By Avi Hartmann,
Founder & Member of the board
In my previous post, I’ve described our company's transition from providing services to end customers to selling to entrepreneurs in the vehicle protection industry. This shift required us to focus our experience and technology on a number of specific procedures and adapt them to the local culture. As a result, we were able to identify a larger market potential.
After two years of working in the vehicle protection field, we discovered that our largest potential market is the fleet management industry. However, understanding this complex market and its unique requirements necessitates returning to the basics of vehicle protection. In order to protect a vehicle, the hardware must be installed with few mandatory connections to receive information about the vehicle, such as a the doors, the engine, as well as the siren so when the owner presses the remote they can hear a short beep, indicating that the vehicle is now in an “armed” state. Any signals from the doors or engine in this state without the vehicle moving to the "unlocked" position signals an attempted theft. In contrast, the fleet management world is far more complex, and the system must meet its two fundamental requirements - improving fleet operations and maintaining low costs – lower than the device’s cost.
Each customer has unique needs that require tailored solutions. For example, dairy product distribution companies may require temperature monitoring in their containers, while newspaper deliveries prioritize on-time arrival, while other companies may value speed control. Our challenge is to offer a broad range of applications to ensure that every customer can find the ones that fit their needs. Unfortunately, I frequently come across applications that seem to be more focused on sales pitches rather than on customer benefit. In these cases, customers may be told they need a particular application simply because it's available, even if it's not useful to them.
It's important to note that an application that doesn't provide useful information can eventually be harmful. An excess of irrelevant information can be overwhelming, requiring extra care and attention. This can draw attention away from the relevant and essential information that is truly valuable and useful to the customer.
When discussing information, an important consideration is where the processing occurs. This has a significant impact on the capabilities and scalability of the system. It is currently accepted that the server receiving the readings is responsible for processing the information, while a low-processing unit is typically installed in the vehicle. These units are cheaper due to their smaller processors and memory chips, but they also tend to have lower reliability due to their lack of electrical protections and may not function well over the long term. In addition, while these units are inexpensive for initial purchase, their high-power consumption makes them unsuitable for use with motorcycles.
We opted for a completely different approach, choosing to process the information in the end unit (“edge computing” approach). This requires a larger processor in the end unit, which makes it slightly more expensive. However, the advantage of this method is that the unit transmits only relevant information that should be referred to. We advise fleets to calculate the cost of the system over a period of three years, and they will see that our technology is both more cost-effective and more reliable than other options available.
Nowadays, our cutting-edge system is processing over a staggering billion messages per day, cementing its position as an industry leader in the field of data analytics and information technologies. Our innovative platform is currently operational in no less than 58 countries across the globe, helping businesses and organizations to streamline their operations and make more informed decisions.
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