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For Business
February 18, 2014

How HERE makes our working lives easier



Let’s face it: today more than ever, our work is about moving around… whether we’re going to meetings, conferences at home and abroad, business lunches, or field visits.

After all, those fabulous videoconferencing and remote meeting apps out there just can’t beat having a chat with someone face to face, and photos or videos don’t really come close to seeing something really happen.

Lucky, then, that HERE apps make getting to places – and getting to know those places – incredibly hassle-free. Just in case you haven’t yet gone all the way with HERE, we asked Pino Bonetti, Social Media Lead at HERE and the editor-in-chief of HERE Three Sixty, the official HERE blog, to list five ways in which these gems of navigation apps are indispensable for our mobile working lives. Check them out below, and follow Pino’s blog links for more information.

1. They cover HERE, there and everywhere

First of all, HERE Drive, HERE Transit and HERE Maps, which are preinstalled on all Nokia Lumia smartphones, are well and truly the best and most extensive navigation tools you can get on your mobile device. HERE has mapped almost 200 countries around the globe, and navigation is offered in 96 of those, leaving all competitors trailing behind. What’s more, over 2.7 million updates are made to the map every day. Wherever your rendez-vous takes place, it’s rather likely to be in HERE, too.

HERE makes our working lives easier

2. It helps you get to work, home and abroad

HERE Drive is more than just amazingly accurate turn-by-turn navigation. Its new MyCommute feature actually learns how you go to work, memorizing your driving preferences and suggesting alternative routes in case of accidents or congested traffic. How does it manage this? By pulling in real-time traffic data from a variety of places, including your fellow HERE Drive users. This makes us one big happy family of global commuters.

HERE-Drive-My-CommuteIf you’re relying on public transport, on the other hand, you’ll have HERE Transit help you find the best option for your route. Even if you’re in a foreign country or unfamiliar city (800+ cities in 50+ countries are covered!) with a totally different transport system to what you’re used to at home, the familiar, super simple UI will minimize the chances of where-am-I-panic. Certainly beats asking a stranger for help in sign language!

3. It’ll be there for you – always

Thanks to HERE offering the same excellent map experience offline and online, you don’t need to worry about being connected all the time. This is not only essential for when you travel abroad but also elsewhere with limited coverage, for example when travelling to a client on the metro or parking your car underground. Just download the maps when you’re in a WiFi zone, and you can access them anywhere, at any time.

To make things even easier, you can also list your favourite places into Collections and pin those to your device’s start screen for instant access. Lots of business trips to Barcelona? Make a collection of local restaurants, clients’ offices, preferred hotels and shops where you like to buy presents for your loved ones at home. Your collections are easy to sync with any other device and at the here.com website. How’s that for a business travel companion?


4. It puts things in perspective

Are you ready for some total mapping awesomeness? Then it’s time to mention LiveSight, the amazing augmented reality solution of HERE. An industry first, it checks out your surroundings through your smartphone’s display, and when you pan around you, it shows shops, restaurants and other places of interest as virtual signs placed on buildings. Wherever your business duties take you, LiveSight will be your eyes for the best places to go. And if that weren’t enough, it works without an internet connection, too. All we have to add is “wow”.

HERE LiveSight 2

5. It keeps you on the map indoors, too!

Ok, we’re not saying you’ll get lost when walking from your desk to the office canteen, but there are indoor venues which can be challenging to the most directions-savvy of us. We’re talking airports, conference halls, stadiums, anything large or unusually shaped enough to throw our inner compass of balance. And this is where Venue Maps comes in. HERE mapping teams ensure accurate data by physically visiting those buildings, getting lost for you so you don’t have to. Venue Maps is already helping find meeting rooms, VIP booths, restaurants and more in over 50 000 buildings. We’re pretty sure that translates into a lot less working hours spent wandering around!

Thanks, Pino! We’ve tried all of the above and can totally vouch that the HERE apps make our working days both easier and better. I personally can’t remember the last time I was late for a meeting, which is very impressive for me! What about you? How has HERE made you more productive, or happier, while working? Please share your thoughts in the comments below.