Google is putting its Maps app to work for businesses with a new initiative called Coordinate that helps you manage mobile workforces.
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The idea is that if you can visualize where your various employees are at any given time, you can better deploy them. In the video above, the example is given of an alternative power company that is grappling with a storm that damaged one of its wind turbines. Using Coordinate, the company's CEO is able to create and assign a new job, fixing the turbine.
Employees, in turn, can update the status of their jobs and watch for new assignments via a mobile app. There's also a check-in option so the workers can prove they actually arrived at the site. (The app also includes integration with Google Maps Indoors.)
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Google is launching the service on Sept. 1 at a price of $15 per user, per month, according to TechCrunch. Google doesn't provide pricing information on its site.
The introduction comes as IDC estimates that there will be more than 1.3 billion mobile workers by 2015 (37.2% of the total workforce.) For companies that have to dispatch workers -- like taxi services or restaurants that offer deliveries -- the appeal is obvious, though companies not willing to pay can probably reverse-engineer their own version of Coordinate.
What do you think? Are you in the market for a service like this? Let us know in the comments.
This story originally published on Mashable here.
