How geo-management software improves the company–customer relationship: the Location World case

Location World is an innovative company: it provides the first platform in Latin America offering advanced telematics data services to connect vehicles, manage fleets and develop new services and applications that benefit drivers, passengers, insurers and companies across the transport ecosystem. 

Its distinctive business model — working with Internet of Things connectivity, specifically in vehicles, combined with cloud-based processes and a Software as a Service model — lets it offer a wide range of services and improve the experience of different players in the automotive industry through vehicle connectivity. Its services are not only about data: it also builds that connectivity by installing hardware, a process it usually outsources through partnerships. Some of the most valuable data it captures covers mobility patterns, vehicle usage levels and driving habits, and is therefore useful in different ways to its potential clients.

Location World's clients are varied within the automotive ecosystem: data on driving habits, for example, can help improve the management and monitoring of a fleet, or give an insurer a score for a driver under a Pay How You Drive or Pay As You Drive model. Location World's fleet management services bring valuable information to vehicle rental companies, car sharing and car hailing operators or car dealerships, while other uses of connectivity or its installation involve repair shops, installation companies, other suppliers of products or services tied to the automotive industry, or roadside assistance services. Finally, the ability to connect vehicles can produce valuable mobility insight for national or municipal government bodies.  

Location World offers clients the ability to make their vehicles connected, according to each specific information need, and provides a cloud platform that centralizes the information coming from the Connected Car. Its solutions come as PaaS (Platform as a Service) and SaaS (Software as a Service), where the telematics data generated can be integrated into different applications. Its data services are subscription- and connectivity-based, and its field operation involves partnering with technicians who install the devices that create that connectivity, both in individual vehicles and, at greater scale, in fleets. 

The challenge: making the client relationship more responsive

Before the solution GDW Services provided, Location World's field operations had no systematic tracking or control; work orders and their coordination were managed through Google Calendar. There was, therefore, a need to build processes that would make the client relationship more responsive — especially around time management — and that would integrate cleanly with the company's internal systems. 

Since its systems were already highly digitized, integrating the GDW tool had to avoid any overlap with Location World's established processes. It had to find room for new solutions where systematization and automation were missing, and fit smoothly with the processes already in place. 

The solution: a phased integration of GDW Services

The versatility of GDW Services suited how Location World works internally and the logic of its processes, so there was clear potential to improve, in various ways, both the control of technical field work and customer relationship management, or CRM. 

GDW Services was integrated in phases: first came the control and recording of technicians' activity and the assignment of field jobs; in the second phase, relevant metrics were built from the information the first phase generated; and in the final phase, work focused on integration with Location World's internal systems so the processes already in place would become steadily more automatic. 

For Location World, the GDW Services tool went from working as a satellite or supporting tool to being embedded in the service delivered to clients — as part of payment management, in controlling payments to installation companies, in billing control, in after-sales services, in field control and as a record of work history per client and per technician. For us at GoDoWorks, that marked the resounding success of the rollout. 

The benefits achieved

The rise in productivity from implementing GDW Services was between 20% and 25% and showed up as better use of time which, for the technicians, meant a more manageable operational load. It also became possible to measure the technical capacity of operating partners and contractors, so the relationship with each could be weighed and improved. On the client side, waiting times fell by more than 3 hours on average; that necessarily points to higher satisfaction and quality.

Field staff could now be monitored, with positive effects on productivity, and a record was created that gives the service history of each technician and client, improving the relationship with each and providing valuable insight for sales, after-sales or human resources management. That history is a valuable asset: it brings knowledge and transparency to working and commercial relationships, and it is a direct sales and customer service tool.

As a result of the phased rollout and the integration with Location World's internal processes, the GDW Services tool gave them a greater degree of process systematization and automation than they had before. This was achieved smoothly within an already technology-driven working environment, by learning the company's own logic and building a relationship of mutual trust. That let us bring improvements to operational, administrative, financial and numerical controls that had a positive impact on the company's internal life and on the quality of its service.

In summary:

• Control of field staff, measurement of technical work and a history of technical work, none of which existed before and which made it possible to optimize field operations.
• Automated operational control, including better financial control.
• A better client experience, with shorter waiting times and fuller knowledge of each client's history.
• A phased rollout of what the tool can do.
• As a result of these benefits, a rise in productivity in the range of 20% to 25%.