Asset tracking and Internet of things (IoT) provider Orbcomm Inc. said today it has addeddata analytics capabilities to its industrial IoT solutions products, a move that could allow customers to improve their operational efficiency by identifying real-time trends in their asset-based data, the company said.
Rochelle Park, N.J.-based Orbcomm released the cloud-based analytics service to leverage its telematics and IoT products portfolio, with a focus on the transportation and logistics, supply chain, and heavy equipment markets.While Orbcomm's telematics solutions already provide real-time operational and transaction data for customers in these industries, the analytics service will provide more in-depth results, including descriptive, predictive, and prescriptive analysis, the company said.
According to Orbcomm, those analytics capabilities could produce results in a range of logistics applications, such as: refrigerated transport operational performance, operational cycle and dwell time management, condition delivery management, fleet driver performance, predictive machine breakdown and shutdown, preventative maintenance planning, and business optimization.
By turning to analytics to seek solutions for more efficient operations, Orbcomm joins other logistics technology providers such as JDA Software Group Inc., TMW Systems Inc., andMercuryGate International Inc. Providers say that applying analytics to transportation data unleashes the power of computers to do a better than humans at analyzing multiple variables, refreshing records with real-time data, calculating optimal methods, and even acting on those findings.
Orbcomm is also investigating the use of another popular new technology—blockchain—through its membership in the logistics technology trade group Blockchain in Transport Alliance (BiTA). That initiative could improve operations in the transportation supply chain by enabling more secure data sharing and leading to better end-to-end visibility, streamlined manual paper operations, enhanced communications, and optimized efficiency, the firm said.
