Roadmap - Vehicle tracking and fleet intelligence news - May 2014

Frotcom - Vehicle Tracking . Fleet Intelligence | Tel + 351 214 135 670 | www.frotcom.com Angola |Belgium |Brazil |Bulgaria |Cameroon |Cape Verde |Colombia |Cyprus |Croatia |Egypt |Georgia |Greece |Italy |Kenya |Kosova |Luxembourg | Macedonia |Madagascar |Mauritius |Morocco |Namibia |Portugal |Reunion Islands |Romania |Rwanda |Seychelles |Sierra Leone |Slovenia | South Africa |Spain | Tanzania |Uganda |UK |

Roadmap monthly newsletter

1

V e h i c l e T r a c k i n g a n d F l e e t I n t e l l i g e n c e N e w s

Editorial

n a famous interview given by Steve Jobs to Business Week Online on Apple's

resurgence, in 1998, he said “It's really hard to design products by focus groups.

A lot of times, people don't know what they want until you show it to them.”

This quote became legendary and subject to intense discussions. To what extent

must companies design products based on customers demands; and to what

extent must innovation be disruptive to the point where customers will not be

able to really understand the new concepts until they are brought to life?

I would argue that usually a mix of both ingredients is necessary in order for a

company to be successful.

In Frotcom, about 70% of the new features are directly based on or inspired from

needs which come from real clients. This is absolutely necessary if we want the

product to correspond to the customer wishes and needs.

The rest of the time and resources are used to innovate in directions not directly

demanded by customers.

There are two reasons why some of the development must be disruptive.

1. Steve Jobs was right in the sense that sometimes customers are so used to a

certain way of doing things, that it would be hard for them to request a

completely different approach. Customers are somewhat conditioned to

request evolutions, not revolutions.

2. Moreover, we need to be able to predict what will be in demand a few

years from now, if we want to keep leading the way. The hype cycle

proposed by Gartner shows

that we must not only

concentrate on what is popular

today; we must make sure that

enough investment is done in

R&D in order to have a product

which will be popular a few

years down the road.

Valério Marques, CEO - Frotcom International

A note from the editor – If you would like to have your own say in the next edition of this newsletter, please do not hesitate to get in touch at [email protected].

I In this issue

News and Events

Frotcom’s new website went live

Frotcom Sierra Leone kicks off a new radio campaign - THINK FROTCOM!

Frotcom Lusitana in the news

New features

Refuelling and drainage icons on the

maps

A new form to protect user logins

Case Study

Frotcom is of real value to IPC Travel business operations

This and much more…

May 2014

http://www.frotcom.com/

mailto:[email protected]

Frotcom - Vehicle Tracking . Fleet Intelligence | Tel + 351 214 135 670 | www.frotcom.com

Angola |Belgium |Brazil |Bulgaria |Cameroon |Cape Verde |Colombia |Cyprus |Croatia |Egypt |Georgia |Greece |Italy |Kenya |Kosova |Luxembourg | Macedonia |Madagascar |Mauritius |Morocco |Namibia |Portugal |Reunion Islands |Romania |Rwanda |Seychelles |Sierra Leone |Slovenia | South Africa |Spain | Tanzania |Uganda |UK |

2

News and Events

Frotcom’s new website went live

Roadmap is pleased to announce that Frotcom has just released its brand new

website.

It was time the new website grew up a little bit, not just aesthetically but also in

functionality. The innovative new site features improved usability, with more images

and in-depth information about Frotcom, vehicle tracking and fleet management. It’s

not only a marketing and sales tool, but also a full scale informational hub.

The brand new website is part of the company’s on-going effort to enhance the

quality and availability of information to company owners, fleet managers, drivers

and everyone interested. Visit Frotcom’s new website at www.frotcom.com.

Frotcom Sierra Leone kicks off a new radio campaign - THINK FROTCOM!

Last month Frotcom Sierra Leone launched a new radio campaign, that is running on

Capital Radio until June 2014. The transcript of the 36-second spot is as follows:

“Thinking vehicle tracking? Think Frotcom!

Think Frotcom for Sierra Leone’s ONLY solution to comprehensive fuel management,

monitoring consumption, automatically reporting drops and refuelling.

Think Frotcom for exceptional support, after-sales and full fleet management

services with internationally trained staff and countrywide coverage.

Think Frotcom as the global leader in fleet management technology. With offices in

33 countries, and soon in Guinea and Liberia.

For a free trial call Frotcom on 078 403 720 or go to frotcom.com.”

The full spot can be heard on Frotcom’s YouTube channel.

Roadmap congratulates Frotcom Sierra Leone for this successful campaign!

Global NCAP urges Fleet Managers to opt for ‘five

star’ safety

Global NCAP has published new guidelines for organisations operating vehicle fleets, recommending that they only buy ‘five star’ cars.

The fleet safety guidelines advise fleet purchasers to select vehicles that have been rated by New Car Assessment Programmes (NCAPs) with the much coveted ‘five star’ safety rating. Global NCAP also recommends that fleet managers confirm that the cars they purchase meet the most important minimum United Nations vehicle safety standards.

Global NCAP Secretary General David Ward said: “Any organization can improve safety by carefully selecting the vehicles it uses. Global NCAP encourages all fleet managers both public and private to make ‘five star’ safety their goal in the UN Decade of Action.”

For companies with global operations and fleets, the lack of regulation by governments in emerging markets and the absence of independent crash tests has become a real concern.

Source: GlobalNCAP.org

Did you know?




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3T0ZpRvU3os&feature=youtu.be

http://youtu.be/e0jWLh9Ma2s

http://www.globalncap.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/FleetBuyersGuide.pdf

http://www.globalncap.org/global-ncap-urges-fleet-managers-to-opt-for-five-star-safety/



3

News and Events

Frotcom Lusitana in the news

The considerable work carried out by Frotcom Lusitana in promoting Frotcom is

bearing fruit and they are now a regular presence in the specialized Portuguese

media, such as Eurotransporte, HiperSuper, Logística Moderna and Turbo

Oficina, among others.

The company ensures that more businesses are aware of the solutions provided by

Frotcom and more professionals will consequently consider it for tracking and fleet

management services.

Roadmap congratulates Frotcom Lusitana for this initiative!

New Features

Refuelling and drainage icons on the maps

Companies using Frotcom’s Fuel Management module, can see on the map

(Vehicles > Map) the locations where refuelling and drainage operations were

detected for a vehicle.

An infobox is shown when you place the mouse cursor over the icon. It contains the following information:

Refuelling or Drainage

Fuel volume

Location and/or Place

Restricting logins through IP addresses

As a form of additional protection against the use of credentials by unauthorized users, your company may want to limit the locations from where users can login.

To do it, at the bottom of each user’s login dialog, you have a section named Login IP restrictions.

By default, the restrictions field will be empty. This means that Frotcom will allow this user to login from any location, as long as he/she uses the correct credentials (username and password).

To add a restriction based on the IP location, i.e. on the location where the computer must be in order for the login to be authorized, enter the authorized IP addresses, separated by semi-colon (“;”).

Note: this restriction applies only to the desktop version of the application. The access to the smartphone (mobile app) is managed simply through a user-permission, as these devices usually login from mobile networks.

You can use an asterisk to specify that any number from 0 to 255 is valid. For instance, 165.198.1.* means that any IP from 165.198.1.0 to 165.198.1.255 is valid.

You can also use the pencil button next to your own IP address at the top of the dialog, to automatically add it to the list:

Attention: make sure you know exactly how to specify the correct IPs, otherwise the user’s login will not be authorized.

After making the changes, click Save.

Tip of the month!




4

Case Study

Frotcom is of real value to IPC Travel business operations

To ensure business and customers demands are met, IPC Travel chose Frotcom

to efficiently track and monitor their vehicles, saving a large amount of time in

its daily operations and also promoting customers safety.

Founded in 1989, IPC Travel is Sierra Leone’s leading travel agency in all travel

and tourism related services such as tours and excursions, hotel reservations,

vehicle rentals, among other services.

IPC Travel sought a solution which could help them to efficiently track and

monitor their vehicles.

Frotcom was recommended to IPC Travel by Cerra Automotive – the

leading automotive sales, service and repair centre and themselves a Frotcom

Sierra Leone client. After researching on Frotcom’s website and going through

the demonstration process, IPC Travel was able to see the real capabilities of the

solution and decided to install it in its 15 vehicles.

According to Mr. Julian Williams, Logistician at IPC

Travel, “Since we installed Frotcom, our daily

operations have improved significantly and we feel

confident managing our fleet. We have had a

noteworthy gain of time through the help of accurate

reports generated to determine the whereabouts of our

vehicles and planning and organizing the distribution of

vehicles according to our clients’ demands.

Drivers attendance patterns have improved immensely

and our customers have also benefited, by getting a

sense of reliability and security”.

Frotcom is considered of great value to IPC Travel, by way of providing real time

data, which is one of the many benefits listed by the company. It helps to

achieve accuracy when the company is dealing with timekeeping of customer

collections and also to ensure on-time delivery of the rental vehicles to its

customers.

Roadmap congratulates Frotcom Sierra Leone for this successful project!

Next, on

Roadmap

News and events, more

new Frotcom features and

tips will be presented.

This and more, so don’t

miss the next issue of

Roadmap.


http://www.ipctravel.com/