Telogis partners with Nissan: Telogis VP Kevin Moore explains

On the eve of the announcement that telematics and software management specialist Telogis has entered into a partnership with Nissan with regard to Nissan Connect, Vice-President OEM Sales at Telogis, Kevin Moore, spoke to us from his office in Dallas to explain the company’s thinking.
 
Global Fleet: What exactly is happening?
Kevin Moore: The exciting thing about this is that for many months Telogis has been working with Nissan in Europe to bring about a partnership between our two companies, to really power the next generation of the Nissan Connect telematics solution for commercial customers. We have been working together both on the technology and on the solution set for customers. This will allow Nissan customers to take advantage of the rich data which flows from a Nissan vehicle. This is for both traditional engines and EV’s.
 
Global Fleet: Is this just for commercial vehicles?
Kevin Moore: It is for light commercial and other commercial vehicles, but in Europe there are many corporate clients with car fleets, and these fleets will be able to take advantage of the data too. We are sensitive to European privacy laws, of course, and we have technology which allows the system to be logged off when the car is being used privately, and no longer to be tracked by the company. But companies supplying cars as part of a compensation package also have a duty for care and maintenance of the vehicle, and our capabilities help this too. Nissan is embedding connectivity into all of their vehicles so this is very robust and very secure.
 
Global Fleet: Is this your first such partnership?
Kevin Moore: No, we have been powering Ford Telematics for many years, and we have relationships with GM, Volvo, Mack Trucks, Hino and Isuzu for example. This agreement is almost a first for corporate fleets in Europe with cars, but with Ford we have working on cars, and we will go further down this route.
 
Global Fleet: Is the Nissan partnership on a global level, or just for Europe.
Kevin Moore: For now it’s focusing on Europe, but we expect this to expand to other regions in a further stage. The official launch is for the final quarter of this year.
 
Global Fleet: Explain exactly what the role of Telogis is in this partnership.
Kevin Moore: We provide the mobile resource management platform, the software platform that enables the customer to consume the raw data coming in from Nissan vehicles in a way that enables them to understand, interpret and use it to run their businesses from an operational standpoint, from a vehicle maintenance standpoint, and even from a driver safety standpoint. The data goes to our cloud platform so the customer can access the data anywhere, any time and from any device. The customer just needs a subscription with Telogis or Nissan Connect, and then just has a password. There is no extra box unit in the car, just the Nissan equipment.
 
Global Fleet: Can other parties such as fleet management companies have access to this data?
Kevin Moore: Nissan has embedded equipment that it puts into the vehicles itself. Unlike some systems where the data flows directly to the Telogis cloud, with Nissan it flows to the Nissan cloud and they can share that data with third parties. Nissan is not restricting customers from working with other suppliers, just letting them know that the best data use comes from the Telogis platform.
 
Global Fleet: Will the other brands of the Renault-Nissan Alliance be joining?
Kevin Moore: I can’t comment on other brands of this Alliance or other OEM’s except to say that there isn’t a mainstream OEM in Europe that we’re not having discussions with. Connected vehicles is a subject on the agenda of every manufacturer, and they have to decide whether they select a partner or build it themselves.
 
Global Fleet: What is the USP of Telogis compared to its competitors?
Kevin Moore: I think it is that we recognise that the best source of data is the OEM, because they are the ones who know the electrical architecture of the vehicle, and the data that comes from it. We are focusing on mobile resource management as a whole, not just a single point like telematics. I think there is a set of applications around driving behaviour, safety, routing and scheduling, which is unique to the Telogis platform. I believe we have more OEM partnerships than any other company.
 
Global Fleet: Do you find it frustrating that in Europe there are so many individual regulations and rules between countries?
Kevin Moore: We have always addressed these questions, and we know that data privacy and security are issues to be looked at. So we work with the countries that are most stable in terms of their laws, first. Where they have very good and structured data laws, we know what we’re doing. And there may be some standardisation across the EU in time, I believe.