Laying the Foundation for Digital Transformation

Making the decision to implement a fleet tracking solution is a big step in the right direction in staying competitive in today’s high-tech landscape. Every industry is impacted by ongoing technological change and the necessity to innovate, and businesses that act quickly are more likely to adapt, survive, and thrive. McKinsey & Company says, “Advanced technologies are essential to modern enterprises, and it’s fair to say that every large company is working with them to some extent.” Making the decision to implement a fleet tracking solution is just one of many steps that you will need to take as your company and its fleet embraces a technological future.  There are three steps you will need to take before you implement the solution to create a foundation for success: 

Step #1: Establish goals
It may sound obvious, but your fleet needs clearly defined goals for telematics to make a true impact. Simply purchasing, and even implementing, a solution does not ensure you will experience the many benefits afforded by automation. 

Before you even identify a few possible providers, sit down with key decision-makers, company stakeholders and potential end users to discuss what goals you want to achieve in the short and long term. Pinpoint specific challenges your fleet is facing now and how you would like to see those issues resolved. Identify staff’s primary paint points that this solution could help address. Establish a vision for expansion so you can prioritize features and scalability required by your operation. 

Documenting and agreeing ahead of time on goals will give you a roadmap and a standard by which to measure the effectiveness of your investment. It will also help with the implementation process to get buy-in from your employees at all level before the change starts to impact their day-to-day activities.

Step #2: Develop Strategies
Once you have goals in place, lead your organization in creating strategies for restructuring, implementation and training. Goals should be revisited regularly—at least once a year—and strategies should be adjusted accordingly. 

A digital transition can impact every aspect of your fleet in a big way, so strategize how to prepare employees for change and to develop the necessary support. Carry out each modification in phases to allow everyone time to adjust before moving forward with further innovations. 

Be realistic about how much disruption your fleet can handle and how long it might take to transform the company’s operating model and implement your digital strategies.

Step #3: Restructure and Redefine
Even with a solid strategy in place, there will still be challenges as you move forward. Telematics inspires and forces new ways of doing business, and this can require restructuring of a fleet’s staff, an overhaul of your operating model and a revision of policies. Any change of this magnitude has the potential to create anxiety and discomfort.

According to an article in the online business intelligence magazine the McKinsey Quarterly, successful companies employ these cornerstone practices to:

1)    Define technology road maps to drive strategic use of resources
2)    Invest in technology-development capabilities with training managers
3)    Build a modern technology environment that can support multiple, fast-evolving solutions
4)    Ensure a strategic evolution of data assets across the enterprise
5)    Reinforce a commitment to operating-model changes that will capture the business value of new technology solutions
With technological advances occurring at record-breaking breakneck speeds, laying a strong telematics foundation now can make all the difference in weathering future disruption and keeping your business competitive. 

The cycle of goal-setting, strategizing and restructuring will likely need to continue for your fleet to keep up with expanding functionalities of fleet management solutions in the foreseeable future as digital transformation continues.