Drones are a guilty pleasure for many tech fans who can be seen flying their latest gadget on a beach near you this summer. In a world where people feel the urge to go the extra mile to make their travel videos stand out on Facebook and Instagram, there is an argument that the aerial footage from your holiday is a cool feature to have in your arsenal.

Meanwhile, businesses have been using the similar footage for showcasing their work from a unique vantage point. But, you could be forgiven for thinking that ultimately the footage rarely delivers any real value or tangible results to individuals or businesses.

Under your radar, DroneDeploy has been bringing something new to the table that will change the way you think about drones. The cloud software platform is designed for commercial drones and is transforming the way businesses leverage aerial data across multiple industries such as agriculture, construction, mining, inspection and surveying to name but a few.

To put this technology into perspective, DroneDeploy users have mapped and analyzed over 8 million acres in over 135 countries. The recent introduction of Fieldscanner is already proving to be a real game changer with farmers by giving them an eye in the sky.

A real-time view of a farmer’s fields that can reveal crop damage, pest problems and the effects of weather is proving to be invaluable to the 21st-century farmer. Anyone looking for ROI can instantly see the benefits of increased efficiency, decreased costs and increase yields.

Rural areas have been neglected by the tech industry because of the poor connectivity and slow internet speeds that typically frequent these areas. Thankfully, Fieldscanner can operate entirely offline, with no need for cellular or data coverage proving that there is always a workaround if you set your mind to it.

Growers all over the world are embracing next-generation tools such as self-driving tractors and ag robots to improve operations and yields. Likewise, our drone software and sophisticated ecosystem of third-party apps have been proven to streamline farming tasks – Scott Lumish, Vice President of Business Development at DroneDeploy.

The combination of DroneDeploy and Fieldscanner is an excellent example of how we could make better use of the technology that we now have at our fingertips. Rather than trying to solve problems that don’t even exist yet or using as a glorified expensive toy, we should be investigating how drones can transform industries such as agriculture.

I recently spoke with DroneDeploy’s co-founder and CEO, Mike Winn about how they have set their sights on using Drone technology to offer new solutions to old problems in over 130 countries.

Whether it be speeding up construction and highway projects to verifying insurance claims or even managing natural disasters and landslides, the potential is incredibly intriguing.Increasing efficiency, delivering value and unlocking tremendous opportunities that create meaningful change is the real path to progress.

I also spoke to the DoneDeploy team on my podcast. They talked about how the real-time drone mapping tool has the ability to provide an immediate in-field crop analysis to enable farmers to make crop management decisions on the spot and deliver much more value than an aerial shot vanity project.

Maybe it’s time we all learned to think bigger and get back to fixing problems rather than merely playing with our tech toys.