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Getting company vehicle drivers on board with the implementation of a new GPS fleet tracking system is not always a smooth ride...

That’s why Fleetmatics, a global provider of fleet management solutions for commercial fleet vehicles delivered as software-as-a-service (SaaS), has launched a new e-book which breaks down the introduction process into five easy steps.

Freely available online at www.fleetmatics.co.uk/ebooks-library, the e-book explains how sharing your plans with the employees can be key to successfully introducing the new system. Initial resistance by the workforce towards the new system can be driven by misconceptions as some employees can be unfamiliar with the technology and its purpose.

As suggested in the guide on How to Manage Change by the UK’s Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS),¹ careful communication can facilitate the introduction process. Once staff understands how the implemented change can help support a successful and sustainable future for the company and for them, they can be more likely to support it, according to ACAS.

 

The GPS tracking system enables organisations to gain a more accurate insight into the movements of their fleets and this information can be used to improve workforce management, gain greater efficiency, reduce environmental impact, increase productivity and use resources more effectively. Some of these benefits are directly transferable to staff. For example, after the installation of the monitoring system, many Fleetmatics customers report that their employees benefit from a reduced amount of paperwork, more evenly shared workload and fewer delays with less unwanted overtime.

Richard Brooks, Fleetmatics Marketing Director for Europe, explained, “Openness and honesty can help cement the mutual understanding required to reap the full benefits of the system. With the support of the guidelines provided in this e-book, managers can help employees understand the benefits of the new system and encourage them to see the installation as an improvement, not an obstacle.”

Xplore Technologies Corp a manufacturer of award-winning rugged tablet PCs, announced in the last few days that it has agreed to acquire substantially all of the assets of Motion Computing, Inc. and its subsidiaries Motion, another Austin, TX-based leader in the rugged tablet space, which is currently the second largest provider worldwide of rugged tablet PCs, according to VDC.

“The acquisition of Motion is consistent with our goal to establish the best and broadest line of rugged tablets for the enterprise market,” said Philip Sassower, chairman and CEO of Xplore.

“Motion represents a unique opportunity for Xplore to acquire an Austin-based company with deep industry domain expertise and that possesses products and channels complementary to our own. Together we will address a broader range of customer needs and provide a ‘one-stop shop’ for rugged tablets.”

“Nearly fifty percent of Motion revenue comes from outside the United States,” said Mark Holleran, president and COO of Xplore. “Leveraging the mature distribution channels that Motion has developed over the last 10 years, Xplore will significantly expand its international reach.

We are particularly excited to include in our offering Motion’s R12, which was recently named by PC Magazine as Editor’s Choice for Rugged Windows Tablet PC.  Its 12.5” LCD form factor has been very successful in law enforcement and manufacturing markets and is just one example of the expanding market in which Xplore will now participate.”

[quote float="left"]We are particularly excited to include in our offering Motion’s R12, which was recently named by PC Magazine as Editor’s Choice for Rugged Windows Tablet PC.

“Motion is excited about what this combination brings to its customers and business partners,” said Peter Poulin, CEO of Motion.  “The capital backing of Xplore supports a robust product pipeline and customer service capabilities that are critical to enterprises with whom Motion has had long standing relationships.”

 

“Xplore has a proven track record in focusing its resources to generate sustainable growth,” said Mike Rapisand, CFO of Xplore. “After a successful recapitalization and offering in 2012, we invested cash to significantly expand our addressable market, revenue and EBITDA.

Our executive management team has over 200 years’ combined experience in managing companies like Xplore and Motion, and we are confident that the two businesses will be successfully integrated to deliver growth and value to all of our stakeholders.”

The transaction will be effected through an asset purchase and sale agreement by and among Xplore, Motion and Square 1 Bank.  Xplore will acquire Motion for approximately $9 million, plus the assumption of approximately $7 million in net liabilities.

The closing of the transaction is expected to occur on or about April 17, 2015 and is subject to numerous conditions, including the receipt of financing and third party approvals and the satisfaction of customary closing conditions.  Xplore intends to consummate the transaction using proceeds from a new $15 million credit facility with Square 1 Bank and to support integration and growth of the two businesses with its cash on hand.

In its most recent fiscal year ended December 31, 2014, Motion’s unaudited revenue was approximately $83 million, its unaudited gross margin percentage was approximately 25% and its unaudited net loss was approximately $7 million. Xplore intends to file a current report on Form 8-K on or about June 30,

2015 that will include Motion financial statements, as well as historical pro forma financial information for the combined businesses.

 

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UK Gardening firm Town & County Gardens turn to Fleetmatics telematics solution to trim their costs...

Keeping on top off staff working hours can be time consuming and complicated, especially for companies that rely on employees to log their own hours. In order to get clarity on staff hours and combat unnecessary spending on unwarranted overtime, the gardening and landscaping company Town & Country Gardens introduced Fleetmatics GPS vehicle tracking throughout their fleet. Since signing up with Fleetmatics REVEAL nearly two years ago, the company has seen some concrete results.

Based in Fulham, South London, Town & Country Gardens has been offering a wide range of gardening services including garden maintenance, landscaping and tree surgery for over 20 years. The company operates a fleet consisting of six vans, some equipped for gardening and others for landscaping purposes.

Currently, the company has 14 core staff, but the number of employees nearly doubles when extra help is hired during the summer. This used to boost the overspending on staff hours even further, until Director Ben Skinner decided to put an end to it. After researching different providers on a vehicle tracking comparison website, he decided to sign up to Fleetmatics REVEAL, which was the most the cost-efficient option available.

“Before getting Fleetmatics, the biggest problem for us was overspending on staffing hours,” said Mr Skinner “We used to rely on our staff to report their own hours at the end of the day when they returned on site, but this meant that we ended up paying for a lot of hours that were just not justified.

 

After installing Fleetmatics GPS tracking, the change was almost immediate; in the first year we saved almost £20,000 in staff hours. These savings alone made the introduction of the tracking system worthwhile.”

In addition to the significant savings achieved, since installing REVEAL, the company has seen improvements in other areas of business as well. For Town & Country Gardens, as for many London-based fleets, traffic is a daily problem. With the roads of the Capital often at a standstill, reaching customers in time is an ongoing challenge.

However, REVEAL’s Live Map feature has provided the company with new ways to beat the traffic. “Thanks to the live feed, we can now see if our staff are taking inefficient routes on their way to the next customer. This enables us to redirect them to a better route and avoid unnecessary delays,” Mr Skinner says.

 

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xMatters, inc., a provider of communication-enabled business processes, have recently announced a major new release of one of the industry’s most advanced communications systems for managing, deploying and rapidly resolving IT incidents.

The xMatters On-Demand platform is award-winning technology that automates pinpointing and alerting for the individuals, IT teams and external service providers who need to work together to quickly rectify critical business disruptions.

The communications market is undergoing a seismic shift. After decades of declining revenue and stagnant innovation, a new market is ascendant. This market is being driven in part by cloud economics. IDC forecasts the cloud communications platforms market will grow from global revenue of $123.4 million in 2013 to reach $7.5 billion in 2018 at a 127.5% CAGR[1].

New IDC Vendor Spotlight Report

According to a new IDC Vendor Spotlight report by xMatters and titled “New Approaches to Optimising Business Operations With Cloud Communications,” cloud communications platforms are on a course to undermine telephony system equipment markets which will significantly devalue traditional carrier voice and messaging markets as well. These platforms are changing ideas about how customers, end users and subscribers can communicate with enterprises. A simpler, more flexible platform approach is fuelling a new convergence of communications and business processes. This makes it easy to blend real-time communications into business-critical workflows.

The report states a new cloud communications approach, layered with the flexibility of a software-defined architecture, solves traditional business communications problems by delivering personalisation, timeliness, multi-channel use and integration and automation.

For companies to assure their environment and business operations in the event of disruptions, a new communications approach that automates the directory and staff schedule to simplify stakeholder whereabouts, ensures multi-modal communications to reach stakeholders via preferred channels and integrates easily with other systems for coordinated efficient and agile operations is needed. To the extent that xMatters technology can address the challenges described in this paper, IDC believes the company is well positioned for success.

 

“In the event of an interruption to the business, which is inevitable at some point, companies need to keep ahead of the game to assure their business operations run smoothly and downtime is minimised. We’re pleased to offer the market a modern and intelligent cloud communications platform that automates the directory and staff schedule to ensure communications reach stakeholders via preferred channels and also integrates easily with other systems for coordinated efficient and agile operations,” said Troy McAlpin, CEO of xMatters. “IDC is aware of today’s communications challenges in the marketplace and we’re thrilled they recognise xMatters is well-positioned for success.”


New xMatters On-Demand ReleaseFeatures

Highlighted new features and functionality for the latest xMatters On-Demand cloud release, available today, include:

Vastly Improved Scheduling: The new On-Call Scheduling module and associated functionality make it easier to automatically manage all facets of scheduling, such as schedule recurrences, holiday schedules, automated rotations and temporary replacements. The xMatters On-Demand technology also proactively reveals “hollow shifts” – those lacking on-call resources – and dynamically resolves rotations, temporary replacements and holiday schedules to immediately show on-call information.

Group Overview: The new Group Overview is the 'home page' for the assigned group. It allows users to quickly identify on-call gaps, to understand who is currently on call, the escalation process in place, identifies the group supervisors and also includes full team contact information.

Improved Calendaring: The new calendar function shows a complete view of team shifts and supports adding new shifts and changing existing ones with drag-and-drop interactions based on common calendaring tools, such as Outlook and Mac Calendar. Users can easily view the scheduled shifts for the week and click on them to see the team members scheduled on duty and their contact information, the escalation process in place for the shift and other key details.

Improved Roster: The redesigned, single view of resources can more easily pinpoint for team’s who is available and move them into shifts.

Enhanced Conferencing: Conference bridges remain an effective mechanism to mobilise multiple people for sharing information and deciding on action steps. The new On-Demand release includes a redesigned conferencing report, which makes it easier to identify all of the attendees on the call. Also, the conference administrator now has the ability to edit phone numbers to people’s names to ensure everyone is accounted for. This new ability makes for easier reporting after the incident has been closed.

Strengthened Mobility Capabilities: The new release also brings multi-login support, allowing those users that are responsible for different use cases or multiple xMatters environments to be able to log into all of them via their iOS device.

 

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Capita plc has recently announced that it has acquired Sigma Seven Limited for an undisclosed sum.

Sigma Seven Ltd offers a specialist geospatial solution that allows users anywhere to access company files, organise their work, plan tasks and record data directly on to high-quality digital maps.

This helps organisations get the most from their data, map and enterprise systems, enabling field and office staff to work together more efficiently. Sigma Seven’s clients include UK utility companies such as Scottish Power, UK Power Networks, Wales & West Utilities and Southern Water.

Since its acquisition of AMT-SYBEX in May 2014, Capita has strengthened its presence in the utilities and transport sectors providing mobile technology and Big Data software solutions. AMT-SYBEX has also been a partner of Sigma Seven and the combined product offering will represent an enhanced and highly complementary solution set that will now be available to clients.

 

Capita chief executive, Andy Parker, said: “The acquisition of Sigma Seven will provide further scale and depth to the range of solutions that Capita can offer utilities, construction & engineering, environment and government sectors. On integration, significant synergy benefits such as complementary products, an overlap in client base and prospective clients, will more strongly position Capita in the market when providing new and improved, tailored solutions.”

Sigma Seven has 33 employees based in Edinburgh.

Echo Managed Services, the specialist provider of outsourced end-to-end customer contact services, has strengthened its collections division with the acquisition of Sheffield-based Grosvenor Services Group. Grosvenor is one of the UK’s leading debt collection agencies, specialising in field-based collections within the utilities sector.

Combining Grosvenor’s field based skills with Echo’s comprehensive multi-site contact centre resource and office based collections expertise will further strengthen Echo’s end-to-end customer contact proposition, with the company offering comprehensive customer journey support, from initial sign-up through to ongoing debt recovery where necessary. The acquisition of Grosvenor Services Group follows Echo’s 2011 purchase of London based Inter-Credit International – one of the UK’s longest established debt recovery agencies with over 40 years’ experience and speciality in office based collections.

“Acquiring Grosvenor Services Group is a great strategic move for Echo as we have complementary skills and expertise, particularly in key sectors such as utilities and the public sector that are central to Echo’s expansion plans,” commented Steve Wrench, Operations Director at Echo. “Echo already bills and collects many millions of pounds for utility and public sector clients each year, and the addition of Grosvenor’s proven debt recovery and debtor tracing solutions – backed by its strong field-based collections resource – will further strengthen our operation.”

 

Echo’s Managing Director, Nigel Baker added: “We have an on-going commitment to provide our clients with a best practice approach to collections - one that not only delivers better results for our clients but also ensures full compliance with key industry regulatory and governance requirements. With the specialist skills and expertise that the Grosvenor team brings, we look forward to further strengthening Echo’s collections capability.”

Echo’s leading edge collections strategy is based on a powerful data-driven approach that focuses on helping organisations to choose the right solution for the right customer at the right time. Echo is focused on ensuring that it consistently delivers on collections targets for its clients, while always treating their customers fairly with empathy and understanding. Following the acquisition, Grosvenor’s Sheffield-based operation becomes Echo’s seventh site.

 

Commenting on the acquisition, Lloyd Birkhead, MD of Grosvenor Services Group Ltd said: “at Grosvenor we’ve built a reputation over the last 17 years for providing our customers, particularly those in the utilities sector, with a high quality debt recovery service. I’m therefore delighted that in Echo Managed Services we move forward with a complementary business partner that will build on our success by integrating Grosvenor and our services into its end-to-end customer contact proposition.”

Assistance for the acquisition was provided by FDYL LLP and Ironmonger Curtis LLP.

 

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Espresso Service Ltd, an independent company founded in 1987 that specialises in servicing coffee machines, is set to implement Tesseract’s service management software in order to better serve its customers.


Espresso Service, who manage a network of engineers all over the UK, pride themselves on a wide skill set. Their engineers are ‘coffee experts’ and do planned and reactive maintenance on all brands of traditional and semi-automatic coffee machines. At present they rely on an internally installed, less specialised piece of software to manage their engineers. In order to move forward, they decided to look for a centrally hosted and more specialised system that would be a better fit for their needs.

Espresso Service identified a number of advantages to implementing Tesseract’s software, in particular the fact that Tesseract offers a constantly evolving platform for a monthly fee. They also saw the appeal of Tesseract’s software being entirely web-based. “It will allow anyone to do their jobs anywhere,” says Daniel Sewell, Chief Operating Officer for Espresso Service.

Espresso Service have plans to incorporate Tesseract’s entire suite of services in due course. Sewell says, “Our aspiration is to use every single function that is available, largely because we believe Tesseract to be the key to fundamentally changing our business for the better. We believe Tesseract will drive efficiency, spotlight any inefficiency, and ultimately help us to ‘work smarter’ and be the best that we can be.”

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Service management organisations could miss out on vital business intelligence, lucrative new revenue streams or fail to meet rising customer demands unless they embrace machine-to-machine (M2M) technology. These are the findings of a new white paper commissioned by service management software provider, Advanced Field Service (Advanced).

The worldwide M2M technology market is forecast to grow to £30 billion by 2018* and is set to revolutionise the service management industry. However some businesses remain cautious about adoption due to limited time and resources, cost pressures and cultural resistance.

A recent survey[quote float="left"]“There is some confusion as to how M2M interplays with other technologies such as The Internet of Things, cloud, big data and mobile. While there is no clarity about what M2M is, and the benefits it offers, adoption rates will be slower than anticipated.

conducted by Advanced highlights that only 43% of businesses are currently using M2M. Just over a quarter (26%) of respondents revealed they are considering M2M but in contrast 31% said they had no plans to do so.

 

Greg Ford, Managing Director of Advanced Field Service, says, “There is some confusion as to how M2M interplays with other technologies such as The Internet of Things, cloud, big data and mobile. While there is no clarity about what M2M is, and the benefits it offers, adoption rates will be slower than anticipated.

“Many service organisations will need to wait for manufacturers to introduce the capabilities of M2M before they can take full advantage of it. For those who serve multiple manufacturer products, this can make planning and gaining access to data more difficult.”

M2M is effectively a subset of the Internet of Things and wirelessly connects machines, devices and equipment to collect and transmit data such as location, movement, temperature and environment. Typical solutions enable the remote tracking of a business’s field-based assets, ‘smart metering’ to monitor and control energy and utilities and telematics systems to enhance service delivery performance through automated processes.

Ford comments, “M2M technology provides valuable insight into the performance of equipment, vehicles and field engineers. With this crucial business intelligence, organisations can shift from reactive to predictive service, ensuring issues can be identified and resolved more quickly to meet rising customer expectations.

“M2M can also transform efficiency levels and increase profit margins. With rising costs and fierce competition continuing to impact the service industries, organisations who choose to overlook this technology may suffer a detrimental impact to their bottom line.”

Advanced Field Service’s integrated service management solutions enhance business intelligence for companies which provide installation, service or maintenance via a field or site-based workforce. Its Siclops system enables organisations to improve productivity, reduce administration costs and streamline scheduling processes.

Geotab, an industry leading telematics engineering company, recentley announced that it has released its IOX-CAN extender, a plug-and-play solution that allows partners to send data from their device over a private CAN network in the vehicle supporting integrations on all vehicle types.

A number of companies are already leveraging the IOX-CAN extender to send data from their devices to the MyGeotab system. Geotab’s integration with Mobileye, a technology company that develops vision-based Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) providing warnings for collision prevention and mitigation, has been upgraded with the IOX-CAN [quote float="left"]“Our solutions are designed to make the roads safer for everyone as the issue of distracted driving continues to be a problem"

extender allowing full support for all vehicle types, including OBDII vehicles. Geotab’s new add-on solution allows Mobileye devices to plug into Geotab’s GO6 and GO7 devices, thereby allowing Mobileye data to be sent to the MyGeotab software platform, where it can be viewed and analysed by dispatchers and fleet managers.

 

Elad Serfaty, VP and General Manager Mobileye Aftermarket, said, “Our solutions are designed to make the roads safer for everyone as the issue of distracted driving continues to be a problem. Working with Geotab allows us to not only provide feedback to the driver, and with managers who can effect change where needed, but we can do this across all vehicle types.”

“Expanding our integration capabilities and continuing our work with Mobileye is a natural evolution as more and more companies realise the benefits of fleet management,” said Neil Cawse, CEO, Geotab. “Providing collision warnings to drivers just before a crash is the first step to creating a safer driving environment for everyone.”

 

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