Location data company HERE Technologies is introducing a mapping-as-a-service which it says is for enterprises wanting to create differentiation and reduce operational costs through building, maintaining, and using unique map datasets for advanced analytics and services.

HERE says the offering is enabled by advanced platform functionality coupled with industry-leading map creation, processing and delivery capabilities.

Available now, bundled as part of a professional services engagement, the first private mapping use cases relate to industrial yard mapping, leveraging probe data from private fleets of vehicles in order to create and update the map. Progressively through 2021, HERE says the aim is to enable enterprises to bring their own map data onto the HERE location platform and use it in combination with map data and services which will increasingly be available as a “self-serve experience”.

The mapping firm adds that enterprises will have the option to do this autonomously or can co-develop with the HERE professional services team, who provide a wide portfolio of globally scalable mapping-related services, to define a solution and deploy private mapping on the HERE location platform on their behalf.

HERE comments that it thinks the private mapping offering will be of particular benefit to enterprises from the Transport and Logistics space – more specifically from fleet management and supply chain – which want to build maps at scale, improve operational efficiency and drive differentiation against key competitors. The offering will enable them to build and maintain a unique map dataset using various sources such as probe, 3rd party map content and eventually, imagery and LiDAR. These datasets will be privately and securely stored on the HERE location platform and can then be conflated with the HERE map and used further in services and as a foundation of advanced analytics.

“Many major industry players are sitting on huge amounts of location data and are looking to extract value from it. By using their location data to create private maps on the HERE location platform they can create a basis for operational efficiency improvements, differentiation and customer satisfaction,” said Jonathan Abon, VP Product Management of Platform at HERE Technologies. “We are making our leading mapmaking capabilities available to enterprises to allow them to consume location services such as routing, search and rendering, powered by HERE’s maps, as well as their own.”

(Picture – HERE graphic)