Data tracking, data analysing and data storage firms have been around for a long time now, especially in the insurance industry where predicting who is most likely to lead to a claim can be the difference between the company making millions in profits or crashing and burning under the weight of too many claims. However now with the growth of the telematics industry, we’re seeing a lot of the data management firms growing exponentially, one of which is Plant-i Ltd, from Machynlleth, Wales.
Celebrating its 10th year of operation in 2014, Plant-i is having a boon of a year, thanks to its new developments in telematics. It’s recently secured a £2 million contract with a company it’s been working with some time, almost trebling its income from that one stream. This is all thanks to the company’s push for telematics in fleet vehicles and with more data tracking and analysing to be done than ever before, it’s in a perfect place to take advantage.
This isn’t the only boon the company has seen as of late though. Since December, it’s tripled the size of its offices and has taken on six new staff, almost doubling its existing work force. There’s also further plans to expand this year, with another three positions now opening up in the wake of the recent contract deal.
Plant-i has other, big ideas in the works too. Thanks to a £20,000 investment by the Welsh government and a further £100,000 of its own funds, Plant-i will be developing its own database and telematics portal, allowing other firms to correlate with their own data, insurers to gain an insight into specific fleet driver habits and for fleet operators themselves to have a centralised location with which to look at and analyse their own data.
“Having our own database will improve overheads and control, enable us to deliver bespoke applications very quickly and open up new markets for the company,” said managing director Sam Browne (via Dailypost).
However Plant-i is expanding its telematics operation even further, by looking to the consumer as much as the enterprise. There’s plans to release telematics services to end users, offering tracking of their vehicle, a specific asset, or even an individual person. Initially designed to offer tracking for vehicles like caravans and trailers, ones that don’t typically provide their own power, it’s expected to see expanded use in other smaller vehicles too, like bikes, quads and boats.
Plant-i has differentiated itself in the industry, by offering daily rates for vehicles often under a pound each. This allows not only fleet managers to take advantage of the technology, but individuals to add extra security to mobile property while they’re away, or to trial the services for a while to see if it matches their needs.
It will be interesting to see as Plant-i grows, whether other companies will take up its business practices, or if we’ll see new ones emerge as other small firms take advantage of the booming telematics trade.
