How it works
From use case to production, the way we run a GMP engagement
A Google Maps Platform engagement with Lepton is a sequence, not a handover. We start with the use case, prove it in a POC, scope the commercial construct, then roll out in phases beginning with the highest-pain component. It is Google's platform, with our hands on the integration.
Get a demo →The posture
Google's platform, our hands on the integration
You buy Google Maps Platform at Google's pricing. What Lepton adds is the work around it: picking the right APIs out of 50+, wiring in the SDKs, setting up Google Cloud, and engineering usage so cost stays predictable at India scale. We are India's largest GMP reseller and a Google Maps Platform Premier Partner, so the engagement is run by a team that has done this across mobility, real estate, retail and the public sector.
The motion below is the same one we run on active engagements. It always starts with the use case, proves it before anything is committed, and rolls out in phases that begin with whatever hurts most.
The motion
Five steps, from the first workshop to running in production
Discovery workshop
We sit with your team, map the use case to the Google Maps Platform APIs that solve it, and agree on what a successful proof looks like.
Proof of concept
We build a working POC on the chosen APIs against your real data, so the fit is proven before any wider commitment.
Commercial scoping
In parallel with the POC, we scope the commercial construct: the engagement model and the usage shape that keeps cost predictable as volume grows.
Phased production rollout
We roll out to production in phases, starting with the highest-pain component, so value lands early and risk stays contained.
Run
Once live, we stay in for ongoing cost engineering and local support, so the integration keeps holding as the product grows.
Exit: the use case is mapped to the APIs that solve it, and what a successful proof looks like is agreed.
Exit: a working POC on the chosen APIs against your real data, so the fit is proven before any wider commitment.
Exit: the engagement model and the usage shape that keeps cost predictable as volume grows.
Starts with the highest-pain component, so value lands early and risk stays contained.
Ongoing cost engineering and local support, so the integration keeps holding as the product grows.
The engagement, a route to production.
Discovery to run. Each waypoint is a checkpoint you clear before the next, so the path to production is proven step by step rather than promised up front.
What we own
The four delivery workstreams behind the rollout
Picking the right APIs is only half the work. These are the four workstreams Lepton owns end to end across an engagement, so the integration reaches production and stays affordable once it is there.
Every integration Lepton delivers runs through the same three stages: your application sends the request, the Google Maps Platform API processes it, and the result returns a structured response your product renders. Lepton owns the wiring between all three: the API key configuration, the SDK or REST call, the response parsing, and the cost engineering that keeps the usage affordable.
- 01
Match · Use-case-to-API matching
We map the problem in front of your product to the right APIs out of 50+, backed by a maintained internal knowledge base of every API and how it bills.
- 02
SDKs · SDK integration
Driver, Consumer and Navigation SDKs and Fleet Engine, wired into your app end to end rather than handed over as a license.
- 03
GCP · Google Cloud setup
Service accounts, JWT authentication, API enablement and billing, the plumbing that makes the APIs callable and accountable.
- 04
Cost · Cost engineering
Quota management, usage analytics, SKU selection and free-tier and bracket engineering, plus structured migration paths such as Core APIs to Mobility Accelerate, phased so teams move without rebuilding everything at once.
Why phased
Highest-pain first, so value lands before the full migration
Rolling out everything at once is how integrations stall. We start the production phase with the single component that hurts most, prove the result, then expand. A structured migration path, for example from the Core APIs a team already runs onto the Mobility stack, lets them move in stages rather than rebuilding everything in one go.
The moat
What a growth partner does that a license never will
There are many Google Maps partners, and every one of them can sell you the same APIs at the same price. The APIs are not the moat. The work around them is: an engineer beside your engineers, cost taken apart line by line, insight you did not know to ask for, and solutions built where the APIs stop. Selling the API is not the end of the engagement. It is the start of it.
An engineer beside your engineers
Our solutions engineer works inside your engineering team, not across a ticket queue: diagnosing the problem, identifying what is actually slow or wrong, fixing it, and pushing on ways location intelligence can improve the product itself. The motion is the same one we run on every live engagement, and it is measured in days, not quarters.
Those days are the five steps set out above.
Cost engineered to a degree that surprises people
Three things change a Google Maps Platform bill that have nothing to do with the list price, and all three are ours to engineer: which SKUs your product calls, which commercial construct the usage sits inside, and how much of it stays under the free tier. Same product behaviour, billed against a lighter SKU.
- 70K / 35K / 7Kfree Essentials / Pro / Enterprise calls per SKU per month for India usage, seven times the global allowance. Keeping high-volume calls inside that band is the first lever we pull.
- Up to 15%Savings Plan discount on fixed monthly billing, with a usage buffer, when usage is steady enough to commit.
- Zerocost for cancelled trips under per-completed-task Mobility Plans, the construct we scope for fleet operations.
Insight you did not know to ask for
Fifteen years on one platform accumulates knowledge no single customer ever sees: how every API bills, what worked at other operators at your scale, and what the location data says about your market. We share it. Places Insights place counts land in your BigQuery for site selection and competitive intelligence, and the market read comes with them.
- Every APIcovered in a maintained internal knowledge base, including how each one bills, so the match is made from evidence.
- 15+ yearson Google Maps, ten of them as a Premier Partner, which is how long it took to learn how every API bills and where the cost actually sits.
Built where the APIs stop
Some of what our customers run is not an API call. It is a solution built end to end on top of the platform: orchestration for fleets, address stacks for Indian last-mile, the mobility features only a Google partner can provision. That is the work that makes the product better, with Google's APIs as the material.
- 15 to 25engineers, for 12 to 18 months, is what a do-it-yourself mobility orchestration layer takes. We deliver it as part of the engagement.
- 85% → 95%+address accuracy with Address Validation plus Descriptors, delivered for an anonymized delivery operator.
- Fleet Engineand the mobility stack, provisioned through our Premier Partner status and wired into your app by our team.
Proof
Run this way, it ships
NoBroker worked with Lepton on its Google Maps Platform onboarding, and reported a 30-40% conversion-rate boost attributed to seamless navigation and enriched property details. The listing experience behind that number runs on three of the fifty-plus APIs: Places for the neighbourhood, Geocoding for addresses that arrive loosely written, and Distance Matrix for the commute time a buyer decides on. Picking those three, and only those three, is the motion set out above.
- Places
- Geocoding
- Distance Matrix
Start with the use case. We will run the rest.
Bring the product problem you are solving. We will walk you through discovery, a POC and the phased rollout that gets it to production.
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