Olivier Mansard, Masternaut VP Global Sales, was invited by Fleet Europe to a panel discussion in Brussels on 16th May alongside René De Jong, Sales Director Benelux at TomTom Telematics and Hannah Massenhove, Consultant at BDO. They addressed the question “How to get all telematics stakeholders on board?”.
To deploy a telematics programme to a company, it is key to have the mandate and support of the internal organisation. But differences in local culture, scepticism around data privacy, and doubts about the return on investment can be an obstacle. In this session, the panel discussed some of the main issues companies might face when addressing the Telematics and Connected Services topic.
Many European companies are coming up against the same resistance when they put forward their plans for on-board telematics and GPS vehicle tracking: the fear of being "policed". It’s especially true with the pressure of unions in France, for example.
Hannah Massenhove, a management consultant, highlighted the importance of having a discussion with all stakeholders and notifying them to ensure they’re all on board. “Stakeholder management should be the first step,” she said. “People have to see what they stand to gain.”
“Telematics is the future but we have to make it positive for the drivers,” Mr Mansard added. Masternaut has released a brochure explaining the key mechanics of introducing telematics: ‘Managing social relations when introducing telematics to your organisation’
For personal journeys, Masternaut has also developed a 'private mode', allowing drivers to disable the telematics device from recording any data, a step to help improve user acceptance.
In fact, these fears represent a fairly classic reluctance, with which managers and consultants will be all too familiar: resistance to change.
“We’re changing mobility fundamentally,” added Mr Mansard. “It’s not only about data, it’s about a complete change to how we use mobility.”
In order to make the on-boarding process easier for everyone involved, we worked with customers who have been through telematics adoption to produce a guide, that includes:
1) The approach and attitudes to adopt
2) Which methodology should be applied
3) The communications that need to be created
4) The arguments to put forward
You can download it here for free.