Thursday, 16 April 2015

Changing Game of Logistics – Drones and Drone Management Platforms


By Thejaswini J

Business enterprises of the present day are rapidly embracing the concept of drones as the most versatile tools, which can carry out a broad array of tasks. The businesses world over engaged in the field of logistics are anticipating the growing need to manage their operations such as product deliveries, warehouse management, stocking, transportation, distribution etc. in a much efficient manner. To speed up and automate the process, investing in drone fleets and drone management platforms seems to be a great approach! 

Impact of Drone Usage

Usage of drones by companies is likely to drastically increase in the upcoming years. The market worldwide runs in billions of dollars and positions drone management platforms to provide drone fleet management services to diverse businesses and organizations that intend to adopt drones. Drone delivery implementation will definitely impact the B2B as well as B2C segments. With time, when the idea is fully functional, concepts such as individual mailboxes being upgraded with dedicated codes can be introduced to facilitate new types of personalized drone deliveries.

What’s in it for Retailers?

Retail giants like Amazon and, tech majors like Google and Facebook have already invested millions of dollars in the drone technology. But, what seems to be the motivation behind these huge investments? Amazon intends to utilize drones to deliver its packages within a few hours of orders placed by customers. Facebook wishes to use drones to facilitate internet access across several remote areas of the globe! And, Google may plan to use drones to deliver its products ordered through their ‘Shopping Express’ online store, and also explore options to make internet accessible through its airborne sky balloons. Other leading logistics players such as FedEX, UPS and DHL are also experimenting with drones for delivery options.

However, there are law enforcements for drone usage. Law departments will themselves be purchasing drones for surveillance! So, here are drones serving exceptional and multifarious purposes. 


Drones and Data

If more and more companies start deploying innumerable drones for various purposes, they will require handling enormous quantum of data generated by these techno-equipment. Some of the data streams that need constant tracking include location data, battery status, delivery confirmation, engine condition, video streams, environmental data, functional aspects, and several other data that should be received by the control tower. This very same data shall in turn be used to update customers through emails, notifications, SMS, etc.

Drone Management Platforms

Top tech titans are investing in millions to build high-tech drone management platforms to manage and control each task executed by a drone, specifically in the commercial sector. Such platforms are designed to provide tools that can logically build complex drone applications and manage these applications as well as drones in real-time. With these platforms, multiple drones that operate in the air or even on water and land can be capably managed. The cloud-based technology enables drone platforms to even communicate with the cloud in order to execute workloads efficiently. Also, the platforms help manufacturers, logistics and transportation companies monitor the consignments of goods anywhere. This helps with cost reduction and increases customer satisfaction. Some of the popular drone management tools include DroneDeploy, Skycatch, fluttrbox, among several others.

To conclude, usage of drones and drone management platforms are comprehensive enterprise-grade solutions that can entirely regulate the activities associated with logistics. Expanding and refining the drone delivery service is becoming the goal of numerous logistics companies in order to ease their workflow systems. One thing is for sure that, implementing the use of drones for wide-ranging purposes is only going to get popular and demanding in the coming years; let’s just say it is becoming a reality of the future!

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