Dive Brief:

• Heavy equipment manufacturer John Deere has partnered with Westfield, IN–based LHP Telematics to develop a single-source telemetry solution that gathers data from all fleet machinery in one location, according to For Construction Pros.

• The enhancement to John Deere’s WorkSight telematics solution combines all manufacturer telematics platforms into a single application portal.

• Integration of disparate fleet telematics data is expected to help contractors streamline fleet management decisions, eliminate manual data collection and entry, and reduce the need to switch between different OEM telematics portals based on the fleet machinery being used.

Dive Insight:

Since the July 2016 adoption of a mixed-fleet telematics standard by the ISO, telemetry solution providers are quickly moving to integrate disparate equipment data feeds onto a single platform for visualization and analysis. EquipmentShare, for one, which provides a platform for the rental of idle machines and heavy equipment, recently received $26 million in venture capital funding to help build a mixed-fleet telematics solution for its customers. OEMs like John Deere, CAT, Case and Komatsu are likewise exploring how to optimize data across fleets of mixed makes and models.

Machine telematics promises enhanced equipment and fleet maintenance and operation, as well as predictive analytics for optimizing run times, idle times, service scheduling and more. But ownership of data has been a stumbling block to integration. Third-party solution providers like EquipmentShare and Uptake seemingly have the physical test beds to build out a mixed-fleet solution but are often funded in part by OEMs.

Likewise, John Deere’s development of a platform to integrate telematics data across mixed fleets seems beneficial for some manufacturers but could lose its luster among companies like Case or Komatsu with little influence over how their machine data is analyzed and presented to the contractor end-user. While data standardization goes a long way toward establishing parity across OEM telematics data sets, how predictive analytics solutions interpret that data and make recommendations to customers remains a competitive intellectual property issue that still needs sorting out.