How Dronedesk assured trust and secured growth with GuardianUTM
Dorian Ellis, founder of Dronedesk, had a problem: he had built an all-in-one platform for commercial drone operators, but his customers were spotting gaps in his airspace data. When he took a closer look, he realised the data provided by the company he had partnered with wasn’t as accurate as he’d thought.
This left Dorian with a serious problem. If his customers couldn’t trust his platform’s airspace data, they might feel they couldn’t trust the rest of the platform, which could seriously damage his reputation, inhibit the company’s growth, and even endanger its future. Which is why he turned to Altitude Angel.
ABOUT DRONEDESK
After working as an engineer for a large communications company, Dorian was offered voluntary redundancy in 2018 as part of a wider cost-savings scheme. Sensing an opportunity for change, Dorian accepted. Foreseeing a rise in demand for drone operators, Dorian liked the idea of working outdoors for a change, and so he signed up for a commercial drone operator course. Which is where he spotted an opportunity:
“There was an awful lot of admin to wade through to plan even the simplest of flights. You’ve got all the risk assessments, all the checklists, the weather, the airspace, the NOTAMs and everything else you need to consider. It was taking two or three hours just sat in front of the computer to plan a job.” Dorian Ellis, Founder of Dronedesk.
So, with his engineering background, Dorian began to figure out a better way of doing things. Which is how Dronedesk was born.
Dorian designed Dronedesk to be an all-in-one platform for commercial drone operators. He’s made it easy for commercial drone operators to manage clients and assets, log flights, issue invoices, and much more, all in one place.
But, while Dorian had built up a significant user base, he had a problem: those users were beginning to spot holes in Dronedesk’s airspace data.
Using Dronedesk on a phone. (Dronedesk).
THE CHALLENGE
When Dorian had first begun building Dronedesk, he knew a huge part of planning a drone flight relied on airspace intelligence such as NOTAMs, No Fly Zones, and air and ground hazards. So he had partnered with a company to provide him with that data. Data which, unfortunately, turned out to be inaccurate. This posed a serious problem.
“The inconsistency was eroding trust in the application. And when you’re releasing a new application, it’s absolutely critical users have trust in the data they’re seeing, otherwise they just won’t use it.” Dorian Ellis, Founder of Dronedesk.
On top of losing customers’ trust, trying to figure out what was going wrong was taking up Dorian’s time; time which could be better spent improving the platform and growing the business.
“Each support call resulted in half a day of research, reviewing the data, trying to understand where the inconsistency was, why it was there, raising my own support ticket with the data supplier to see if they could figure out what’s going wrong.” Dorian Ellis, Founder of Dronedesk.
Dorian knew he needed a new, consistently accurate source of airspace intelligence for Dronedesk. Which is why he started talking to Altitude Angel.
HOW ALTITUDE ANGEL MADE IT EASY FOR DORIAN
Dorian was eager to integrate GuardianUTM into Dronedesk as quickly as possible, and Altitude Angel was eager to give Dorian back his peace of mind that Dronedesk was providing customers with accurate data.
Using Dronedesk on a laptop. (Dronedesk).
Altitude Angel offered Dorian a free trial of GuardianUTM so he could test the data and try out the integration, risk-free. Altitude Angel also provided him with its comprehensive guide which makes it easy to setup the integration, as well as offering him any support he needed to get everything up and running.
Not that he needed it.
“It couldn’t have been simpler to be honest. The team was happy to support, but I didn’t really need any because the documentation is so good.” Dorian Ellis, Founder of Dronedesk.
And the results spoke for themselves: no reports of data gaps. No inconsistencies. No cause to lose trust in the information being provided by Dronedesk.
In fact, Dorian didn’t have to field a single support call about airspace data for 12 months!
And the consistently accurate data did more than just restore Dorian’s peace of mind; it gave him a solid foundation on which to grow his business.
“DATA INTEGRITY WHICH LED TO GROWTH”
Dorian had originally planned to expand Dronedesk beyond the UK and into Europe first. But, when opportunity knocked, he jumped at the chance to expand into the US.
“We had an inquiry from a large franchise company in the US. They told us they’d come across our service, thought it looked great, and asked ‘Does it work for the US?’ So the question became, could we make Dronedesk work for the US?.” Dorian Ellis, Founder of Dronedesk.
Dorian had originally contracted Altitude Angel to provide him with UK airspace intelligence, but the team were excited to help him grow Dronedesk. So Dorian’s dedicated account manager worked with him to rework his contract and make sure he received the same consistently accurate data for the US which would help him make the most of this opportunity.
“Now Dronedesk is fit for the US market. We’ve got this large franchise business on board, which is brilliant. And core to this expansion is knowing that Altitude Angel can provide the consistent, accurate data we need.” Dorian Ellis, Founder of Dronedesk.
EASY SETUP, FOUNDATION FOR GROWTH
Dorian’s story was a simple one with simple needs: he needed accurate airspace data which was easy to integrate into his platform.
Which is exactly what he got with GuardianUTM from Altitude Angel.
“GuardianUTM from Altitude Angel helped drive the data integrity we needed to build trust and grow our business.” Dorian Ellis, Founder of Dronedesk.
Dorian is just one of many business owners who have used GuardianUTM to build trust in their platforms and grow their business. To find out how we can help you do the same, get in touch with a member of our team today.
Altitude Angel will have you up and flying in no time.
