Open Ecosystem: a platform that integrates with others—even competitors—to deliver customers the most efficient, seamless experience possible.

Closed Ecosystem: a platform built to work with a limited set of applications, designed to drive sales by locking customers into products within a single vendor’s domain.

Look, I get it. Closed ecosystem businesses can be incredibly profitable if their strategy is to lock customers into hard-to-exit contracts and make them dependent on one vendor over time. But after spending seven years leading a team that integrated dozens of law enforcement tools for public safety agencies and launching a DFR program at my agency in 2020—it’s no surprise that I’m a strong advocate for the open ecosystem approach.

That’s precisely why we embraced a truly open ecosystem with Flock Aerodome. With well-executed integrations, we can shave precious minutes off your DFR response time—minutes that, in critical moments, can genuinely mean the difference between life and death.

Public safety wins when the industry works together.

When it comes to drones, our approach is fundamentally different from that of some competitors.

We believe that public safety agencies should have the freedom to choose the drones that best meet their mission needs and budget—even if we’re not the manufacturer. It’s frustrating to see some drone companies actively lobbying against public safety, trying to force agencies into buying only their products.

As of this writing, I'm proud to say that our government affairs team is actively supporting over 1300 public safety agencies and associations in 17 states as they fight back against bills crafted by our competitors—bills that aim to restrict access to the drones they trust to serve their missions best.

We take the opposite approach. In fact, we see an open ecosystem as an invitation to integrate drones from all manufacturers—even our competitors. This commitment to collaboration ensures that public safety professionals have access to the best tools available, no matter where they come from.

Best-in-class hardware comes from many different places. 

The world’s leading companies recognize that partnering with others is the best way to deliver top-tier solutions for their customers.

Take our approach, for example. We’re not a radar company—that’s why we’ve partnered with the best radar company in the world. We made this decision so our customers can access the finest radars available to power their beyond-visual-line-of-sight (BVLOS) operations, unlocking the first full-city BVLOS waiver at 400 ft.

It surprises me when people claim that leveraging partnerships in this way somehow diminishes value for customers.

Consider this: over 30 companies collaborated to build the technology that sent Apollo 11 to the moon. Would that mission have been as successful if one company had tried to do everything in-house to maximize its revenue? I doubt it.

Integrated software needs to be seamless and built to connect. 

When we developed the Flock Aerodome piloting experience, we brought in some of the industry’s best video game designers to create an intuitive, simple, and enjoyable interface. We believe software integrations should be built with that same level of care.

That’s why we integrate with CAD software to ensure your calls-for-service are added to your map in real-time—allowing you to fly to them with a single click. We also integrate with Flock911 so you can read a live transcript of a 911 call and immediately fly to the caller’s location.

Our commitment to integration doesn’t stop there. We’ve connected with ALPR systems so that you can not only see ALPR hits in your area and navigate to them with one button, but your drone can effectively become an ALPR camera, automatically reading and processing license plates against NCIC and your custom hot lists as you fly. We also integrate with gunshot detection sensors that display a circle on your flight map indicating where the noise was last heard.

And it gets even better: all of these critical data points appear in augmented reality while you’re flying, meaning you don’t even need to look at a map. When every piece of your software ecosystem works together seamlessly, you transform your pilots into exceptional operators—empowered to respond faster, more safely, and more effectively.

Integrations should be part of the package -- not an extra fee.

I’ll make this one simple. With Flock Aerodome, we don’t charge for the integrations that make your ability to fly DFR a safer and better experience for you and your community. That’s true whether or not you’re asking us to integrate with our competitors.

Flying connected is unlike any other experience out there, and we want agencies to have that experience without paying burdensome fees for it.

Five questions to ask when evaluating a DFR platform.

Use these five questions to evaluate whether the ecosystem you’re considering provides the openness your agency requires:

1. Will you charge me to integrate with (insert technology of interest here)? When can this integration be accomplished?
2. Will you allow us to fly your drones with other software instead?
3. Will you allow us to fly other drones with your software instead?
4. Can I use the other hardware you provide, such as body cameras, with other RTCC or DFR software? Or can I only use the software in your ecosystem?
5. What integrations do you have that are currently live today?

It’s easy for companies to suggest they have open ecosystems, but these questions will give you a preview of what you’re really signing up for.

"What you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say." Ralph Waldo Emerson