You may have seen the press release over the weekend about Optio3 & the partnership with Azure Maps: Optio3 to bring Microsoft Azure Cloud and Azure Maps to commercial transportation fleets. The solution from Optio3 for Fleet Management is a great example of how Geospatial / Location Intelligence comes together with IoT with the help of Azure Maps, Azure IoT and Microsoft Connected Vehicle Platform. According to Optio3, Azure Maps gives them a rich set of geospatial capabilities that they need to make their real time fleet operations management solution location-aware.
In addition to Optio3, I would love to highlight a small sample of partner solutions that use Azure Maps in innovative ways:
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One of the companies that is leveraging the geospatial and mapping capabilities from Azure Maps and the transit capabilities from Moovit, is Aira. Aira is a technology company dedicated to making lives simpler and more engaging. Based in San Diego, California, they build solutions to connect people who are blind, have low vision, or are simply aging into a digital world, with highly-trained professionals who provide visual information on demand. Public transportation is the lifeline to jobs, education, healthcare, and more, yet many blind or low vision riders still have trouble getting to their destination. They may be uncertain that they’ve caught the right bus, or unable to read the entrance sign they need to follow in order to access the subway. In addition, as populations age, the number of people experiencing age-related vision loss rises every day. |
Press: Moovit, Microsoft and Aira Just Made Public Transportation Better For People With Vision Impairments http://bit.ly/2tJmKgx
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Smart City, Public Sector |
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Optio3 announced an integrated Microsoft Azure IoT and Optio3 remote operations monitoring solution to commercial transportation, motor coach, and transit fleets. Optio3 already uses Azure Maps and Azure Cloud and is looking at utilizing the Microsoft Connected Vehicle Platform. The initial focus is on serving the aftermarket tractor, trailer, truck, bus, van, and motor coach market of existing fleet vehicles. This collaboration is the natural extension of Microsoft and Optio3 joining the Smart Transportation Council, whose mission is to orchestrate remote operations management product development activities across OEMs, to advocate open standards, and to help OEMs deliver streamlined and more powerful solutions to fleet owners and operators at a lower total cost of ownership. |
Press: Optio3 to bring Microsoft Azure Cloud and Azure Maps to commercial transportation fleets http://bit.ly/2Gd3iLW |
Logistics, Transportation, Fleet Management |
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With eSpatial Mapping Software, you can find hidden detail in your data with location analytics which allows you to segment and filter your data to connect business activity directly to a location. You get an interactive snapshot of your data for instant understanding with color-coded maps, graphs, charts, and annotations. You can map and manage your territories for rapid assignment and balancing which allows you to manage your resources more effectively. You can plan sales or service calls with radius and nearest neighbor analysis and make the most of your time in the field with optimized routing. |
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Retail |
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EasyTerritory for IoT is a robust application for visualizing and monitoring IoT device status and geofence alerts. EasyTerritory can be used stand-alone or integrated with Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Power BI to asset and device locations and trigger geofence alerts using the immersive Azure Maps!
EasyTerritory for Retail is a robust application for boundary management and data visualization for franchisers and retailers. EasyTerritory can be used stand-alone or integrated with Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Power BI to map stores, franchise boundaries, and areas of protection (AOPs) using the immersive Azure Maps! |
Appsource EasyTerritory for IoT: http://bit.ly/2RwWTAg Appsource EasyTerritory for Retail: http://bit.ly/36eafqF |
Retail |
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A great example of a partner that is delivering solutions on Azure Government cloud is Hexagon Safety and Infrastructure. Their HXGN OnCall portfolio helps public safety agencies of all sizes be more agile and resilient through modernized capabilities spanning call-taking and dispatch, records, analytics, major event management, and mobility. Here is what Kalyn sims, CTO of Hexagon Safety and Infrastructure had to say: “Through our partnership with Azure Maps, Hexagon delivers a rich map experience in our SaaS version of HxGN OnCall, our new portfolio of public safety solutions. It enables public safety agencies to leverage a highly available, CJIS-compliant mapping solution as they serve citizens during some of life’s most crucial moments.” |
Video: https://youtu.be/ZXuY16cMZhQ |
Public Sector |
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Solution for analyzing store locations using Azure Map. The Solution builds an Isochrone around a store location and enables retailers to analyze the around the store. Audax Labs is available to help customers with solving their business challenges using Azure Maps and Geospatial Analytics |
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Retail |
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Earthquakes are a reality of life in some places and their impact can be devastating. New Zealand-based professional services consultancy Beca is using Microsoft Azure to help earthquake-struck communities. Its cloud-based solution, Beacon System, notifies users of the likely impact on properties and organizations. By combining real time earthquake information with knowledge of their client’s assets, it calculates the likelihood of damage. This provides clients with immediate information to help them understand the impacts, make informed decisions, communicate with stakeholders and ultimately get back to business quicker. Beca is using Microsoft Azure Maps to cut analysis time from hours to seconds. Its previous Geospatial Imaging System (GIS) could not generate maps with the speed or scalability necessary for the solution. |
Here is a link to the story via The Technology Record : http://bit.ly/2XL21Xy Here is a video that tells the story of how Beca helps manage the impact of earthquakes with an Azure Maps based solution: http://bit.ly/34ffQfD |
Public Sector |
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Perceptual Informatics, is an environmental startup, that was recently awarded Microsoft’s AI for Earth Grant to further its research on the economic effects of climate change on the agriculture industry. Perceptual has selected Azure Maps as their Geospatial & Data Visualization platform and is doing some amazing work with it to identify the sustainability of short- and long-term agricultural investments and to determine costs and mitigate risks associated with climate change. Perceptual Informatics is available to help customers with solving their business challenges using Azure Maps and Geospatial Analytics. |
Here is a link to a small example of their work (they have plenty of additional models including volatility and risk models): Historical Corn Viewer
For the Smart City Expo, the team at Perceptual decided to build a Smart City Dashboard demo using two data sources: (1) satellite radar from the European Space Agency's Sentinel-1 system, and (2) observations from Barcelona's City Hall Open Data Service. They built the dashboard as a showcase for Barcelona City planners to explore various datasets overlaid on the city map. They use remote sensing data from satellite radar to show the depth of the tree canopy cover over the city as well as standing rainwater across the city. You can also compare demographics data, residential & non residential water hookups. They are using the Air Quality data across the city. You can access the demo here.
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Retail, Smart City, Agriculture |
I am currently collaborating with several other partners and will publish a more exhaustive list of partner solutions using Azure Maps. I would love to hear of any solutions that you are aware of that uses Azure Maps. Please respond in the comments or reach out to me via email.