Fleet Monitoring System, A Data Explosion

We're experiencing a 'sonic boom' caused by the explosive growth of data in the digital universe – that's according to IDC in the latest *EMC Digital Universe Study. They predict that from 2013 to 2020 the digital universe will grow by a factor of 10x – from 4.4 trillion gigabytes to 44 trillion. They go on to say that 'this explosion of data doesn't really mean much if one can't capture, integrate, and analyse the wealth of data to uncover new insight about your customers, products, markets, and operations.*

It's a crucial point for companies that use fleet monitoring systems. Ever more sophisticated systems allow us to gather ever greater amounts of data – on speed, location, braking, acceleration, fuel usage, ignition time, site stops and so much more. But what can we do with this vast mountain of data? How do we understand and make sense of it? And more importantly, how can we use this data to improve our business and sharpen our competitive edge? This is where visual dashboards and business intelligence analytics offer some answers.

A dashboard within a fleet monitoring system brings together data visualisation and wireless technology to transform the way fleet managers process complex information to make decisions. A dashboard displays real time data clearly and effectively through easy to read charts or graphs. Dashboards are made up of a number of individual charts called widgets and each of these mini-applications is designed to do just one job, like monitoring all drivers in a fleet for instances of over speeding or the amount of time an engine has been idling. The human eye can identify critical patterns more easily when information is presented as a chart rather than as rows of numbers. It is this summary of the data on a dashboard that allows fleet managers to focus on key trends, comparisons and exceptions, thereby helping them to make effective operational decisions in situations that may change minute-by-minute.

Business intelligence analytics as part of a fleet monitoring system allows a fleet manager to load all the data into a processing server, select a range of customisable business rules to apply to the data, and set KPI targets. The analytical database then generates data to help managers identify ways to improve the performance of the fleet against the selected targets. It allows managers to identify, implement and measure policy deployment, and provide insight into the strategic use and operation of the entire fleet. An added benefit is being able to see, monitor and measure the key KPIs across the business which allows senior management to engage more with management teams.

Effectively utilising vast amounts of data is the key to business success in a rapidly evolving world. Dashboards and business intelligence analytics offer the means to harness the data explosion, enabling you to make better business decisions and keeping you out in front of your competitors.

*EMC Digital Universe Study with research and analysis by IDC. The EMC Digital Universe study, created in conjunction with IDC, is the world's only study to quantify data produced annually. The 2014 report projects the growth of the digital universe through 2020.*