There were many excellent machine-to-machine solutions on display at the recent Battle of the Platforms event at M2M Evolution, but none were quite as impressive as the solutions demonstrated by the overall winner of the event, Omnilink. Omnilink’s solutions have their origins in the offender tracking space, but recently the company has been branching out into other areas, including a trailer management initiative that relies on M2M solutions expert Sprint’s (News - Alert) network.

According to Steve Hudson, chief development officer at Omnilink, the company’s platform was developed to track parolees and offenders sentenced to home arrest. It soon became evident that the platform allowed users to track the hardest assets of all: those who do not want to be tracked. Omnilink soon branched out into other areas, working with the Alzheimer’s Association and the AmberWatch Foundation, expanding across a variety of use cases and monitoring and tracking the assets that matter most. The company’s 24/7 support and monitoring software, extreme redundancy (to five nines) and robust feature set allows it to branch into many different verticals and industries.

Recently, Omnilink has used its infrastructure, support and business-to-business portal to help it transition into the trailer management space. Omnilink has a strong relationship with M2M solutions expert Sprint, which has offered the Omnilink solution to customers. Trailer management companies needed to track their assets to know where cargo was located and to prevent theft.

Omnilink found that the trailer market is large but underserved. There are five million trailers but only 5 percent use tracking solutions. Fleets have been asking Sprint for solutions, and Omnilink’s existing platform was well-suited to the task. For example, in the trailer space, “detainment” refers to when a trailer is immobile at a particular spot for a length of time. Companies wanted detainment reports, and Omnilink already had existing “Stops Reports” that gave the relevant information. It was just a matter of changing the terminology to reflect the particular vertical.

Trailer companies tend to buy three trailers for every cab they own, but Omnilink solutions can help address this issue and provide immediate ROI. By eliminating poor asset management practices that have existed for years (such as driving from location to location and manually counting assets), companies will cut down on the need to buy additional trailers.

The hardware from Omnilink boasts batteries with long life, meaning they do not need frequent recharging and can last in the field for years. Omnilink also provides an automated audit trail of where assets are, where and when they are moved and more. Partnering with Sprint, Omnilink provides an easy-to-use Web portal that allows companies to view any assets, create reports and more.


Edited by Rachel Ramsey