Microlise, the telematics and transport management solutions provider announces the acquisition of TruTac Ltd.

 

TruTac is the leading UK provider of fleet compliance and management software for Heavy Goods Vehicles (HGV) and Public Service Vehicle (PSV).

 

The terms of the acquisition were not disclosed and as part of the acquisition, TruTac will remain an independent company as part of the Microlise Group. The acquisition underscores Microlise’s ongoing commitment to forge new partnerships and opportunities to increase product and service innovation to support its international customer base in the UK, France, India, Middle East, Australia and New Zealand. 

   

Microlise, headquartered in Nottingham, is the UK’s market leader of telematics and transport technology products, with over 500,000 connections around the world. Its Fleet Performance, Journey Management, Planning & Optimisation and Proof of Delivery products are used by fleet operators while its solutions are also successfully deployed by OEM partners including MAN Truck & Bus UK, JCB and Tata Motors in India.

 

Founded in 1990 and operating throughout the UK and Ireland, TruTac has successfully established itself as the leading designer and provider of fleet compliance software for HGV and PSV operators.  Its online product suite allows operators and transport managers to simplify and streamline tachograph and compliance management via one easy-to-use portal. TruTac’s range of products helps clients to protect their Operators Licence, reduce risk, increase fleet efficiency and reduce administration costs.

 

Nadeem Raza, Microlise’s Chief Executive Officer said: “We are delighted to announce this acquisition and we welcome the TruTac team to Microlise. This union strengthens our presence in both the HGV and PSV sectors, and complements our group offering of real-time fleet management systems to enable smarter and more accurate operational decisions. We have identified strong synergies between the businesses, particularly across the development of new products and services. We look forward to actively pursuing our ongoing mutual success.”

 

Terry Ramsey, Managing Director of TruTac added: “I am proud of everything TruTac has achieved in becoming the UK’s compliance software market leader and this is great news for both old and new HGV and PSV customers. Microlise and TruTac are guided by the same ethos and passion for transport and this union is a positive one. Combining our expertise will deliver greater customer and partner value across the commercial and passenger transport industries. I look forward to accelerating the development of new products and services and to entering new markets with a strengthened and complementary fleet management offering.”

Augmentir have announced free use of its Remote Assistance Tool for front line workers to help companies address travel and social distancing issues around pandemic.

Augmentir have announced the free use of its Remote Assist support and collaboration tool for the remainder of 2020 to help industrial companies address the growing workforce and supply chain disruption created by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Employee Health a Priority

As Covid-19 continues to spread across North America, the CDC has suggested that businesses implement remote work policies and travel restrictions to help slow the spread of the virus. The situation has become more troublesome over the past few weeks, and many companies are looking for ways to help limit business disruptions while keeping the health of employees a top priority, influencing Augmentir's decision.

Russ Fadel, Co-Founder and CEO of Augmentir, said, "COVID-19 is impacting the lives of people all around the world, and is forcing a change to the way we work. At Augmentir, the health and safety of our employees, as well as the employees of our customers and partners is the Company's top priority. Therefore, in a response to COVID-19, Augmentir will be offering its Remote Assist tool at no cost through the end of 2020 in an effort to help the many businesses affected by the sudden increase in work-from-home policies and travel restrictions resulting from the global outbreak of the virus. We hope to curb the predicted impact this virus will have on industrial companies and will remain steadfast in our commitment to serving the industry we call home." 

During this challenging time, video-conferencing, chat, and remote support and collaboration will be more important than ever in maintaining the wellbeing of employees while also enabling people to continue to work and businesses to operate. Augmentir's Remote Assist tool helps to minimize the negative impact that COVID-19 is having on businesses by providing a remote collaboration and support solution that can be adopted in less than 60 minutes, so that workers, technicians, and customers can get the support they need to do their jobs without compromising health, safety, or productivity.

Companies that sign up will have free use of the tool for the remainder of 2020, will be able to: stream live video and audio to remote experts to improve issue resolution and remote knowledge sharing; guide field technicians and customers with live annotations for enhanced collaboration and support remote users on their existing devices as well as AR-enabled smart glasses.

Commenting on the company's decision, Russ Fadel, Co-Founder and CEO of Augmentir, said, "COVID-19 is impacting the lives of people all around the world, and is forcing a change to the way we work. At Augmentir, the health and safety of our employees, as well as the employees of our customers and partners is the Company's top priority. Therefore, in a response to COVID-19, Augmentir will be offering its Remote Assist tool at no cost through the end of 2020 in an effort to help the many businesses affected by the sudden increase in work-from-home policies and travel restrictions resulting from the global outbreak of the virus. We hope to curb the predicted impact this virus will have on industrial companies and will remain steadfast in our commitment to serving the industry we call home."

Leading cybersecurity specialists and decision makers from all over Europe gathered in Helsinki, Finland on to discuss what the new 5G technology means to cybersecurity, digital infrastructure and user-centric services.

The forum’s keynote speakers included leading global experts of the field such as Jakub Boratyński from the European Commission, Steve Purser from ENISA and Timo Harakka, Finland’s Minister of Transport and Communications.

The Finnish Transport and Communications Agency Traficom, and The National Cyber Security Centre Finland operating as part of Traficom arranged the event. Traficom is a modern wide-scoped agency, which promotes the transport system and traffic safety, and boosts digitalization and trusted digital services. Traficom supports sustainable development and ensures that everyone in Finland has access to high quality, secure and reasonably priced communications connections and services.

Safeguarding the future digital society and working on 5G cybersecurity form one essential part of Traficom's cutting-edge future-oriented work on improving via innovation. It focuses on the phenomena of the digital society, seeks solutions, builds networks and helps companies and other authorities to prepare for the future. "Changing the future of the society starts from vision and courage, and it starts today", says Kirsi Karlamaa, the Director-General of Traficom.

The forum was preceded by the world’s first open 5G cyber security hackathon where 70 cybersecurity specialists and whitehat hackers from 15 different countries got a chance to test their skills on 5G technology provided by Ericsson, Nokia and Oulu University.

Traficom in the driver´s seat reinforcing the collaborative work across borders

Finland and Traficom as a visionary authority received praises for progressing and initiating the work focusing on 5G cybersecurity during Finland’s Presidency of the Council of the European Union in 2019. Mr Jakub Boratyński, Head of Unit for Cybersecurity and Digital Privacy from the EU Commission presented the EU Toolbox for 5G cybersecurity and emphasized Finland´s proactive role in the EU work around 5G cybersecurity.

This decade will see the expansion of 5G-based services and infrastructure, and cooperation between different players developing the fifth-generation wireless communication technology is essential. The first ever Leading Edge 5G Forum organized in Helsinki draw together companies, cybersecurity influencers and industry members, EU representatives and authorities, academics and members of the cybersecurity community to discuss the future opportunities and challenges concerning 5G.

There´s a need for the next collaborative actions on 5G cybersecurity across EU

"The Leading Edge 5G Forum indicated that there is a strong will within the community and industry to share experiences and discuss the future of 5G and cybersecurity. Going forward, Traficom will continue this cooperative work with all stakeholders and organize discussions where exchange of ideas is possible", says Kalle Luukkainen, the Deputy Director-General of The National Cyber Security Centre Finland.

- We initiated this work but our vision is that going forward the cyber security hackathons and the Leading Edge 5G Forum could be a collaborative European wide activity. Therefore, we challenge all interested parties to get in touch with us and to join the effort of putting together the next cooperative actions and a cyber security hackathon in 2021. Our common aim is to safeguard the future digital society.

5G has to be built on trust

Building digital trust globally, strengthening the existing ecosystem and focus on end-to-end thinking were recurring themes in the keynotes and presentations heard during the event. Forum speakers also emphasized that 5G is designed to be more secure than its predecessors and cybersecurity has received a massive focus in 5G’s development. However, there is work to be done as the diversity and volume of novel IoT devices and their control systems will continue to increase and pose a new kind of security and privacy risks and additional threat vectors as we move to 5G and beyond.

Kris Oldland, Founder and Editor-in-Chief, Field Service News announces the publishers's response to Corona Virus... In an open letter to Field Service News subscribers Kris Oldland has announced two key initiatives to bring the global field service community together during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Firstly, Field Service News will be hosting an 'Emergency Symposium' this Friday (20 March) at 16:00 hours GMT. There will be a panel of senior industry leaders brought together to discuss the potential impact of the pandemic as well as best-practices for field service companies at this time. 

Register to attend @ https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/7852140705125027853

 

Fostering Ongoing Communication within the Field Service Sector

In addition to this, Oldland announced the launch of an ongoing 'Digital Symposium' to host industry presentations that have had to be either postponed or cancelled. Thus facilitating the continued sharing of industry knowledge and learning during this period of wide-scale isolation. Any industry practitioners who have presentations they wish to give to the wider audience at this time will be able to utilise the platform free of charge, whilst commercial solution providers to the field service industry will be able to claim significant discounts from the standard FSN Webinar rate throughout the duration of the pandemic.

Commenting Oldland said: "One of the things that I have always found quite incredible within the field service sector is the commitment to knowledge sharing at large within our community, on a global basis. As the leading voice for field service professionals within the world, I feel it is is simply the right thing to do for Field Service News to help facilitate this communication at a time of crisis and I am happy to bear the brunt of the costs in doing so. Field Service is the community we serve and this is just another we can do in that endeavour. 

"I am hugely proud that we are able to offer this facility to not only our subscriber community but also with those within the sector who have yet to become part of the FSN family. Together, I am sure that we will all be able to cope, adapt and then thrive in the face of adversity." 

Oldland's full email to the Field Service News subscriber base is below: 

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In light of the current situation we are all facing with the global pandemic of Covid-19, I would like to announce that Field Service News will be hosting an 'Emergency Symposium: Coronavirus and its potential impact on field service delivery' this Friday at 16.00 hours GMT.

I have already spoken with a number of key industry leaders who are prepared to give their time for free to join a panel for this session to discuss the potential challenges of the situation, as well as looking at best practice at this current time and also how we can utilise technology to help ensure any disruption to field service delivery is minimised.  

The session will be open and there will be opportunity for wider discussion with all attendees. For those of you who cannot make the live date, a recording of the session will automatically be sent out to all registrants - so please do register to attend on the link below. 

https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/7852140705125027853

In addition to this session on Friday we are also creating an ongoing 'Digital Symposium" which will be hosted on Field Service News. The thinking behind this is that as movement is becoming increasingly restricted whilst the virus is contained, we are acutely aware that many industry events, including customer days, conferences and seminars are unfortunately at risk of being postponed or cancelled entirely.

Whilst, this is the sensible route to follow, I appreciate just how much work and effort will have been put into many, many excellent presentations that can help drive our industry forwards together. Having worked with so many of you myself personally, I know just how valuable your insights can be to the industry at large and in times of crisis like this, it is through a continued sense of global community and support that we will be to help drive our sector forward.

Equally, I feel it is essential that we as an industry remain focused on the journey of continuous improvement that will allow us to achieve our common objective of delivering service excellence.

With this in mind I am pleased to offer completely free access to our 'Digital Symposium' to any field service management practitioners who have presentations that were scheduled to take place at any cancelled industry event, that may now not reach their full intended audience. 

If this could be of use to you, email me directly on kris@fieldservicenews.com

Additionally, I am also pleased to offer considerable discounts to any commercial solution providers who can also benefit from presenting on our 'Digital Symposium' and these discounted rates will be in place for the duration of the current pandemic related travel restrictions. 

If you are a commercial solutions provider looking to access the platform please contact Steve White onsteve@fieldservicenews.com

With regards to our own event, The Field Service Expo 2020...

As it is a Q4 event we currently do not anticipate any disruption to this going ahead, but we will of course be monitoring the situation and will keep both sponsors and attendees updated in an honest and transparent manner, as soon as possible should we see any potential issues. 

Finally, I would just draw your attention to the recent additions to our digital portfolio which include research.fieldservicenews.com, thinktanks.fieldservicenews.com and www.fieldservicenews.com/fsn20

These bring together some of the very best insight and intelligence from the global field service community and in addition to our industry leading news and analysis at fieldservicenews.com can provide a wealth of information for the field service manager and director alike, particularly if you are unable to make it to any industry events currently. 

As always, it is with great pride that we at Field Service News serve this excellent global industry and community and I thank you all for your continued support. 

Regards, 

Kris Oldland, 

Founder and Editor-in-Chief, Field Service News

 

 

F-Secure report documents ransomware getting more fearsome, but there’s reason for optimism...

Cyber criminals continued a barrage of attacks in 2019, spurred on by botnets of infected IoT devices and by attacker interest in the Eternal Blue vulnerability. A new report from cyber security provider F-Secure, Attack Landscape H2 2019, documents a steep increase in attack traffic in 2019 that was unmatched by previous years.

F-Secure's global network of honeypots saw 2.8 billion attack events in the second half of the year. After 2.9 billion in the first half of the year, the yearly total rings in at 5.7 billion attacks. For comparison, 2018 saw just over 1 billion attacks, while 2017 saw 792 million.

Traffic was dominated by attacks hitting the SMB protocol, indicating attackers are still very much interested in using worms and exploits related to Eternal Blue. Telnet traffic and attacks hitting SSH were also high, indicating continued, high attacker interest in IoT devices. Malware found in the honeypots was dominated by various versions of Mirai.

While ransomware spam was observed to have dropped during the course of the year, ransomware itself became more targeted and impactful, inflicting greater damage, targeting enterprises, and demanding sums in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Modular malware employed a range of tricks, one of which was dropping ransomware as a second stage payload.

The report also features a look back at the past ten years of information security, a decade marked by spates of breaches, the emergence of nation state malware, and devastating supply chain attacks. But going forward, there is reason for optimism, says Mikko Hypponen, Chief Research Officer at F-Secure.

“The last decade was pretty bad for information security, but the next one will be better,” says Hypponen. “It doesn't always look like it, but we are getting better. In the middle of news on major breaches and data leaks, it might look like it's getting worse, but it isn't. If you look at the level of security tools we were using in 2010 and today, it's like night and day. We are going in the right direction.”

 

Initial product is a Street Macro base station that enables smooth, fast and cost-effective 5G deployments...

Ericsson's smart factory in Lewisville, Texas, has produced its first 5G base station. Announced last year, the factory will be one of the most advanced manufacturing facilities in the industry when it is fully operational later this year.

The first product manufactured at the factory is the millimeter-wave Street Macro solution, which is key to Ericsson’s 5G portfolio for its North American customers. All radio access components are housed in one lightweight enclosure, allowing service providers to rapidly grow 5G coverage in complex city environments.

The Street Macro solution, part of the Ericsson Radio System portfolio, is also helping to provide Ericsson’s 5G-enabled connectivity in the smart factory.

Erik Simonsson, Head of the USA 5G Smart Factory, Ericsson, says: “We’re excited to produce advanced 5G radio products for our U.S. customers, to meet the demand for next-generation 5G networks across the country. It’s also exciting to use our own 5G products in the factory for wireless connectivity to increase production efficiency. With the first 5G base stations now rolling off the production line, we are on target this year to have the most fully automated, sustainable 5G smart factory in the U.S.”

Ericsson’s fast and secure 5G connectivity will enable the smart factory with agile operations and flexible production, utilizing industrial solutions such as automated warehouses, connected logistics, automated assembly, packing, product handling and autonomous carts. Ericsson will initially employ approximately 100 people at the facility.

The new USA 5G Smart Factory complements Ericsson’s global supply strategy, which ensures the company is working close to its customers through its American, European and Asian operations, securing fast and agile deliveries to meet customer requirements.

Cash injection will be used to focus on asset-centric industries, firms says.

ServiceMax have announced $80 million in growth funding led by new investor Salesforce Ventures and existing investor Silver Lake. This additional funding is expected to fuel accelerated growth, deepen product development and support digital transformation and customer experience in verticals such as manufacturing, medical devices, energy, heavy equipment and other industrial markets.

It comes after ServiceMax has earned notable industry analyst recognition, including being named a Leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Field Service Management for four consecutive years, a Leader in the first IDC MarketScape Report for Field Service Management, and most recently named a Leader in the IDC MarketScape Report for Service Parts Management. The investment from Salesforce Ventures further enhances the commitment between Salesforce and ServiceMax, who are long-time partners, to develop innovative breakthrough technologies designed to help customers transform their businesses in field service.

"ServiceMax has been a force in equipment and asset-centric industries for over a decade," said Bill Patterson, EVP and GM of CRM Applications at Salesforce. "ServiceMax's solution on the Salesforce Platform has delivered great value for joint customers, and we look forward to further collaboration."

"We are excited to be joined by our partners at Salesforce Ventures in our investment in ServiceMax," said Ken Hao, Chairman and Managing Partner of Silver Lake. "The announcement validates the company's market position and follows a record-breaking year for ServiceMax, including the largest new customer deal closed and the biggest year in company history."

"Our mission is to help field service teams keep the world running, and the market to enable them with modern, innovative technology is a $34B opportunity," said Neil Barua, CEO of ServiceMax. "We're proud to continue to deliver the most innovative solutions available with ServiceMax's field service management solution, to ensure uptime on the world's most important assets."

 

 

Allison Connected Services now available as an Add-In on the Geotab Marketplace.

Geotab has announced its integration with Allison Transmission, the world’s largest manufacturer of commercial-duty automatic transmissions and a leader in electric hybrid propulsion systems. Now available on the Geotab Marketplace, Allison Connected Services provides fleet operators with real-time data and prognostics to support fourth and fifth-generation Allison transmissions.

Delivering critical transmission health information and prognosis, Allison Connected Services helps to extend the performance and safety of medium and heavy-duty commercial vehicles. Seamlessly integrating with Geotab’s award-winning platform, Allison Connected Services offers insights on diagnostic and maintenance information such as oil and filter life, clutch health and transmission information. Going one step further, drivers will receive recommendations from Allison Transmission on the appropriate next steps to address maintenance requirements, including guidance to the nearest Allison dealer to have maintenance items addressed quickly and efficiently.

“We are proud to launch our partnership with Geotab as part of an ongoing journey to provide fleets with actionable information to support their fourth and fifth-generation Allison transmissions back to model year 2006,” said Branden Harbin, Allison Transmission Managing Director, Global Marketing. “With a shared commitment to powering the global connected vehicle ecosystem by giving customers the insights they need to manage their fleets, we are able to better equip our customers with tools that ultimately help lead to increased productivity, safety and performance in the trucking industry and beyond.”

Allison Connected Services currently supports 1000 Series™, 2000 Series™, 3000 Series™, 4000 Series™ and H40/50 EP™ utilizing 4th Generation Controls software from 2009 through 2017 and currently available Allison 5th Generation Controls software.

“As a leading OEM, integration with Allison allows Geotab to provide a more comprehensive offering to medium- and heavy-duty commercial fleets through a world-class partner,” says Scott Sutarik, Geotab’s VP, Commercial Vehicle Solutions. “With a solution that eliminates the need for separate apps and web pages when viewing Allison data, together we are delivering the kind of trusted, best-in-class fleet management products and services our customers have come to expect.”

Field Service News research reveals a trend for increasing the numbers of service related KPIs... 

A recent Field Service News Research has revealed that while those measuring more KPIs than the average are currently in the minority, the data suggests they are perhaps slightly ahead of the curve. Indeed, just under half of the respondent companies (44%) stated that they had increased the number of field service related KPIs that they were tracking - but the crucial question is why?

The rapid evolution of field service management

As one respondent explained during a follow up interview around the research findings, “The simple fact is that from within a field service operations perspective, we have moved relatively quickly from occupying a space where customer satisfaction was something that was a by-product of what we were generally measured upon, an after-thought to an extent, to become a primary measure of the success of not just the field service operation but also the wider business itself.”

This insight reveals two things. Firstly, it highlights just how profound the broad shift we have seen in field service of the operation being primarily positioned as a cost centre to becoming a profit centre within its own P&L has been.

The findings of the research are both revealing and insightful and could provide a useful benchmark for any field service management professional who is trying to understand how best to monitor their field service operations. As Peter Drucker famously once said "you cannot manage what you do not measure". 

 

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To find out more and also discover the impact of servitization on the KPIs field service companies are measuring check out the latest analysis from Field Service News Research visit https://research.fieldservicenews.com/why-the-numbers-of-kpis-field-service-companies-monitor-are-changing