GPS Fleet Tracking for Added Sales

I passed a blue Sears Appliance Repair van with a white satellite dish on the roof yesterday and it reminded me of their business strategy. The white dish serves as both a satellite uplink and GPRS link to the Internet. The vans are basically mobile WiFi centers. They are able to be tracked via GPS and they are able to provide some significant benefits for the service technicians that drive the vans.

The vans have both satellite uplinks and GPRS connectivity so when there is poor wireless connectivity, the van's communications can automatically switch over to the satellite uplink technology and continue communicating. This is a relatively expensive option, but Sears reports that it is worth it. What is the value proposition?

Sears reports that providing each of their service technicians with live access to CRMs (customer relationship management) systems, customer records, warranty information and product catalogs helps them sell more products and services at the point of work - the customer's home. They have measured these sales and report solid ROI.

The ROI is not what might have been expected. The relatively expensive communication system that each van has is equally used for GPS fleet tracking and to increase sales and improve onsite customer service.

It is important that GPS fleet tracking vendors and users think about the whole business process and the customer interaction when contemplating ROIs. Sometimes the ROI comes from a broader set of business drivers that initially assumed.

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Author Kevin Benedict
Independent Mobile Strategy, Sales and Marketing Consultant
www.linkedin.com/in/kevinbenedict
http://kevinbenedict.ulitzer.com/
http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/
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Dynamic and Mobile Inventories and Location Based Services

On the blog, Mobile Applications Australia, the author discusses the concept of dynamic and mobile inventories and location based services. The idea is some products may not have enough demand from one store location to sell out. They may have ordered too much inventory and even with discounts the product does not have enough demand at one store to sell out, but the demand across 10 stores may be sufficient to sell all of the inventory.

The excess inventory can be loaded into delivery vans and as the inventory nears each store location LBS alerts can be sent out to each subscriber's Smart phone or other mobile device announcing the availability of discounted inventory for a limited time.

It seems to me that LBSs may be able to revolutionize a lot of retail processes over the next 5 years.

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Author Kevin Benedict
Independent Mobile Strategy, Sales and Marketing Consultant
www.linkedin.com/in/kevinbenedict
http://kevinbenedict.ulitzer.com/
http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/
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Managing Cases and Children's Care with Mobile Applications

A technology writer that I enjoy reading is Philippe Winthrop. He recently wrote about a mobile software application that he learned about that helps case workers take better care of kids in this article.

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Author Kevin Benedict
Independent Mobile Strategy, Sales and Marketing Consultant
www.linkedin.com/in/kevinbenedict
http://kevinbenedict.ulitzer.com/
http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/
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More on Dynamic Ride Sharing - Avego

I was once told by a mentor that once you come up with an idea, it is released to the world for everyone to ponder. Last week I was pondering the concept of dynamic ride sharing and wrote an article about it (read here). Will that idea was already released to the world through a company called Avego. It appears they are executing on the idea, which of course is what makes them different from me. I just pondered the idea over a cup of coffee and they were building a company.

Avego claims that the average driver has $3,000 per year in extra passenger capacity in their vehicle. If they could simply advertise the extra capacity via their iPhone's mobile software application, then many more people could car pool. I love the idea and will be watching Avego closely.

Could that same concept be used for cargo, tools, equipment? I have a pick-up truck and you need to move some boxes. I need a chain saw and you have a chain saw. Of course there are plenty of challenges to these models, but it is interesting to ponder.

Best of luck Avego!

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Author Kevin Benedict
Independent Mobile Strategy, Sales and Marketing Consultant
www.linkedin.com/in/kevinbenedict
http://kevinbenedict.ulitzer.com/
http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/
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Dynamic Ride Sharing Mobile Applications

I am fascinated by the concept of dynamic ride sharing services and the challenging issues surrounding it.

Mobile handheld devices with integrated GPS technologies open doors to all kinds of services never before possible.

Think about this concept - a driver opens an application on her iPhone and notifies the DRS (dynamic ride sharing) service that she will be driving from point A to point B at 4 PM. The DRS system computes the distance and posts the ride details to subscribers with a ride value of $8.55.

Interested subcribers (riders) register for the ride. The driver reviews each potential riders' referrals and online record and accepts up to 3 riders. The acceptance process then sends the Driver's details to the riders for review and acceptance.

At the designated pick up location, each rider confirms they are in the vehicle via email, iPhone application or text message. Upon the trip completion, the driver and each rider completes a brief trip report that is sent to the DRS service and shows up on each of their online records.

No money changes hands in the vehicle. All financial transactions are completed online between the accounts of the driver and riders. The DRS service collects a fee on each transaction.

What are your thoughts? What an interesting way to better utilize cars, make your trip greener and share costs.

There is a mountain of challenges to this concept, but I would like your thoughts.

Read Part 2 of this article.

- Kevin Benedict,
Mobile Strategies Consultant, SAP EDI Expert and Technology Writer