Machine 2 Machine Vision

Last week I attended the latest meeting of the Payment Assurance Technology Association’s board of directors that was held in conjunction with the National Automotive Dealers Association (NADA) show in New Orleans. This sub-segment of telematics is currently in a phase of rapid growth due to demand created by the global credit crisis. I love being associated with this group because to me it’s a concrete example of the ways in which telematics and M2M technology can be deployed to solve broader business and social issues. I provide a description of the association and industry below.

The Payment Assurance Technology Association’s (PATA) serves the starter interrupt/GPS tracking industry. The PATA seeks to unify, standardize and validate the activities of the industry and markets engaged in the manufacture, sale and use of technology for monitoring or disabling vehicles and for other applications.

There are different methods applied in implementing payment assurance technology.

• In some systems, the vehicle is fitted with a small box containing a cellular radio, a GPS, and a micro-processor. This box is wired into the ignition system of the vehicle with associated warning indicators installed on the vehicles dashboard. If the customer falls behind in making their scheduled payments, a signal is sent to the box over the cellular network and a color coded indicator light is displayed on the dashboard, warning the customer that they are late in making a payment and that if they do not make a payment in a number of days they are liable to have their ignition disabled. If the payment is still not made after the prescribed number of days, the service company may send a signal to the system, disabling the vehicles ignition. The vehicles location may also be retrieved using GPS in order for the vehicle to be repossessed.

• Other systems are simple keypads that are installed on a vehicle’s dashboard and wired to the ignition system. Warning lights warn the customer that within a predetermined number of days, a code will have to be entered via the key pad in order to keep the vehicles ignition enabled. Customers are provided with the code at the time that they submit their payment.

The PATA and its members are very conscious regarding the safety of the operators and passengers of vehicles fitted with our technology. Systems provided by PATA members will only disable the ignition of a vehicle that is already stopped and turned off. This greatly reduces any potential danger that would be related to disabling a moving vehicle.

The PATA was formed in order to establish best practices and to formulate a set of guidelines under which its members should operate. It’s the PATA’s desire to ensure that the value of this very important technology is understood by all constituents including; the vehicle buying public, government and regulatory bodies, automobile dealerships, and finance companies. It is the PATA’s intention to proactively work with all parties to resolve any industry or social issues related to this technology as soon as they are identified.

The technology provided and deployed by PATA members makes qualification possible for people who would not otherwise qualify to obtain financing for vehicles and equipment. The world wide credit crisis has cut off credit to all but those who have excellent credit. The lack of available credit limits individuals’ ability to purchase vehicles that they may need to get to a job, to college, or to start a small business. The implementation of starter interrupt technology reduces the risk profile for providing financing to these individuals, thus making the financing possible. The technology can be viewed as a behavioral aid for those with poor credit or little credit experience. The payment assurance technology always provides warning lights days in advance, providing customers the tools to aid them in keeping in good financial standing with their finance company and in building a strong credit history. Disabling a vehicle’s ignition is always a last resort as it means that the remainder of the loan will probably not be settled, reducing profitability for the financing company.

Being that I love to observe markets at work, I am particularly interested by the way the broader “telematics” industry is forming up. For the past several years I have worked in what is generally known as the M2M (machine-to-machine) industry of which telematics is viewed as a major segment. I always tell people that M2M is not a segment, but an enabling technology that horizontally crosses multiple vertical segments. In the early days, I simply considered telematics to be one of those vertical segments. I think that previously most people in M2M bundled any applications that were installed in a car or truck as being “telematics”. As applications become more specific – in many cases being pulled in a specific direction by users – it becomes even clearer that the term telematics is much the same as M2M, a general bundling of specific applications that share common technology. By this I mean that the majority of the technology used in deploying a telematics solution is very common, but that everything else, including the value chain, purchasing decisions, etc., are very unique. For example, let’s take two distinct applications:

• Aftermarket AVL
• Sub-prime auto sales payment assurance technology

Both segments use some combination of a wireless radio, a GPS, a basic processor and connectors into the vehicle. So if you are a developer of telematics solutions, you might develop a business plan where you develop one basic platform and then make the specific modifications required for each one of the segments, thus greatly expanding your potential addressable market. This is a very strong strategy, but ultimately it is a technology or product strategy. Many technology companies fail to realize that a unique marketing strategy may be required for each of these segments in order for the overall business plan to succeed. For example:

• In aftermarket AVL, the company that is selling the service will have a business plan, but it is very dependant upon individual sales to individual consumers. There are a lot of issues at work here. What is the distribution or sales channel to the customer? Is the sales staff properly incentivized to proactively sell the product and service? Are they properly trained? Is the service offering attractive to the consumer at a price that communicates value? As a developer of a telematics box, you are dependant on many issues that are completely out of your control.

• In sub-prime auto sales, the sale is not to a consumer or vehicle owner, but there is an economic buyer – that being the finance company. The finance company will decide what features, quality, and cost is appropriate for the business objectives that they are trying to achieve. The service provider will actually be the party purchasing the box, but pretty much with the guidelines for features, price, quality, etc. set by the finance companies requirements. In this case, your shipments and sales will be somewhat more predictable as sub-prime used car sales can be benchmarked using sales history from a particular dealer with deviations being more or less driven by macro economic drivers.

My point in this post is to not lose sight of the unique value chain and market drivers for each sub segment under the telematics umbrella. Addressing multiple sub segments gives you the ability to smooth out the business cycle as each sub segment will move at its own clock speed.