HERE Technologies focused on building partnerships to provide better services and experiences

“The world is changing and it's changing really fast. We're lucky enough to work in the middle of that,” says Deon Newman, APAC GM at HERE Technologies.

HERE Technologies recently announced that it has achieved ISO/IEC 42001 certification. The certification is the first international standard specifically designed to guide organizations in managing AI systems responsibly. It addresses critical areas such as bias mitigation, algorithmic transparency, human oversight and governance.

For HERE Technologies, the recognition marks a pivotal moment for the leading location data and technology platform, as it the first digital mapping and location technology company to meet the world’s most rigorous standard for Artificial Intelligence Management Systems (AIMS).

HERE Technologies, which has been around for four decades, has also established a strong presence in Asia Pacific. The company first entered China about 23 years ago, followed with operations in India, Australia, Japan, South Korea and other countries in Southeast Asia.

Today, HERE Technologies focuses all about digital mapping and location technology, an important area which a lot of companies, both locally and globally rely on, especially with the increasing sophistications in the supply chain and innovations in technology.

Deon Newman, APAC GM at HERE Technologies, shares more about their presence in the region and how they’re working with a range of clients in different industries. The interview was conducted prior to the certification announcement.

What are the current trends that HERE Technologies is witnessing in the APAC market?

This is the region in the world that is changing the experience of motorists for the first time in decades. It's the most exciting region in the world to work in the space we're in.

The technology, the bandwidth and the capabilities of software and real time connection have allowed this to be the most exciting industry in the world as well. The other thing we're finding with location technology is new businesses springing up all over the place. There are platform companies who are doing either rideshare, delivery, or last mile services like drop shipping and you're able to deliver anything, anytime, as soon as you want it.

Another trend that I'm seeing here is electrification is changing everything. While the rest of the worlds talk about great ideas, they never take off. On the other hand, Asia has embraced electrification. It's because of the electric buses. It's because of the electric trucks. It's because of the electrification of motorbikes, it's because the cars are all going electric.

For example, in India, any major city that you go to now, electrification is taking hold on the bikes and the cars. In China now, 50% of the cars are electric. In Vietnam now, there are thousands of bikes at every traffic light, just about to take off and half of those are electric.

The world is changing and it's changing really fast. We're lucky enough to work in the middle of that.

So how is HERE Technologies supporting these changes?

We had to adapt to the requirements of our customers and clients in this region. We started with a lot of content as we mapped the world. We have maps in 200 countries and territories around the world. So, we started a content base. We've been building on that content base with software that helps customers basically intelligently plan and optimize their routing or their end-to-end logistic planning and provide analytics around that.

The other thing which we've really focused on is trying to think about that end-user driver and the customer experience. And so, we build our software stacks and work with our partners to enhance those and build applications on top of that. That's how we've adapted.

Our foundational base is to have the content of the world mapped. And then, we've been building value on top of that, partnering with the best in the industry, whether that be an AWS, whether that be an Uber or whether that be a local platform provider across Asia. That's how we've adapted, and we've built around that.

We've also gone out and found the best data servers and people who have content that we don't have. So, for example, we've built the largest electric charge point database in the world that has one and a half million EV charge points that we have and serve up. Again, that's differentiated, but it's also very valuable to all the partners that we work with in providing content that they need to serve their clients as well.

What are the main challenges HERE Technologies is facing in the industry?

I think the biggest challenge is to move as fast as the marketplace, especially with the changes going on in transport and logistics. This includes the advancements in fleet management, you know, as they move from a completely paper-based industry to being completely digital and sort of serving them fast enough.

And so, for us, finding new partners, who have regional awareness, who can design for the peculiarities of a particular location, because although roads are point to point, there are peculiarities in every country that you have to take into account.

For us, things are developing fast. The advent of autonomous driving as a vision, assisted driving, safety requirements as technology sort of advances, and staying up front with that and partnering with the 70 major automakers that we work with around the world. That's sort of the challenge. It's moving as fast as technology is driving us.

Our customers want to improve performance, they want to reduce costs, and they want to provide innovation and experience.

Who would you say are your biggest competitors in this region right now?

There are local providers in all markets. There's Vietmap in Vietnam, and there's MapMyIndia in India and Grab have done an incredible job building a rideshare and delivery business in Southeast Asia.

Underneath that, they have a great content engine with cars on the road. We see those as partners or potential partners or partners as they’re a source of content. We just made an announcement in India recently with Genesys around some of the high-definition content they bring in is needed for road safety, for example.

So, we're looking at regional players all around the region and looking at ways of how can partner? How can we extend? At the end of the day, we build maps for 200 countries and territories. And so, from our point of view, we want to provide scale for our customers. We want to provide a global capability.

So, if there's somebody who's doing it better in a region, we would prefer to partner with them versus view them as competition.