The Search for
Mobility Excellence

How business leaders use geospatial
technology to enable mobility capabilities

Introduction
As geospatial services have matured, getting people, goods, and services
from one point to another—our basic definition of mobility–has consistently
improved. Intuitively, we know this to be true; satellites and global positioning
technologies can communicate faster and more reliably than ever before, andtwo-day shipping, for example, has become the norm. But many have struggled
to quantify the value that implementing these services can bring to a business.
Research conducted by Oxford Economics
and Google Maps Platform sheds light on thistopic. Using primary data collected from a
global survey of 1,000 business executives
across industries shows that using geospatialservices in mobility-centric ways can yieldsignificant financial results and efficiency
gains. At companies where core operations
and services involve the movement of people
or goods, integrating geospatial services into
internal operations or external customerfacing experiences yields reduced operating
costs, better progress toward sustainability
goals, and improved customer satisfaction.

We also identified a select group ofrespondents who are seeing greaterbusiness benefits from their geospatialservice use. These executives—we call them
Geospatial Leaders—report seeing at least
four business benefits (out of a possible
seven). As we explored the behaviors of theseexecutives, we uncovered a pattern thatproves these extended benefits are not a fluke.
These benefits correlate with use of mobilityfocused applications across the business—and they provide a strong blueprint for how
others in search of mobility excellence canachieve their goals.

The Search for Mobility Excellence | 2

Setting the stage: Improving
mobility is a priority
Moving people or goods is mandatory for the operations of many companies.
This is true whether the core business model requires pickups or deliveries, or
if it is just one component of operations. Boosting mobility operations thencan come in a variety of forms. Executives in our survey prioritize increasing
the quality of products and services (54%), making internal operations
more efficient (such as transportation of goods and delivery of products
and services, 52%), or making it easier for a customer to access what theyneed in the physical world (42%).
Over the past three years, organizations haveturned to geospatial technologies to improve howmobility solutions are applied in both customerfacing interactions and internal operations. Over
half (55%) invested in geospatial technologies in
the hope of creating new customer experiences,and 50% invested in geospatial technologies toimprove internal operations.
But while geospatial investments are underway, progress is uneven and organizations

vary in their maturity. Less than one-fourth
describe their current implementation as“heavy” or have a holistic strategy in place
for geospatial uses in their customer-facing
operations (22%), and just 7% have that levelof implementation in their internal operations.
Most organizations are still in the “someimplementation with early benefits” phase,with 58% for internal operations and 57% forcustomer-facing operations.

The Search for Mobility Excellence | 3

Specific mobility use cases
Mobility can have many meanings, depending on the organization. For the purposes of our survey, we identified five use
cases that aim geospatial services at business areas focused on mobility. These include the actual movement of people
or products from one place to another (middle-mile deliveries, last-mile deliveries, on-demand deliveries or rides) andbehind-the-scenes monitoring and logistics responsibilities associated with mobility (offering efficient routes for people
and/or goods, enabling dynamic asset tracking).

Fig. 1: Geospatial services support mobility
Q. How are you using geospatial services within your organization? | Select all that apply.
Communicating information to increase customer engagement

Helping customers recognize and understand their transactions

54%Providing localized information to help users understand what’s nearby a placeso they can make easier decisions about where to shop, visit, or live

44%
Making last-mile deliveries

40%
Offering efficient routes for people and/or goods

40%
Helping customers find and visit the nearest store, ATM, restaurant,
auto shop, or medical office, or other location/service

40%
Using geospatial data to help make decisions and improve operational efficiencies

38%
Making middle-mile deliveries

35%
Simplifying address entry to help users when searching, signing up, or checking out

33%
Creating immersive experiences

29%
Enabling dynamic asset tracking

29%Powering on-demand rides and/or deliveries

22%

39%

The Search for Mobility Excellence | 4Not all industries will use geospatial services
to improve mobility, as the type of work anorganization carries out may not demand
it. We do see, however, that sectoral trends
may reveal why specific use cases are morecommon in some industries than others.

Agriculture organizations (57%), manufacturing firms (55%), and administrative/
support/waste management/remediation companies (55%) rely on moving goods
efficiently to avoid spoilage, deadlines, or even radioactive decay. It makes sense, then,that they are more likely to use geospatial services to offer efficient routes for people
and/or goods than companies from other industries (vs. 36% all other industries).

Delivering a product to its final location is not every organization’s
main business. However, geospatial services are used more
frequently to make last-mile deliveries by transportation andwarehousing firms (68%) and accommodation and food services
organizations (56%, vs. 32% all others).

While few organizations in our survey use geospatial services to power
on-demand rides and/or deliveries, some respondents are using it
more heavily. For example, we see that transportation and warehousingorganizations (48%) and manufacturing firms (43%) are more likely thanmost to use geospatial services in this way (vs. just 18% all others).

While efficiency of routes as a whole is key, some industries are more
highly focused on moving products to a partner in the middle of the supply
chain. Making these middle-mile deliveries are a key geospatial service
use case for wholesale and retail trade (50%), transportation andwarehousing (49%), and agriculture (47%, vs. 31% other organizations).

Using geospatial services to enable dynamic asset tracking ismore commonly seen among real estate, rental, and leasing
firms (40%), administrative/support/waste management/
remediation companies (40%), and non-profit organizations(40%, vs. 26% all others).

The Search for Mobility Excellence | 5

The value of geospatial services is noticeable, but one size does not fit all—that is, the value generated by each use case may vary depending on industry.

Regardless of industry, those who haveapplied geospatial services to drive
middle-mile deliveries are more likely
to say these investments resulted ingreater visibility into operations (62%vs. 51% survey average). However,when looking specifically at agriculturecompanies and wholesale/retail tradeorganizations—each of which areusing the middle-mile use case more
frequently than other industries—wefind that their investments instead have
improved operational efficiency(57%, 56% respectively, vs. 48%
survey average).

Organizations that operate in theadministrative/support/waste
management/remediation sector
and manufacturing companies
have both heavily invested increating more efficient routes
for people and/or goods—andrespondents from these industries
claim that their investments havegotten them greater visibility
into their operations (63%, 58%,vs. 49% all others).

Real estate, rental, and leasing
firms and administrative/
support/waste management/
remediation companies eachuse geospatial services to enable
dynamic asset tracking more
frequently than other industries(total) and are more likely
than others to see improved
customer acquisition rates (61%,60% respectively, vs. 49% total).
Those with this use case in place
today, on average, are more likely
to realize reduced operating costs(39% vs. 32% survey average).

The Search for Mobility Excellence | 6

Boosts along the supply chain
Certain use cases may yield specific results based on business needs, but
companies see the overall value of geospatial services on mobility regardlessof these qualifiers. These services improve the many interactions with external
partners that support organizations as they move products and services—interactions that are critical to success.
Executives appear aware of these benefits
and are responding accordingly: Most(85%) say they use geospatial services
moderately or significantly in integration
with business partners.
While our survey cannot draw a causal
relationship between geospatial service
investment and business performance, it does
capture the extent to which business leaders
attribute their success to it. With this in mind,
geospatial services are certainly adding value
to supply chain interactions: one out of five
respondents estimate that geospatial services
positively influenced supply chain optimization
by at least 20%—and when reducing thisestimate of influence to 15%, the number ofrespondents who agree more than doubles(45% say this).

Where external partners are involved,
monitoring and tracking information naturally
comes into play. Organizations are better
able to deliver information to partners
along the supply chain when they know
where people and products are, and over
two-thirds of respondents (67%) say theyuse geospatial services to track deliveries
to at least a moderate extent. This not only
provides transparency to customers, butalso yields useful data on how goods get tothe customer. Access to this data may havean impact on operations; respondents canincrease their business when they know what
capacity is available—and about two in five(42%) say their geospatial service applications
have directly helped increase productive
capacity by at least 15%.

The Search for Mobility Excellence | 7

SIDEBAR:

Leaders see greater benefits fromgeospatial efforts
We identified a select group of respondents
who get more value from their geospatial
investments. To qualify as a GeospatialLeader, executives must report seeing
at least four of the following sevenbusiness benefits:Greater visibility into operations

Greater visibility into customer behaviors

Reduced operating costs

Improved operational efficiency

Increased customer acquisition

Increased customer retention

Increased rate of repeat business.

Leaders draft a clear blueprint for achieving
these benefits. For example, they are
significantly more focused on improving

operational efficiency than their peers (72%,vs. 50% of others) and are more likely tohave fully deployed business initiatives that
increase speed to market (54% vs. 24%) or
improve customer and user experiences(40% vs. 17%).
Leaders are slightly more likely to haveinvested in geospatial technologies thatcreate new customer experiences (60%, vs.
54% of others) or that boost delivery andpick-up capabilities (48% vs. 39%). They
specifically use geospatial services to power
on-demand rides and/or deliveries (76%)
but are also more likely than non-Leaders to
use it in ways that offer efficient routes forpeople and/or goods (66% vs. 59%) or tomake middle-mile deliveries (47% vs. 34%).

The Search for Mobility Excellence | 8SIDEBAR: LEADERS SEE GREATER BENEFITS FROM GEOSPATIAL EFFORTS(continued)

Non-Leader

Fuel

-4.4%

-2.7%

-14.2%-9.0%-14.2%

Labor hours
per transaction-11.2%

Labor hours
per delivery-12.7%

Customer
service-18.9%

Fleet size

-13.5%

Leaders also are more likely to see asignificant reduction in operating costs insome critical areas of mobility—and while
they do not see reduced costs in all businessareas, even small changes can add up tolarge financial advantages.

Leader

-15.4%As a result of their geospatial service
implementation, Leaders see moresignificant results than non-Leaders. They
estimate that, as a percentage, the influencegeospatial services has on key metrics ishigher than others—including transactions
per year (15.1% vs. 11.2%), new business
opportunities (15% vs. 11.4%), and customer
retention (15.0% vs. 12.6%).

In the three years after your organization made its first investments
Q. in geospatial services, what decrease in operating costs did yourealize in each of the following areas?

The Search for Mobility Excellence | 9Conclusion
Innovators will find new ways to implement technologies that help move and track products and services along thevalue chain. Executives will have to keep their eyes open for these opportunities and adopt them quickly to stay aheadof competitors—but there is enough room for improvement today for them to work on. Decision-makers must takea deeper look at the way the business operates, where and why goods and services move from one place to another,and how enhanced visibility into mobility performance through geospatial capabilities can improve how work gets done.

To catch up to Geospatial Leaders, executives should consider the following actions:Keep mobility in mind. For organizations that depend on moving goods and people,
the power of geospatial capabilities must make movement easier. Whether thatmeans transporting a customer via train, plane, automobile, or bike—or moving a
product to various locations before reaching its final destination—will depend on thecompany. But wherever resources are moved, geospatial technologies can help.

Reassess potential use cases. Geospatial services don’t belong in every single areaof your business, but it is likely that untapped opportunities exist. Look at how theorganization operates internally and with vendors and partners across the supply
chain; examine what your customers need and how you deliver it.

Develop metrics to monitor success. Implementing geospatial technologies will
improve operations and customer satisfaction, but timely and accurate insightsfrom data collection must be the driving force behind follow-up actions. Use thisinformation to adjust how employees interact with vendors, customers, and eachother to maximize efficiency.

To find out how geospatial services
are impacting businesses like yours,
view our Impact Calculator.

The Search for Mobility Excellence | 10

About the research
Google Maps Platform and Oxford Economics partnered to survey 1,000 executives
at organizations of varying sizes across countries and industries. The respondentbase is represented by organizations from eight countries, and all had at least $10m in
annual revenue.
For the purposes of this research, we grouped respondents into 14 industry clusters,
including accommodation and food services; real estate and rental and leasing;administrative and support and waste management and remediation services;finance and insurance; transportation and warehousing; wholesale and retail trade;manufacturing; arts, entertainment, and recreation; agriculture; professional, scientific,and technical services; non-profit; media and entertainment; telecommunications; andsoftware and internet.

UnitedKingdom
15%

Japan
15%

150 respondents

Company size
12%

$10m–$49m

13%$50m–$99m

16%$100m–$499m

9%$500m–$999m25%$1b–$10b25%

More than $10b

150 respondents

France10%Singapore10%

100 respondents

100 respondents

United States
15%

Indonesia
10%

150 respondents

Germany
15%

India
10%

150 respondents

100 respondents

100 respondents

Results are not intended to be representative of Google Maps Platform customer results.

About Oxford Economics

About Google Maps Platform

Oxford Economics is the world’s foremost independent economic advisory firm.
Covering over 200 countries, over 100 industrial sectors and 8,000 cities andregion, we provide insights and solutions that enable clients to make intelligent
and responsible business decisions faster in an increasingly complex anduncertain world. For more information, visit https://www.oxfordeconomics.com.

Google Maps Platform helps organizations and developers create better
experiences and improve operations through detailed geospatial data for morethan 250 countries and territories. Our rich mapping products and solutions help
everyone build with the familiar Google Maps interface used by more than a billion
users every month. For more information, visit https://mapsplatform.google.com.

The Search for Mobility Excellence
Copyright 2023 - Oxford Economics and Google Maps Platform. All rights reserved.

Published February 2023