Equipment World Digital Magazine
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/674536
EquipmentWorld.com | May 2016 45 A s we've reported in previous Telemat- ics 101 articles, getting started in this technology is easy. When you buy a new machine from a major OEM or buy a "black box" from a third party vendor, you simply go to the designated website and keep track of the machine or truck in question. This can yield a lot of useful data and tracking information; the low hanging fruit, so to speak. But to get to the next level – to get your telematics data feeds to auto-populate a spreadsheet or back offi ce software system – is a signifi cant challenge and one that is just now being tack- led by contractors and construc- tion companies. There are a lot of companies such as SAP, Edwards, Tim- berline and Viewpoint, that sell back office software to all kinds of businesses, including construction companies. These software packages are typically referred to as ERPs, or enter- prise resource programs. Ad- ditionally, there are companies that make construction specific software for bidding and esti- mating, job costing and track- ing, and maintenance schedul- ing and record keeping. In an ideal world, the telemat- ics data streaming off your ma- chines would come straight into your company servers and fi ll in all the blanks in all the relevant ERPs and construction manage- ment programs. But unfortunate- ly, the telematics data from your equipment and the programing behind your back offi ce soft- ware probably don't speak the same language. What you need is a translation between the two, and that (in most cases), means a custom API or application pro- graming interface. If you want to go this route, you'll need to hire a consultant telematics 101 FEEDING TELEMATICS DATA INTO BACK OFFICE PROGRAMS by Tom Jackson and Dan Samford