Omnitracs CEO Sees Expansion Opportunities Targeting Midsize Fleets, Private Carriers

This story appears in the Aug. 11 print edition of Transport Topics.

Since separating from Qualcomm Inc. last year, Omnitracs executives have set out to accelerate the company’s growth by expanding into new segments of the trucking market, the company’s CEO said.

The trucking technology business, which was purchased by Vista Equity Partners from Qualcomm for $800 million in November, aims to increase business among midsize and private fleets and expand internationally, CEO John Graham said. The company will maintain its traditional strength with large, longhaul truckload carriers.

Graham, who assumed leadership of Omnitracs within days of the sale, has overseen such key developments as the acquisition of route-planning software provider Roadnet Technologies in December.

“We’re going to invest in our business so we can grow,” Graham said in an Aug. 4 interview with Transport Topics from the Dallas office building that will become home to Omnitracs’ corporate headquarters next year. “That’s what we’ve been working on and communicating to our team.”

Omnitracs also has brought in a new team of executives and announced plans to move its corporate headquarters to Dallas from San Diego early next year to be closer to many of its fleet customers and to enable it to take advantage of the region’s transportation and logistics expertise.

Graham said Omnitracs’ lower-cost MCP50 platform was “a good first move” toward boosting its business in the mid-market. The company might introduce other products to reach that segment as well, he added. The MCP50, launched in 2012, offers applications for electronic logging, driver-behavior monitoring, vehicle tracking and communications.

“There are certain needs there that are different from the high end of the market,” he said. “We want to be able to address both.”

The company also offers products such as its MCP200 in-cab platform, for customers looking for greater capabilities.

The Roadnet acquisition also extended its reach to the private carrier market, Graham said.

Meanwhile, he said, the product development staffs at Omnitracs and Roadnet are working to enhance the integrations of their offerings.

“There’s interest within our existing Omnitracs base for some of Roadnet’s capabilities,” he said. “At the same time, Roadnet has a lot of customers who are interested in telematics.”

Graham said the acquisition of Roadnet, combined with Vista’s investments, means it is the dawning of a “new day” at Omnitracs.

He said Vista’s approach represents a change from Omnitracs’ position within Qualcomm. “They were a small part of Qualcomm,” he said. “They weren’t a focus anymore.”

Qualcomm pioneered the use of onboard communication systems in trucking in the late 1980s, but the company’s trucking segment was dwarfed eventually by the dramatic growth of its chipset and licensing business. Qualcomm’s entire operations generated revenue of $24.9 billion last year.

“Omnitracs has a great legacy that goes back many years. We want to make sure we respect that and continue to build on it,” Graham said.

Since its acquisition by Vista, Omnitracs has hired Jordan Copland as chief financial officer, David Post as president and chief operating officer, Dan Speicher as chief technology officer and David Vice as chief sales officer.

The company has also seen the departure of several high-profile leaders, including Norm Ellis, who had been Omnitracs’ vice president of sales and marketing for about a decade.

In the past, Ellis had been “the face of a lot of what we did,” Graham said, adding that Omnitracs will ensure its new executives also engage with customers and the industry at large in the marketplace.

Omnitracs has brought in more than 100 new employees since its acquisition by Vista, he said, with much of the new hiring centering on the company’s engineering and sales ranks.

Graham said he sees an opportunity for Omnitracs to grow internationally. The company already has business throughout the Americas, and the acquisition of Roadnet adds a presence in Europe and parts of Asia, he said.

Omnitracs also will look for more acquisition opportunities, he said.

Omnitracs also plans to host a user conference Feb. 8-11 in Dallas that will combine the user events of all of its business units, including Roadnet, Sylectus and FleetRisk Advisors.

Graham said that event will help Omnitracs solidify its new identity.