for a year or two now, and most have already implemented beacons and other location systems to gain intelligence. As per ABI Research, 400 million beacons will be shipped in 2022.

The industry, therefore, will soon be commoditized, with every player in the market using a location tracking system of some kind. Which market, though? All of them. Any industry with operations will use it, and the gains will be fast, measurable and ongoing.

Are you prepared? Find out how operations visualization can help your industry.