The Sprint (News - Alert) Webinar on Telematics featured a variety of solutions, but when we polled the audience it was clear that the price of gas might have peeked some interest, but still needed some coaching. 

At the very beginning of the webinar when we polled the audience, it was clear that while they had interest in telematics, they were not sure how to justify the cost of the migration.

Each of the presenters gave a strong presentation about best practices and how to keep an eye on the ROI. Steve Cary from Feeney Wireless showed the advantages for police and ambulance. Joyce Tam from Trimble (News - Alert) showed how workflow could be better optimized, Chris Becwar from Xora showed how the government mandated DL systems could democratize fleet management and Tom Wiese from Sprint discussed the ease of enabling these solutions with wireless services.

I want to feature one in particular because the analysis was somewhat surprising to me. The discussion of fuel efficiency was not highlighted as I expected it to be nor was the audience interested in green strategies. What I came away from this was the corporate descision makers needed to hear more than “Gas cost’s $4.00 a gallon it’s time we make a change.”

They want a business case.

Alex Popov from Vnomics spoke to the issues of economic in telematics and the ways you can justify the cost of deployment. In general there was fuel, maintenance, safety and efficiencies.

My expectation before the webinar was that fuel would be a bigger contributor to the ROI. However, the experience Vnomics has is that fuel savings represent 5-15 percent of the benefits. This was orthogonal to my thinking when they showed the InCab Advisor that helped the driver optimizing their shifting and driving habits. Thinking about this now, this may have something to do with rising cost wiping out some of savings. Efficency likewise was not as high as safety and maintenance.

However, maintenance and safety have an important aspect that may explain why they are the biggest contributors to the return on investment. Namely they are most dramatically changed by constant communication.

Maintenance as a result of the feedback systems goes from a preventative scheduling strategy to a predictive system where the trucks are monitored continually. Likewise the drivers being in constant contact have a Hawthorne effect in their work. 

Keeping the driver connected may change the experience of the driver from a hunter to a farmer, but it also may mean the rewards are more easily harvested.

Want to learn more about M2M technologies? Then be sure to check out the M2M Evolution conference, collocated with TMC’s (News - Alert) ITEXPO West 2011, taking place Sept. 13-15, 2011, in Austin, Texas. The M2M Evolution Conference is for those industry professionals interested in capitalizing on a rapidly growing segment of the telecom industry. The M2M Evolution Conference embraces the any-to-any strategy of the Internet today. Co-sponsored by TMC Partner Crossfire Media, it showcases the solutions, and examines the data strategies and technological requirements that enterprises and carriers need to capitalize on a market segment that is estimated to grow to $300 Billion in the year ahead. To register, click here.