Cloud-based resources will enable developers to build, deploy and manage advanced self-service web and mobile applications
STAMFORD, Conn.–Pitney Bowes Inc. (NYSE:PBI), a global technology company that provides innovative products and solutions to power commerce, today announced a developer environment that provides resources to develop, deploy and manage the creation of new applications based on its location intelligence technologies. This is the first time Pitney Bowes is making available a collection of location-based information, communications and commerce services to be accessed via open Application Program Interfaces (APIs).
“The whole world is embracing digital, self-service models, and we understand the importance of this, especially as it ties back to serving client needs”
This self-service portal is hosted on the Pitney Bowes Commerce Cloud, a commerce enabler, providing access to solutions, analytics and APIs across the full commerce continuum with speed and agility to help clients identify customers, locate opportunities, enable communications, power shipping from anywhere to everywhere, and manage payments. The portal is designed to encourage both commercial and corporate developers, as well as customers, to enrich their mobile and web applications with Pitney Bowes’ technologies. The announcement was made earlier today in New York City at the Le Parker Meridien Hotel.
“The whole world is embracing digital, self-service models, and we understand the importance of this, especially as it ties back to serving client needs,” said Bob Guidotti, Executive Vice President and President, Software Solutions at Pitney Bowes. “This portal delivers a simple and direct line to some of our most impactful technologies– and opens doors for developers to enhance the functionality and business value of new software applications.”
FABRIQ, a Boulder Colorado-based company has used Location Intelligence APIs from Pitney Bowes to enhance and augment their safety-as-a-service platform. FABRIQ empowers developers to build meaningful safety features into popular apps and wearables that people already use. The company leveraged the Geo911 API to enable a person’s safety contact, who might be in a different city or state from the person in danger, to be quickly connected to the person’s closest 911 call center.
“For a long time, we were looking for a way to enrich our safety-as-a-service platform with rich location capabilities, and were considering, at one point, to build out these capabilities on our own,” said Sharif Alexandre, CEO, at FABRIQ. “Instead, we came across the GEO911 APIs in Pitney Bowes’ developer portal and successfully shaved our time-to-market from months to weeks. We were able to integrate Pitney Bowes’ APIs easily into our platform, and if at any time we had to troubleshoot any problems, we knew that we could revisit the documentation and resources on the portal. We appreciated the simplicity, speed and ease of this process.”
The developer hub hosts five unique location intelligence-based APIs that provide powerful capabilities for developers to integrate extensive geographical data (address, demographic and location-based information) into everyday applications, business processes, and workflows.
- GeoEnhance – The GeoEnhance API returns addresses, business listings, points-of-interest, and time zones with the input of location coordinates. Virtually any application can be enrichened with geo-tagged location data.
- GeoLife – The GeoLife API delivers population insight. It returns household demographics and lifestyle characteristics with the input of an address or location coordinates. Data analysts and software developers may find this API interesting to build more personalized mobile apps and services.
- GeoSearch – The GeoSearch API performs search to retrieve a list of places near the input text/location vicinity. It will allow developers to add local search into their apps and websites.
- Geo911 – The Geo911 API integrates administrative call routing info into 911 processes and workflows. It retrieves 10-digit phone numbers and local contact info with the input of a location coordinate. This information is particularly useful for 911 administrators, planners, and auditors.
- GeoTax – The GeoTax API calculates local tax rates based on the input of a location coordinate or address. It can integrate the tax rate with other billing, commerce, payments, and payroll applications.
About Pitney Bowes
Pitney Bowes (NYSE:PBI) is a global technology company offering innovative products and solutions that enable commerce in the areas of customer information management, location intelligence, customer engagement, shipping and mailing, and global ecommerce. More than 1.5 million clients in approximately 100 countries around the world rely on products, solutions and services from Pitney Bowes. For additional information, visit Pitney Bowes at www.pitneybowes.com.