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The second international Telematics Conference Middle East & Africa was celebrated in Dubai in early March. The main topics discussed were the current trends and obstacles in the region, new perspectives in the global telematics industry, and successful entry strategies to these rapidly growing and developing telematics markets.
Conference website: www.telematics-conference.com/mea
Technological Innovation Changing the Game in the Fleet Telematics Market
Commercial vehicle markets are witnessing a technological revolution due to on-going innovation in the fleet telematics market. Dominique Bonte, Vice President and General Manager, B2B, at ABI Research, explained how technological innovation impacts traditional aftermarket TSPs and OEM technology: "For traditional aftermarket telematics service providers, this represents opportunities in terms of new partnerships but also a threat as OEM technology will replace and/or make redundant legacy telematics features."
Telematics Value Chain: Challenges and Opportunities for the Industry
The first panel moderator Dominique Bonte, VP and GM, B2B, at ABI Research, hosted different stakeholders involved in the telematics value chain. Panel guests Ethem Eldem, Senior Director/M2M & Internet of Things at Etisalat, Samir I. Abdul Hadi, CEO at SamTech Middle East, and Stefan Schnitzler, Importer/Dealer Support Manager at MAN Truck & Bus Middle East and Africa, presented a global market overview and shared their views on current trends in the telematics industry.
Needs of Modern Fleets
Conference day 1 ended with an interesting panel with representatives from transport and logistics companies. Johan Alberts, General Manager of Corporate Transportation at Al Futtaim Logistics, Brent Melvin, General Manager - Supply Chain Solutions at Massar Solutions, and Kashif Rafiq, Director at Al Sharqi Shipping, presented their experiences, needs, and obstacles in deploying telematics solutions in the region. Panel moderator Sebastjan Vagaja, Head of Business Development at CVS Mobile, revealed that all major world automotive manufacturers are now concentrating on implementing the telematics concept into their vehicles, which is changing the way telematics solution providers will operate in the future and the way transport and logistics companies will integrate and use implemented telematics solutions in their fleets.
Doing Commercial Telematics Business in the Middle East & Africa region
Commercial telematics is growing faster in the Middle East and Africa than in other regions and is therefore challenged by customers' expectations and needs, local regulations and legislation, and technological development and infrastructure. Bassam Alkassar, Founder and CEO at FMS Tech, pointed out that a key success factor for the implementation of telematics solutions in the region is meeting the demand for high levels of service and information transparency in commercial fleets. Many global telematics players are looking to this region, and many have already entered it recently. Volha Smirnova, CMO at Gurtam, discussed market entry strategies for the MEA region and stressed the importance of a "new market - new attitude" approach for this region as it is "essential to address the challenges of regional diversity, low stability, insufficient infrastructure and roads."
Industry Collaboration Crucial for Successful Telematics Deployment
To build alliances and cooperation across the telematics industry is of great importance for a successful business growth. According to Elie Aad, Group Director IoT & M2M at Etisalat Group, cross-industry collaboration increases commercial reach and improves customer experience. Didier Nulens, Global Sales, Marketing and Operations Leader at Transics, continued: "The reason for frequent collaborations and alliances in the industry is to face the fast technological progress and to remain technology leaders." Hazael Hernandez, Technical Account Manager at Meitrack, emphasised that a whole new IoT world will evolve on account of the global M2M growth. To be able to lead the game, companies need to "change, innovate, adapt, and evolve," concluded Hernandez.
Optimizing Advanced Telematics Solutions
Approximately 10 billion devices around the world are connected to the internet today and the number is expected to increase up to 1 trillion devices by 2020. Therefore, Mohammad Albataineh, Worldwide Sales Leader, Internet of Things at IBM, encouraged the attending companies that they "ready your business for cognitive IoT - start small, grow fast, and connect data that matters." Increasing the efficiency of business processes with telematics brings maximum added value to the client. Igor Poliscuk, Head of Sales to Middle East and Africa at Ruptela, explained in more detail the benefits for the company: "Higher margin, no price competition, huge customer loyalty, scalability and versatility, innovation."
Telematics Can Help You Meet Your Business Goals
The last conference panel, moderated by Jan Cools, CEO at Be-Mobile, highlighted the current telematics solution development in the region and addressed burning issues such as the pains TSPs' customers have and how successful telematics companies integrate these solutions in customers' business processes. Both panel guests, Zaim Z. Azrak, CEO at Location Solutions - Middle East, and Corey Catten, CTO at inthinc, agreed that return on investment (ROI) is crucial for their customers as well as for their own business development.
Telematics Startup
The programme ended with Telematics Startup that connected 3 carefully selected startups with the telematics industry on regional and global levels: GoSparc, Dynamon, and Mobiliuz.
See you in 2017!
"Thank you for attending and welcome to join third edition of Telematics Conference Middle East and Africa in Dubai on March 8-9", concluded Nevena Knezevic, Project Manager at Telematics Conference.
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Additional information:
Spela Koderman
Marketing Communications Manager
M: +386 31 686 010
E: spela@telematics-conference.com
W: www.telematics-conference.com
Short event description:
The Telematics Conference Middle East & Africa is an annual global event held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. As the only telematics focused conference and exhibition in the region, the event hosts all key stakeholders in the telematics industry from all over the world. It highlights telematics as a value added service in fleet management in the region, with special focus on telematics for commercial vehicles, smart fleets, and integrated solutions. The conference offers great insight into the current and future development of the industry in the region. With carefully selected speakers from different segments of global and local telematics, with many networking possibilities, and with dedicated exhibition, the event is guaranteed to be the best business opportunity for all companies interested in telematics in the Middle East and Africa.
© Press Release 2016
