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Q3 helps leverage cutting edge technology for a successful commercial product

Q3's global sourcing model gives the maximum benefit to customers in terms of cost savings, improved quality, access to highly talented professionals, flexibility of operations and reduced time to market.

Company Profile

• The client is an industry leader with one of the largest, most diverse fleets — more than 125,000 units — delivering customer focused services centered on renting, leasing, selling and remarketing trailers. The client operates an extensive network of more than 100 branches in Canada, the United States and Mexico.

Business Situation

The client conceived a trailer management system that would allow fleets to pinpoint trailer locations. This system would not only help the client to provide value added services to its customers, but also improve asset utilization and operational flexibility. Not to limit its offering of asset tracking for units leased/rented, the client was looking at a solution, which would allow customers owning units to track their assets as well. They looked towards an offshore partner who could provide them with valuable expertise in this area. Q3, with its vast experience in web-based applications, partnered the client on this challenge to design and develop a suitable solution with the following objectives:

• Allow the ever growing, client customers, to locate trailers anywhere in North America, including Mexico and Canada
• Provide location information including street address, city, state, zip and country
• Display roadmap's with zoom levels - ranging from street level to national level
• Provide daily notifications of trailer location at factory pre-set time and a customer initiated location request
• Export data for further analysis
• Allow owners to locate carriers/private fleets that carried sensitive or high value loads.

Solution

The developed Asset Tracking System uses a dual satellite technology for sending and receiving information for trailer locations anywhere in North America. The system includes a transceiver and battery pack, which are mounted together on the nose of the trailer. Q3 designed and delivered the complete functionality of the Asset Tracking System in five modules, through the much-acclaimed onsite-offshore model of delivery. The five modules are:

Inventory Management - Enables the client Customer Support team to maintain inventory of devices. It has features of tracking the complete history of devices, which undergoes various phases of acceptance/inspection/rejection.

Device Setup - Web-based module wherein the Customer Support team sets up the device required before the end users can actually start tracking their trailers.

Application Website This web-based interface includes the following features:
Customers can send a request for information on the location of the trailer, including street address, city, state, zip and country
Customers can track the trailer movement for the last 30 days
Data can be exported for further analysis. Roadmap's can be displayed with zoom levels ranging from street level to national level.

Benefits

• Improved the client customer service throughout North America; better control of assets allows customers to better manage their operations
• Tremendous reduction of costs through improved utilization and productivity of assets
• Well-designed web interface positions the client above competition for similar functionality
• Extended use of the Asset Tracking System across the client's other businesses.
• Shorter time to market for the client products by exploiting the benefits of a fully functional Offshore Development Center (ODC) in India, particularly the development process being continuous due to different time zones.
• Business model and culture at Q3 entails ownership of the product development process. It is not only the team members who are dedicated to a client; it is the whole company management which works in complete tandem and efficiency to ensure that the relationship is seamless and successful.
• Migration to newer technology was achieved in a very cost effective solution on account of being able to cut down resource costs from average $90,000 to approximately $30,000 per resource.