Colin Snow
Making the Business Case for Your Drone Program
I am happy to announce the release of Making a Successful Business Case for Drone Technology – a blueprint for enterprises to develop a successful business case for a drone-based technology program. Produced in partnership with PrecisionHawk, this reference guide offers enterprise leaders a clear, step-by-step process to analyze, evaluate, and communicate key objectives of … Read more
Amazon’s Drone Delivery Plans: What’s Old, What’s New And When?
Amazon’s Prime Air delivery drone has some great new technology but the service faces strong and persistent regulatory hurdles. Amazon’s drone delivery service is in the news again, this time with a new drone named the “MK27.” As the latest iteration of Amazon’s Prime Air delivery drone, it’s apparently safer, more efficient, and more stable … Read more
FAA May Be Off Target With Forecast For Threefold Growth In Commercial Drones
There’s some good information in the FAA’s new five-year Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) forecast, but there are reasons to doubt the accuracy of the agency’s projections in two areas that have captured attention: the claims that there will be roughly threefold growth in the numbers of commercial drones and UAS-certified pilots. Here’s the good, the … Read more
Three Essentials for Building Public Safety and First Responder Drone Programs
Increasing use of drones surfaces three best practices for state and local police, sheriffs, fire departments, and teams in EMS, search and rescue, tactical response, and disaster response. I just released two new drone industry guides titled Three Essentials For Building Your Law Enforcement Drone Program and Three Essentials For Building Your Fire and … Read more
Drones Are Doing More In U.S. Than You May Know, As These 3 Companies Show
Five years ago, the pundits predicted that by now we would be seeing tens of thousands of drones buzzing over our heads delivering everything from pizzas and burritos to the latest “must-have” item from Amazon. So what happened? Where are they? In a nutshell, they are here, but the general public doesn’t see them—at least … Read more
What Every CIO Needs To Know About Commercial Drone Data
This post first appeared on Forbes.com as Drones Pose A Unique Big Data Challenge For Business Users The public might consider them nuisances, but in the commercial market, drones are valuable data collection devices. Their primary task is to capture, store, and transmit data. So as IT departments consider integrating more drone data into existing enterprise … Read more
Evaluating the Economics of BVLOS Drone Operations
We just announced the release of our latest research on commercial drone operations. The Economics of Using Drones for BVLOS Inspections is a white paper sponsored by PrecisionHawk, the leading provider of drone technology for the enterprise, which provides a foundation for businesses to evaluate when it’s best to use traditional ground and manned aviation, … Read more
Seven Trends That Will Shape the Commercial Drone Industry in 2019
[This post first appeared in Forbes] In many ways, 2019 will be another big year for the commercial drone industry. Last year saw a wider rollout of the FAA’s LAANC program (the Low Altitude Authorization and Notification Capability that provides access to controlled airspace near airports), the launch of the UAS Integration Pilot Program from … Read more
Three Forces That Shaped the Drone Industry in 2018
This was a big year for the commercial drone industry as a whole. It saw a significant increase in the business adoption, the expansion of the FAA’s LAANC program (the Low Altitude Authorization and Notification Capability that provides access to controlled airspace near airports), the launch of the UAS Integration Pilot Program from the FAA … Read more
Measuring Success in the Drone Market
“If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.” – Peter Drucker The $118M Airware failure is a cautionary tale for all potential commercial drone investors—as well as all existing commercial drone market participants. To avoid such failure—whether you are drone aircraft manufacturer, software vendor, service provider, business enterprise, investor, or public agency—you need the … Read more