Omnitracs Ties Development Across Acquired Businesses
This story appears in the Feb. 16 print edition of Transport Topics.
DALLAS — Omnitracs and its expanding collection of trucking technology businesses will move forward as “one team,” collaborating on product development to help trucking firms improve their operations, the company’s chief executive said.
“We’ve got a great group of organizations, of people, of technologies and solutions that are starting to interoperate together, and we want to be focused on transforming transportation with technology and insight in a rapidly changing world,” CEO John Graham said here Feb. 9 at Omnitracs’ first user conference as a stand-alone company. “I think we’re doing some of that today, but we want to do more of it as we work together across our corporation.”
He said joint-development efforts are under way with the engineering and product management teams.
Omnitracs was part of Qualcomm Inc. before Vista Equity Partners purchased the business for about $800 million in November 2013.
Less than 15 months later, the now-independent company has completed two major acquisitions to broaden its offerings. It purchased routing software firm Roadnet Technologies in December 2013 and more recently acquired XRS Corp., a provider of fleet-management software for smart phones and tablets, at the end of October.
Graham said Omnitracs has doubled in size since the spinoff, with its global employee count now surpassing 800.
The company helps its customers manage nearly 1 million mobile assets, including telematics, routing and trailer tracking, in more than 60 countries across the globe, he said.
The company also said it enables more than 100 million data transactions per day for its customer base of nearly 30,000 for-hire and private fleets.
Before its separation from Qualcomm, Omnitracs acquired fleet-management software company Sylectus and predictive analytics firm FleetRisk Advisors, which it recently renamed as Omnitracs Analytics.
Other company executives also outlined some of Omnitracs’ development plans.
Chief Operating Officer David Post said the company is looking at ways to combine its product lines to provide drivers with greater productivity outside the cab for functions such as proof of delivery, photos and customer surveys.
Meanwhile, Roadnet is improving its routing algorithms to take into account such external factors as weather, traffic and accidents, he said.
That’s of interest to Nathaniel Mann, CEO of The Made-Rite Co., a soft-drink distributor based in Longview, Texas. He said he attended the conference to gain knowledge about how to get the most out of his Roadnet routing software as well as to learn more about its new parent company, which he knew little about before the event.
Omnitracs also envisions partnerships with truck manufacturers and suppliers to deliver more detailed vehicle diagnostics and prognostics, Post said.
Chief Technology Officer Dan Speicher said Omnitracs is investigating a hands-free interface for drivers to interact with the company’s in-cab software.
“Using voice-recognition technology, we will keep the driver’s hands on the wheel and his eyes on the road while voice-based prompts can alert the driver of upcoming events on the journey ahead,” he said.
To combat texting while driving, the company is considering an application to report or interfere with personal cellphone use while the vehicle is in motion, Speicher said.
Omnitracs also is looking at building a database of dangerous roads or intersections so drivers can choose to avoid those areas, he added.
Speicher also shared details about the development of the company’s next-generation software platform, a project it referred to as the Omnitracs Telematics Integrated Solution, or OTIS.
Rather than asking customers to choose among different mobile computing platforms with different hardware, OTIS will use one hardware set to deliver bundles of software tailored to a trucking company’s business needs, he said.
Omnitracs also plans to deliver its future applications through tablets and smart phones, using either Omnitracs’ own telematics module or one provided by an original equipment manufacturer, Speicher said.
“We’ll have a philosophy of developing software that will work not only with the hardware that we provide but also with third-party hardware, or maybe OEM hardware if they provide it,” he said.
The conference’s Dallas venue reflected Omnitracs’ recent relocation of its corporate headquarters there from San Diego to be closer to more of its customers.
