What unique value does the partnership between Ford PRO and Targa Telematics bring to customers?
Axel Backof: “Il valore della partnership tra Ford e Targa Telematics risiede nella fornitura di dati integrati e continui, di livello OEM, provenienti direttamente dal modem integrato del veicolo e convogliati in una piattaforma all’avanguardia come quella di Targa Telematics.
Il cliente può utilizzare un’unica piattaforma invece di gestirne più di una, fornite da diversi operatori. Inoltre, può beneficiare delle competenze e delle innovazioni sviluppate da entrambe le aziende.
Ford e Targa Telematics aiutano il cliente a migliorare la produttività, ridurre il costo totale di proprietà e aumentare la sicurezza lungo l’intera operatività.”
Alessandro Iania: “Yes, good point Axel.
By combining Ford’s native vehicle connectivity with Targa Telematics’ platform, fleet customer can access and enjoy and benefit from very high value added telematics-based use cases, without having to go through the burden of installing aftermarket telematics devices.
This means faster deployment, lower cost, greater flexibility, and this makes accessible telematics-based use cases, even in cases where going through the installation wouldn’t be possible or commercially feasible.”
How does the collaboration between your companies address the specific needs of fleet and corporate customers?
Axel Backof: “It depends on the use case. Companies face many challenges to run their business.
The synergy of our partnership offers several unique advantages for commercial customers to manage successfully the challenges of the future. Our partnership provides customer possibilities to improve the operational efficiency and cover safety and compliance topics.”
Alessandro Iania: “I would like to add on that the partnership was designed to adapt because every fleet is different. So in some cases Ford Pro is feeding data directly into Targa Telematics’s ecosystem.
In other cases, such as for example, in Turkey, we support Ford Pro by installing our certified aftermarket devices into vehicles that are not OEM ready, so they become connectivity ready.
This allows us to bring telematics value to any customer, any vehicle, and any business context.”
What were the main challenges in integrating data and technologies? How did you overcome them?
Alessandro Iania: “Well, merging two different ecosystems means tackling different data models, protocols, and compliance framework.
So essentially we need to have two different IT departments sitting together, having bi-directional integration meetings, that are required to carefully design new APIs, and be the liaison between two different data structures.
A weekly joint workshop, iterative testing, and open communication are key to succeed.”
Axel Backof: “The main challenges, in integrating data and technology, could be the technical deviations in data interpretation. The reason is we have no unified API construction in Europe.
Also, security and data privacy topics are important points. Changes and adjustments must be implemented quickly and must be legally reviewed.
In our regular meetings, we discuss these topics and find solutions for our customers.”
Can you share a real example of co-creating new services or data features together?
Alessandro Iania: “Targa Telematics and Ford Pro are positioned at different levels within the value chain, so we are closer to the customer, and we do have periodic meetings together where we share the feedback coming from the customer.
Such feedback availability translates into new features or new data points available. And this is, in my opinion, a concrete example on how together we can move from integration to innovation, for the sake of our customers.”
Axel Backof: “We have regular meetings via web or Face-To-Face. We talk about developments and trends in our business environment.
For example, electronic vehicle development, more and more companies move to electronic vehicles for various reasons.
How can we cover features like battery range monitoring charger location assistance, and more?
We both have the ambition to create higher value for our customer satisfaction to cover all specific customer needs. Together, Targa Telematics and Ford, we can provide more than an integrated cloud-based platform.
We work on solutions and services to face the challenges for the future also for our customers.”
