GPS World

Tag: Pitney Bowes

  • deCarta Powers POI Search for Major Mobile Handset Maker

    Advanced Search Engine Replaces Google Local Search in 122 Countries

    deCarta, Inc., an independent LBS platform company, is now providing the local search function for a worldwide, top-five mobile handset manufacturer. deCarta has been hosting and running the search service since August 7 using its advanced geosearch engine — L2 — and has replaced the search service previously provided by Google. The service delivers millions of responses per day to this handset manufacturer’s local search and mapping application to users in 122 countries.

    deCarta’s L2 is a high-performance, scalable local search engine with single line input and intuitive user interface. deCarta sources and indexes map and POI (points of interest) content from a wide variety of sources globally but also enables customers to easily index, control and search on their own content. The customer service announced utilizes TomTom map and POI content.

    deCarta’s L2 can be used as a pure geocoder for address search, or for POI search, or simultaneously as a combination of the two mixed in a single-line search query — with the additional ability to tune this behavior at runtime. This gives developers maximum flexibility and creativity in producing their applications. deCarta recently expanded country coverage to enable its customers to offer global services.

    The L2 Search engine is an integral component of deCarta’s LBS platform which provides specialized geospatial technologies for maps, routing, navigation, geocoding, local search and geo-data integration and processing. deCarta provides its white-label LBS platform to companies that wish to offer their own customized, branded LBS services as opposed to utilizing industry standard services such as Bing or Google.

    deCarta has two deployment options for its platform: a hosted LBS Platform Service (PaaS) or, alternatively, customers can self-host either on-premise or in a cloud service such as Amazon’s AWS.  Both approaches utilize deCarta’s REST API architecture and can scale to support billions of maps and searches and millions of users per month.

    “We are quite happy with the market reaction to L2 since its introduction last year,” said J. Kim Fennell, CEO of deCarta. “We’re seeing large mobile, telematics and automotive customers switch to L2 in competition against other local search engines and geocoders such as Google, Bing, Nokia/Here and Pitney Bowes. Customers appreciate L2’s technology advantages, customization capabilities, flexible content offerings, less restrictive license terms and our superior customer service — all of which creates a more satisfied end customer experience.”

    L2 enables deCarta’s customers to offer flexible, advanced local search capabilities that are on par with Google Maps but beyond other search engines. Examples include:

    • Single line entry of POI or address or both
    • Fast typeahead, predictive entry – ideal for mobile devices
    • High tolerance for misspellings and partial entries
    • Random ordering of address parameters
    • Search for a POI near a POI such as “ATMs near AMC Theater” or “Parking near SFO”
    • Search for POI near a specific address, i.e. “Parking near 1234 Main Street”

    Furthermore, L2 can be integrated with deCarta’s patented “Search Along A Route” technology. This combined with the ability to index custom content and boost result rankings gives automotive OEMs and service providers the ability to offer more advanced and helpful “driver-centric” connected car services.

    For more information visit www.decarta.com or go to the demo at http://labs.decarta.com. Developers can find technical details at http://developer.decarta.com.

  • Pitney Bowes, INRIX Join on Location Intelligence for Traffic

    Pitney Bowes Inc. has entered into a multi-year partnership with INRIX, Inc., provider of traffic information and driver services, to deliver advanced location intelligence solutions through the company’s traffic intelligence platform.

    By integrating location capabilities with traffic analysis, INRIX and Pitney Bowes will enhance the driving experience of today’s connected drivers, the companies said. By delivering this information through INRIX’s mobile app, users are empowered to make better location-based decisions in real-time.

    “Pitney Bowes’ location intelligence solutions can add compelling new capabilities to the existing products of mobile-oriented companies such as INRIX,” said James Buckley, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Location Intelligence, Pitney Bowes. “Our products help unearth non-obvious relationships between specific locations to improve the customer experience and drive loyalty.”

    INRIX has designed a leading traffic intelligence platform that uses smart data and advanced analytics to solve transportation issues worldwide. The company uses a unique approach called “smart crowd-sourcing” that analyzes real-time traffic speed and incident data from a wide variety of public and private traffic sources ranging from road sensors and up-to-the-minute traffic speeds and community reports crowd-sourced from millions of vehicles and mobile devices throughout the day. Whether through an in-car or smartphone navigation application, a local newscast or the company’s INRIX Traffic app, INRIX offers up-to-the-minute traffic information and other driver services to help more than 150 million drivers save time, fuel and money.

    Pitney Bowes Location Intelligence solutions merge organizational data with location data to provide users with the capability to make more informed decisions. For INRIX, this technology compiles and correlates addresses with coordinates from a mobile device to establish real-time location or a desired destination. Combining that with other data such as specific traffic flow, demographics and behavior patterns, users can uncover key points of interest by accessing Pitney Bowes advanced location search. For example, if a consumer is planning to visit a popular department store in a specific region, the technology makes it possible to suggest a relevant restaurant recommendation for lunch, based on the data that is collected about user preferences, convenience, proximity and projected traffic patterns.

    “INRIX had a number of compelling reasons to partner with Pitney Bowes,” said Scott Sedlik, Vice President, Product Planning and Market Development for INRIX. “Our customers are looking to make real-time decisions using location data, and Pitney Bowes has the most comprehensive suite of offerings to fulfill that need. Other key reasons for teaming include a strong customer focus and alignment with our own strategic goals and approach.”

  • Pitney Bowes, IBM Collaborate on Hybrid Cloud Location Services

    Pitney Bowes, Inc., and IBM have announced a collaboration on IBM’s codename “BlueMix” platform-as-a-service to develop new hybrid cloud location services that help businesses unearth deeper connections between their customers, their geography, and their networks to deliver more personalized services and contextually relevant experiences.

    IBM’s BlueMix is a new development environment that helps clients and developers speed the adoption of hybrid clouds. The initiative combines the strength of IBM software, third-party and open technologies. BlueMix provides DevOps in the cloud — an open, integrated development experience that scales to any level. Pitney Bowes is among the first third-party solutions now available to developers and companies on the new IBM BlueMix Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS).

    More than 1.2 billion people around the world today use Pitney Bowes location intelligence solutions when they check in or use location-sharing features on major social media platforms. Pitney Bowes’ location intelligence suite of products offers comprehensive capabilities to provide businesses with the ability to visualize spatial data and understand relationships between specific locations. Using advanced, hyper-accurate location data, insurers can improve underwriting decisions, telecommunications providers can better analyze network coverage, and retailers can deliver more targeted promotions to consumers based on when and where they are most likely to buy.

    For Pitney Bowes, the partnership provides the opportunity to expose key solutions, such as location-based services, e-commerce fulfillment, Internet postage, and parcel management, through IBM’s API Management to an extended ecosystem of innovators and developers. It also speeds the availability of new services from Pitney Bowes to vast new markets globally.

    “Together, IBM and Pitney Bowes are developing a powerful lineup of cloud services around mobile application development and location intelligence,” said Steve Robinson, General Manager, IBM Cloud Platform Services. “This open-platform collaboration will inspire development that accelerates innovation and fosters growth.”

    “Companies need tools and expertise to manage and integrate APIs, leverage location intelligence and customer data, and then seamlessly extend their services to reach their customers via the cloud and mobile devices,” said Roger Pilc, chief innovation officer for Pitney Bowes. “We look forward to delivering Pitney Bowes digital commerce solutions on IBM’s BlueMix.”