Helping Businesses Deliver Location Experiences Before, During, and After COVID-19

The impact of COVID-19, directly as a health crisis and indirectly as an economic crisis, are widespread, deep, and likely to alter the landscape of the world. As Bob Dylan so elegantly sang in 1963: “The times they are a-changin'.”

The situation is critical for many small businesses as lockdowns and stay-at-home orders loom larger. Two months of missing (or substantially reduced) revenues would force 17% of businesses to close, 30% of businesses to eliminate expenses or defer payments, and almost 50% of businesses to tap into owners' own money to stay afloat.¹ Not knowing what tomorrow brings means businesses must adjust to a drastically different world.

Stadia Maps began in 2016 because a small business couldn't deliver a map to its customers without unsustainable costs. As a result, we spent the last 4 years building a platform that allows businesses to maintain location-based services without the uncertainties of volatile bills, compromising customers' privacy, or curtailing the services offered. Today, our services are uniquely positioned to give your business a path forward with online maps and navigation—whether you are struggling to justify hundreds or thousands of dollars in monthly bills and looking for a more affordable option, or just seeking a solution that better fits your mission.

Location data is vital, but it needn’t be expensive.

Maps are vital in today's changing world—in quarantine now and in the future as companies adapt to the new landscape. In fact, for some industries, being able to effectively use location data is the difference between meeting increased demand or failing to deliver. In the world of logistics, delivering a package without ever seeing its path of travel on the map is unthinkable. Delivery companies, couriers services, and many others rely on being able to effectively plan for deliveries. Usually that means putting it all on a map and routing an assortment of trucks, bikes, and scooters so that people can get the necessary goods of daily life, from food and soap to books and exercise equipment.

We believe that because maps and navigation are critical to many businesses, they should be affordable. Increased (or decreased) demand shouldn't put your company in a place where you have to choose between effective location services and keeping the doors open.

Change is afoot.

Companies around the world are seeing fortunes made and lost because of COVID-19. One such company, Saisonbox, based in St. Gallen, Switzerland, is seeing business booming (link in German) as a result of COVID-19. Their vegetable delivery service and direct-from-farm store allows individuals to order fresh vegetables and fruits direct to their home. Unfortunately, other companies are experiencing seesawing demand and chaos that leads to instability and unexpected closure. Beaver Express, a trucking and logistics company in Oklahoma, closed last month after operating for 77 years. The “perfect storm” of COVID-19 was too much for this small business.

Today (and the Future)

Back to Dylan. He didn't stop by saying the times were changing; he went on to sing about the battle born of those changing times:

There’s a battle outside, and it is ragin'
It’ll soon shake your windows and rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin'

COVID-19 is shaking our windows and rattling our walls—as a world, as communities, as businesses, and as individuals. It's affecting our nerves. It's stressing us out. We're all fighting battles, big and small, to keep ourselves, our families, and our companies together during this time.

The world will get through this—of that there is no doubt—but it will see enormous change. Stadia Maps believes we can help businesses be a part of positive change by offering mapping solutions based on open data, respecting user privacy, and offering a more accessible and more affordable product.

We're here to help.

If your company is struggling with burdensome location data bills, or you are considering removing or hiding location features because they're too expensive to offer, take a look at Stadia Maps.

Free or Discounted Services

If you have a project that is directly used in efforts to combat COVID-19, we offer discounts of 50%–100% for these projects. For example: we're pleased to support the Coronastatus project , a tool to help track symptoms across countries. Just contact us if your project needs maps or navigation.

Be human, y'all.²

In the end, choosing the right mapping solution pales in comparison to the effects of this worldwide pandemic. While we are doing all we can to offer helpful location solutions for businesses, we believe that you and your actions—as fellow humans—are the true key to a better future, after the pandemic has passed. We grieve the impact of COVID-19 across the world: loss of employment, loss of company, and loss of life, and we urge you to do everything you can to be kind, be helpful, and be there for others during this time.

Stay well, and stay home. ✌

Notes:

1. These figures were reported by the Federal Reserve in a recent study of small businesses in the US.
2. For our friends not from the Southern US: “Y'all” is short for “you all” or “everyone.”