The CloudTrigger team was delighted to learn that our work with Google Business Photos was picked to be highlighted at Dreamforce 2011. It’s a great honor to be selected from so many great submissions.!
With Google Business Photos (http://maps.google.com/businessphotos ), local business owners have a new way to promote their establishments, and potential customers can explore locations online and. These are pictures taken by Google-trusted photographer, who sets up an appointment to visit the business location at a convenient date and take exterior and interior shots. Included in the shots are 360-degree panoramic images, which are published to the business owners’ Place page. What’s very cool is users can view the imagery online to get a better sense of the business ambience and decide if it’s a place they’d like to visit in person.
Now think about the scale of Google Business Photos – the number of pictures that need to be taken and, as important, the number of photographers whose calendars need to be managed.
That’s where CloudTrigger and salesforce.com come into the picture. What Google needed was a simplified workflow for the mobile workforce servicing the local businesses’ requests for photos, as well as an enterprise-ready, scalable technology to track, analyze and report on in-field productivity. Working with CloudTrigger, the new solution included:
- Custom development by CloudTrigger on salesforce.com Sales Cloud allows office staff to record customer requests for photographer and schedule appointments for mobile field force photographers
- A custom Android application that allows mobile photographers to receive & update assignments from the field
- Appointment data that includes photo metadata; and
- A custom utility that integrates Picasa into the system to automate creation of the photo album.
Says Wendy Wang, program manager for Google Business Photos: ”We’ve enjoyed working with CloudTrigger to create a simple, easy and effective way to manage the trusted photographers who respond to local business owners’ requests to participate in our Google Business Photos program. Through the tools they’ve developed to organize requests, schedule appointments and track assignments, we’ve helped thousands of businesses reach more potential customers and share their business interiors online.”
You can view a Google video of the new program at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opB1nlkWw2c
