Providing a new, cutting-edge IoT tracking service for mapping & location data management based on LoRaWAN networks
HERE Technologies and Actility now offer a one-stop-shop solution for industrial asset management on LoRaWAN networks.
On large industrial, warehousing sites, items can get lost or stolen. Furthermore, in cases where inventories rely on manual input, assets aren’t always stored efficiently. Finding an asset in a warehouse and optimizing stock is difficult enough; tracking it across the world is another matter entirely. These are challenges that HERE Tracking and ThingPark – the Actility IoT network management platform can address, offering an end-to-end, customizable solution to track assets and optimize the supply chain of any industrial facility. The focus of this solution is on critical assets for customers’ operations such as Returnable Shipping Assets (RSAs) or Returnable Industrial Packaging (RIPs) including racks, pallets, crates, tubs, bins, containers, forklifts, industrial tools and heavy mobile machinery.
The HERE Tracking asset management solution is based on LoRaWAN, a low power, wireless protocol for wide area networks. With LoRaWAN, devices can communicate with IoT applications over long-range wireless connections. It also allows for devices’ batteries to last longer, thus significantly lowering the Total Cost of Ownership. Actility already powers more than 50 telecoms operators with LoRaWan connectivity across the globe. Its enterprise-grade LoRaWAN network server, ThingPark Enterprise, operates over 35000 network base stations worldwide. This partnership also benefits from its Abeeway tracking devices that work both indoors and outdoors via a multi-technology geolocation system, which integrates GPS, Abeeway’s patented low-power GPS, WiFi Sniffing and Bluetooth Low Energy.
HERE Tracking takes Abeeway trackers’ indoor positioning capabilities one step further with HERE Venue Maps and the HERE radio mapping application. HERE Venue Maps can be used to map the inside and outside of any industrial facility accurately, be it a warehouse or a factory. The HERE Indoor Radio Mapper application allows for the development of a custom radio map of any given site for both Wi-Fi and BLE technologies. With HERE Tracking, assets can not only be tracked on public roads, railway tracks or ships globally but also on warehouse floors and within private yards with improved accuracy.
HERE Professional Services can customize any tracking solution to fulfill the requirements of a specific client, product or industry including the development of tailored applications. HERE Tracking can be connected to ERPs and Transport Management Systems to enable extended features and custom business dashboards can be created to deliver adequate Key Performance Indicators. As a result, users get a comprehensive framework from which to build their asset tracking and management applications. With Actility enabling multi-country geolocation solutions with its LoRaWAN roaming hub and HERE transforming location information into actionable business insights, the management of industrial assets has never been easier.
“With HERE Tracking as a foundation, we can now offer our customers one single interface to manage all their devices. This will dramatically improve their Life Cycle Management as all costs related to lost item replacement or search for misplaced items are now becoming obsolete. Together, HERE and Actility are offering indoor and outdoor asset tracking, seamlessly,” said Olivier Hersent, CEO of Actility.
“In teaming up with Actility, we have found a trusted partner with whom we can offer a full end-to-end tracking solution that can also be customized to fit specific customers’ needs. We are proud to be offering this solution with a leader in the LoRaWAN space and look forward to helping customers gain enhanced visibility of their supply chains,” said Ajatshatru Kotwal, Director for Product Management at HERE Technologies.
