How Ovum ranks location-based services

With the development of the autonomous car driving innovation in a number of sectors, the need for cutting-edge location-based services and platforms is growing more pronounced. As a result of this increasing demand, analyst firm Ovum has been carrying out a semi-annual survey of these tools, named the Location Platform Index. HERE came out on top for completeness and received an overall score of 7.73

We spoke with Neha Dharia, senior analyst at Ovum, who tells us more about the survey, and why Ovum has turned its attentions to location-based services:

“What we saw before launching the mapping and location scorecard is that location is becoming a component of every service, whether it’s advertising or the smart car. As a result, we saw that location was increasingly in-demand, so the scorecard was created to show our readers what services are available from which vendors.”

“With the index we have tried to provide information on the different types of navigation services, how each vendor provides them, and which of these is best suited to our readers’ requirements.”

Rating the competition

This year the Location Platform Index, which ranks the top 16 location platform vendors in mapping and navigation, awarded HERE the top spot in completeness and an overall score of 7.73. Neha explains how companies are rated, and what the scoring means:

“When addressing these services, we split our ranking model into two parts: the platform itself and how complete it is, including the APIs and the various features, and how many end-users it actually reaches. The reason for splitting these is because not all of our clients are looking for the platform with the highest reach, just the one that’s the best suited for them.”

Next, Ovum speaks to a range of vendors and asks them to fill out a questionnaire, covering a whole range of different topics, including the KPIs each vendor has and the number of developers on their program.

Neha adds, “Once we get all the data, we plug it into a model, and see how they rank in each of the top categories, and then combine analysis to create the list.”

The list is then presented as a graphical overview of the players in the location platform industry.

Changing times

With the technology that drives location-based services constantly evolving and growing more sophisticated, Ovum is having to adapt and change its model of evaluation. Neha tells us more:

“We’ve been carrying out the survey for over two years now, and we’ve already had to readjust the model, because a lot of players are now reaching a huge number of users, but have few location services. With this in mind, we had to tweak the process to balance out how we evaluate completeness vs. reach.”

The future of the survey looks similarly susceptible to change. Neha adds:

“Our next iteration will change and focus more on the automotive sector and smart cities, and the gamut of location-based demands these require. We also get a huge amount of feedback from clients and readers, which also needs to be taken into account.”

“Something major changes every six months in this industry, so we have to adapt.”

Would you like to take the HERE location platform for a spin? You can do so for free at https://developer.here.com/plans/api/consumer-mapping