The Global Positioning System (GPS) provides satellite tracking services that are useful in a wide range of commercial and personal applications. Using GPS in business can carry distinct benefits leading to competitive advantages, although not every business type can benefit in the same ways. Understanding how GPS can enhance your services or business model is the key to determining whether this advanced technology can take your small business to the next level.
Efficiency
Taking the time to ask for directions or attempting to find your way back to your preplanned route after getting lost on the road can waste precious time, which can translate directly into lost revenue. Missing sales meetings and other crucial appointments can make or break a small business courting its first customers. Using GPS can prevent you from getting lost on unfamiliar streets, showing you the quickest route to get to your destination. This can be a life saver for business owners traveling to unfamiliar cities or meeting with potential strategic partners, suppliers or customers in foreign countries
Control
Using GPS provides an unprecedented level of control over mobile units from a centralized location. Trucking companies and other delivery services can view the locations of all trucks in their fleet from a central dispatch location in real time. Businesses providing company vehicles for salespeople and other employees to use during work hours can track where the vehicles go throughout the day, ensuring that employees in the field remain focused and do not take advantage of company assets.
Planning
GPS is useful for planning routes before making a trip. Mobile or traveling employees and entrepreneurs can type in a route and review the various turns and distances involved before striking out on their trip. This can allow you to feel more at ease when traveling, knowing what to expect even before your GPS device signals an upcoming turn.
Services
Companies in a wide range of industries can use GPS to enhance their current suite of services or develop new and innovative ones to solve customers' needs. Web-based coupon-distribution companies can use GPS to provide customers with coupons for businesses in close proximity to their location at any time. The same principle can apply to identifying nearby events or specific product/service categories. Delivery companies can use GPS to quickly and accurately give estimated arrival times to customers.