How Business Intelligence and Advanced Fleet Analytics can Drive Increased Revenue

By Ulrik Pedersen

Heavy equipment companies today have a huge amount of data at their fingertips – from machine IDs and location to internal ERP data and external data like weather. Companies that use this information to their advantage can become “data-driven” organizations – meaning they can make relevant and quick decisions based on data, and ultimately improve their bottom line.

But, looking at the myriad information available can also induce headaches. How do you make sense of it all to deliver relevant insights? By applying Business Intelligence (BI) and advanced analytics, heavy equipment companies can gain valuable insight into their fleets, better understand customers’ needs, and increase ROI.

Data Discovery

The first step toward becoming a data-driven company is the data discovery phase. This is where the organization takes stock of the data it has access to, and begins tracking changes over time. For example, a heavy equipment company should measure when rental equipment is being utilized to ensure employees and/or customers are being productive with that equipment. A BI tool can tell you which models are being used a lot, and which aren’t. BI can also help you determine maintenance needs. Reviewing the total maintenance on a particular piece of equipment compared to its income will provide perspective into the resources that are available, and allow you to predict when a breakdown will occur.

Data Delivery

Once the data discovery stage is complete, the data delivery phase begins. It’s important for data to be deployed company-wide, but this can get tricky, as different people within the company want to view data in different ways. For example, the CEO may prefer daily metrics with a high-level overview of results tied to key performance indicators. But, they likely won’t be interested in all the details and configuration. On the other hand, the IT operations team would prefer to see exactly how the data was sliced and diced. Heavy equipment companies should utilize a tool that not only provides flexibility but adaptability for user adoption, to ensure each title within the company gets the right information they need to make intelligent decisions.

Gathering all of this data and distributing it across the company might seem like a daunting task. And, for companies doing this on their own, it would require a large IT team. But, many BI and analytic tools available today allow the company to streamline this process. Analytics can help you use data to maximize efficiency and ultimately, increase your revenue.

Ulrik Pedersen is COO and CTO for TARGIT. He grew the organization from a startup team of three people to 25 highly skilled and dedicated individuals and he catapulted the number of TARGIT clients in North America. He holds a master of science in economics and business administration, B2B marketing from Aalborg University.

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How Business Intelligence and Advanced Fleet Analytics can Drive Increased Revenue was first seen on Construction Today Blog