PowerFleet Profile
PowerFleet, Inc. is a global leader of Internet-of-Things (IoT) solutions providing valuable business intelligence for managing high-value enterprise assets. The company's patented technologies are a proven solution for organizations that must monitor and analyze their assets. The company's offerings are sold under the global brands Powerfleet, Pointer, and Cellocator.
All of the company's solutions are paired with software as a service (SaaS) and analytics platforms to provide an even deeper level of insights and understanding of how assets are utilized and how drivers and operators operate those assets. These insights include a full set of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to drive operational and strategic decisions. The company's customers typically get a return on their investment in less than 12 months from deployment.
The company's enterprise software applications have machine learning capabilities and are built to integrate with its customers' management systems to provide a single, integrated view of asset and operator activity across multiple locations while providing real-time enterprise-wide benchmarks and peer-industry comparisons. The company's solutions also feature open application programming interfaces (APIs) for additional integrations and development to boost other enterprise management systems and third-party applications.
The company markets and sells its connected IoT data solutions to a wide range of customers in the commercial and government sectors. The company's customers operate in diverse markets, such as manufacturing, automotive manufacturing, wholesale and retail, food and grocery distribution, pharmaceutical and medical distribution, construction, mining, utilities, aerospace, vehicle rental, as well as logistics, shipping, transportation, and field services. Traditionally, these businesses have relied on manual, often paper-based, processes or on-premise legacy software to operate their high-value assets, manage workforce resources, and distributed sites; and face environmental, safety, and other regulatory requirements.
Solutions
The company provides critical actionable information that powers unified operations throughout organizations. The company is solving the challenge of inefficient data collection, real-time visibility, and analysis that leads to transformative business operations. The company's SaaS cloud-based applications take data from its IoT devices and ecosystem of third-party and partner applications to present actionable information for customers to increase efficiencies, improve safety and security, and increase their profitability in easy-to-understand reports, dashboards, and real-time alerts.
Key Applications of IoT Solutions
The company provides real-time intelligence for organizations with high-value assets allowing them to make informed decisions and ultimately improve their operations, safety, and bottom line. The company's applications enable organizations to capture IoT data from various types of assets with devices and sensors creating a holistic view for analysis and action.
Services
Hosting Services: The company provides the use of its systems as a remotely hosted service, with the system server and application software residing in its colocation center or on a cloud platform provider's infrastructure (e.g., Azure, AWS). The company's hosting services are typically offered with extended maintenance and support services over a multi-year term of service, with automatic renewals following the end of the initial term.
Software as a Service: The company provides system monitoring, help desk technical support, escalation procedure development, routine diagnostic data analysis and software updates services as part of the ongoing contract term. These services ensure deployed systems remain in optimal performance condition throughout the contract term and provide access to newly developed features and functions on an annual basis.
Maintenance Services: The company provides a warranty on the hardware components of its system. During the warranty period, the company either replaces or repairs defective hardware. The company also makes extended maintenance contracts available to customers and offer ongoing maintenance and support on a time and materials basis.
Customer Support and Consulting Services for Ease of Use, Adoption, and Added Value: The company has developed a framework for the various phases of system training and support that offer its customers both structure and flexibility. Major training phases include hardware installation and troubleshooting, software installation and troubleshooting, train-the-trainer training on asset hardware operation, preliminary software user training, system administrator training, information technology issue training, ad hoc training during system launch and advanced software user training.
The company supplies a broad range of documentation and support, including videos, interactive online tools, hardware user guides, software manuals, vehicle installation overviews, troubleshooting guides, and issue escalation procedures.
The company provides its consulting services both as a standalone service to study the potential benefits of implementing a IoT business intelligence solution and as part of the system implementation itself. In some instances, customers prepay the company for extended maintenance, support and consulting services.
Growth Strategy
The company intends to prove value, retain and grow business with existing customers and pursue opportunities with new customers by focusing its business solutions by vertical markets and go to market strategies to each market; positioning ourselves as an innovative thought leader; maintaining a world class sales and marketing team; identifying, seizing, and managing revenue opportunities; expanding its customer base, achieving wider market penetration and educating customers with mixed assets in their organization about its other applications; implementing improved marketing, sales and support strategies; identifying and quantifying benefits expected from its solutions; accelerating transitions from implementation to roll-out; building service revenue through long-term SaaS contracts; differentiating its product offering through analytics, machine learning, unique sensors, and value-added services; and expanding its partnerships and integrations.
The company also plans to expand into new applications and markets by pursuing opportunities to integrate its system with computer hardware and software vendors (OEMs, transportation management systems, warehouse management systems, labor and timecard systems, enterprise resource planning, and yard management systems); establishing relationships with global distributors; and evaluating and pursuing strategically sound acquisitions of companies.
Sales and Marketing
The company's sales and marketing objectives are to achieve broad market awareness and penetration, with an emphasis both on expanding business opportunities with existing customers and on securing new customers.
The company markets its systems directly to commercial and government organizations and through indirect sales channels, such as OEMs, vehicle importers, distributors, and industrial equipment dealers.
In addition, the company is actively pursuing strategic relationships with key companies in its target markets, including complementary hardware and software vendors and service providers to further penetrate these markets by embedding its products in the assets its systems monitor and integrating its solutions with other systems.
The company sells its systems to corporate-level executives, division heads and site-level management within the enterprise. Typically, the company's initial system deployment serves as a basis for potential expansion across the customer's organization.
The company works closely with customers to prove out a return on investment, which is usually less than 12 months, and help maximize the utilization and benefits of its system and demonstrate the value of enterprise-wide deployments. Post-implementation, the company consults with its customers to further extend and customize the benefits to the enterprise by delivering enhanced analytics capabilities.
Customers
The company markets and sells its wireless solutions to a wide range of customers in the commercial and government sectors. The company's customers operate in diverse markets, such as automotive manufacturing, retail, food and grocery distribution, logistics, shipping, freight transportation, heavy industry, wholesale distribution, manufacturing, aerospace and vehicle rental.
The company enters into master agreements with its customers in the normal course of business. These agreements define the terms of any sales of products and/or services by the company to the applicable customer, including but not limited to, terms regarding payment, support services, termination and assignment rights. These agreements generally obligate the company only when products or services are actually sold to the customer thereunder.
Some of the company's global customers that benefit from its combined solutions to power their specific IoT and machine to machine mobility needs include Avis, Walmart, Toyota, and XPO Logistics.
Research and Development
The company's research and development costs included $8,964 for the year ended December 31, 2022.
Intellectual Property
Patents
As of March 9, 2023, the company's patent portfolio included 38 U.S. patents, 3 pending U.S. patent applications, 3 pending foreign patent applications, and 2 foreign patents. With the timely payment of all maintenance fees, the U.S. patents have expiration dates falling between 2024 and 2040.
Trademarks
The company has or have applied for, the U.S. and/or foreign trademark protection for I.D. SYSTEMS and Design, the I.D. SYSTEMS Logo, VEHICLE ASSET COMMUNICATOR, POWERFLEET, POWERFLEET VISION, POWERFLEET IQ, POWERFLEET YARD, VERIWISE IQ, ASSET INTELLIGENCE, didBOX, FREIGHTCAM, KEYTROLLER, REEFERMATE, POWERFLEET and Design and CAMERA Design.
Government Regulations
The company's products intentionally transmit radio signals, including narrow band and spread spectrum signals, as part of their normal operation. The company has obtained certification from the FCC for its products that require certification. To market and sell its integrated wireless solutions in the European Union, the company also utilizes unlicensed radio spectra and has obtained the required European Norm (EN) certifications.
Since 1996, the company's subsidiary Pointer Telocation Ltd. (Pointer) has held an operational license, which is renewed on a regular basis, from the Ministry of Communications in Israel to operate uts wireless messaging system over 2 MHz in the 966 to 968 MHz radio spectrum band. It also obtains licenses from the Israeli Ministry of Communications in order to manufacture, import, market and sell its products in Israel.
The company's subsidiary Pointer Argentina S.A. (Pointer Argentina) obtains domestic licenses for the deployment of its SVR operation in Argentina and local operators are required to obtain a specific license for their operations.
The company is registered by the Federal Department of Security in Mexico to provide its services. The company's subsidiary Pointer SA (PTY) Ltd. (Pointer South Africa) is urrently registered as a security service provider under the Private Security Industry Regulation Act, 2001 in South Africa. The company's products are also listed with the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa.
History
PowerFleet, Inc., formerly known as I.D. Systems, Inc., was founded in 1993. The company was incorporated in the state of Delaware in 1993.
