24 October, 2018

Easy integration of telemetry data in your ERP system

Why have telematics data in your ERP and how to push it there most efficiently.

There is no lack of information in today’s world, however, there is information that does not yield maximum benefit due to inefficient utilization. Having loads of telemetry data sitting in isolation in the comfort of your database and being used just once to build a monthly report is a vivid example of such inefficiency. To take the most out of the telematics data, make it a part of the bigger (and smarter) whole — your ERP system.

Where ERPs are heading?

  • SaaS — everything is going to the cloud, ERPs are no exception. Having all the information accessible from any location, any device, and any operating system is a must in the dynamic world of today.

  • EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) — saving trees, reducing risks, increasing reliability. Computer-to-computer exchange of business documents in a standard electronic format helps eliminate human error, decrease delivery time, and be sure the document is compatible with the recipient system.

  • AI/BI — reports are not enough anymore. Artificial intelligence algorithms can generate non-trivial solutions or offer unexpected approaches to business tasks. Business intelligence enables a better understanding of trends over time, helps detect the weak spots, and make informed decisions.

  • IoT — details make the picture more realistic. Every bit of data collected from hundreds and thousands of connected devices adds to the higher probability of correct decision, makes machine learning more accurate, and allows proactive troubleshooting.

  • Customization — no two businesses have the same needs or identical business processes.  So no two ERPs should be configured alike. Having the right data processed in the right manner to deliver maximum value to the business is what a suitable ERP should be able to do.

Why have telemetry data in ERP?

The above trends in the ERP systems evolution clearly indicate the importance of having the data related to all facets of the business — not only financial, accounting, supply chain and the like, but also human resources metrics, IT infrastructure status, telemetry data from your fleet or corporate vehicles, sensors data from the IoT devices (be it vending machines, temperature sensors on the shop floor, smart meters or anything else).

Here are some of the reasons to have your telemetry data fed into the ERP or another enterprise-wide platform:

  • Better visibility of transportation-related processes and their share in the cost structure. Senior managers whose job implies monitoring and aligning operations of different departments will greatly benefit from having transportation data together with other logistics and transactional data to see dependencies and potential areas for improvement.

  • Analysis and forecasts — joint analysis across departments and functional areas helps find non-obvious interrelations and try to foresee and prevent the unwanted situation in the future.

  • Cost optimization — transportation is always a major expense factor that includes fuel, maintenance, insurance, legal issues, etc. And usually, there’s high chance to shave off some overhead and make the process leaner.

How to push telemetry data to ERP?

There are several ways to get the data from GPS trackers into the company ERP. Let’s see what they are and how they differ.

  • Fleet management platform API. If you are already monitoring your vehicles in a specialized software, you may rely on its API to extract the telemetry data and put in inside ERP. However, not all GPS monitoring solutions have open API, not always is it flexible enough to get what you want, and not always do the fleet management platforms operate quickly and consistently enough for uninterrupted access.

  • Export/Import. You can export the telematics data from a monitoring software into an external database and then request it from there in your ERP. In this case, you will unlikely get the real-time (or near real-time) data; the databases are often bulky, require professional administration, and may imply significant expenses.

  • Flespi telematics hubFlespi is dedicated to providing the highest quality connectivity services. Flespi is a cloud platform based on innovative technologies, powered by a specialized telematics database, and some capabilities that it offers are truly unique. Let’s see how flespi can help with ERP integration.

    • Proxy  — imagine you can send your telemetry data to several destinations simultaneously. Having flespi as a gateway for the data from your GPS tracking devices you can then transparently forward it to up to three platforms, e.g. a fleet management platform, an ERP, and a backup database. Moreover, you can use flespi as a remote device management platform to configure your tracking devices over the air.

    • Rich & flexible API — flespi has a super-handy API that gives access to every bit of data in an instance. Due to the platform’s high availability and cloud nature, your data is always at your fingertips.

    • MQTT — the key benefit here is that your data is sent to the destination (e.g ERP) as soon as it gets from a tracker into flespi. This is especially appealing for applications that demand near real-time data for efficient operation.

    • Specialized streams can push the data from GPS trackers into such popular platforms as Google IoT Cloud, Amazon AWS, Microsoft Azure, and more. You can also forward your data to virtually any third-party platforms (including ERPs) via common HTTP protocol.

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When you build a successful company, you hire a professional lawyer, a professional accountant, professional managers, etc.

When you need to integrate telemetry data into your ERP platform, hire professional software and your performance will never be compromised.