The New Way of Location Insight with MAPID

Bagus Imam Darmawan, CEO and Founder of MAPID tells us about cloud computing platforms.

First of all, how are you and your family doing in these COVID-19 times? 

Bagus Imam Darmawan: All of us must be affected by the presence of COVID-19. We all need to adjust to the new normal situation that perhaps we have never imagined before. That includes my family and I. We are also adjusting like everyone else. I can say that we are doing well.

Tell us about you, your career, and how you founded MAPID.

Bagus Imam Darmawan: I started my career as a mapping consultant after completing my Geoinformatics study at Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences. After that, I distributed technology for mapping. I had been doing my job for quite some time until I realized that it was really difficult to gather the important data I needed, such as geospatial data, upon doing my job. It was all unorganized and scattered. That was when I started to build this company with a goal to solve this problem.

We came up with the idea to make everyone understand more about geospatial data and the importance of sustainably integrated data. Simply put, it’s the location insight for everyone. We provide solutions for those who do not possess a Spatial Engineering background to use MAPID. If you are a business person, data analyst, or professionals, MAPID will complement your skillsets. Collecting, managing, visualizing, and analyzing is now done like never before in MAPID.

How does MAPID innovate? 

Bagus Imam Darmawan: We understand that innovation is crucial due to the velocity of technological change in the market and what people need. We always try to find new ideas that can be implemented in our products so we can be more agile as a startup company. We try to come up with new feature updates every three months. We love that MAPID users always give us feedback that can be used for our improvements. We are glad that many people find their works are done more effectively and efficiently since they use MAPID.

How does the coronavirus pandemic affect your business finances?

Bagus Imam Darmawan: We can all agree that COVID-19 has affected every sector in this country, even other countries in the world. This company that I founded is no exception. Before the pandemic, we have made plans for 2020: We wanted to explore more potential B2B and B2C markets. The opportunities that we wanted to look for were so many. But then COVID-19 happened. We had to make some adjustments to make sure that we can survive this pandemic, especially in finance. We had to manage the budget and made it sufficient for our operation. It was not easy, but we manage to walk step by step. There are many opportunities for us in 2021 and more years to come definitely.

Did you have to make difficult choices regarding human resources, and what are the lessons learned?

Bagus Imam Darmawan: When it comes to the team, I know each one of them personally, and I can tell that we are a solid one. Other companies might lay off their employees, but I didn’t make that call. Indeed, some of them were offered a new opportunity, and I didn’t want to stand in their way. We had new team members now, and they are the ones we need to grow this company, especially when this pandemic isn’t really over.

How did your customer relationship management evolve? Do you use any specific tools to be efficient?

Bagus Imam Darmawan: We are using live chat on our website so users can ask directly to us. Dedicated customer support is also there for our users. We want to be close to our users as they are the most important part of our journey.

Did you benefit from any government grants, and did that help keep your business afloat?

Bagus Imam Darmawan: No, we did not receive any Government Grants from the first time we built our products. But, some Government Agencies have given us trust to support them when it comes to digitalization, spatial analysis, or system integration. Seeing our products used by various stakeholders from any business sector and Government Agencies makes us believe that we are on the right track for Indonesia’s technological development.

Your final thoughts?

Bagus Imam Darmawan: I believe we all have goals. I built this company to manifest the goals I have in my life. One of them is to help people. MAPID is an ecosystem for geospatial data. You can start collecting your data through FORM MAPID and IOT MAPID. Once all the data are gathered, you can continue managing, visualizing, and analyzing your data seamlessly in GEO MAPID. People might question why do we have to build something unfamiliar? We have the answer to that. It may be unfamiliar now, but in the future, people will talk a lot about data. Because the world’s most valuable resource is no longer oil, it’s data.

Your website?

mapid.io