Expert Insights Series: Choosing the Right Telematics Provider

We're joined again this week by Joel Waithman, Senior Channel Manager here at BSM. We sat down with Joel to get his perspective on what companies and organizations should look for when choosing a telematics partner, and more specifically, the right Geotab partner.

BSM Blog Crew (BBC): Thanks again for your time, Joel. For this post, we want to share with our readers exactly what sets BSM apart from other telematics providers. Could you share with us a few highlights?

JW: For sure. Number one has to be our experience in the industry. BSM has been in the telematics industry for over 20 years! Whether that's deploying Geotab or our other solutions, our history and experience have enabled us to understand our client's fleet challenges and perfect our ability to provide a tailored solution that suits their needs.

Number two is our professional services team. The breadth of professional services we have available to manage a deployment is unparalleled. Whether it's a small, medium, or large-scale 1000-plus unit deployment, we put the best team together to ensure that the integration occurs seamlessly and with as little disruption to our clients operations as possible.

BBC: Let's dive into the team a bit. What types of professional services should fleet managers be looking for in a provider, and does BSM check all those boxes?

JW: Solutions engineers are key, and BSM has a large group of them, enabling us to match our engineer's skills with our client's requirements. They work with the client to understand all the challenges they're running into so the solution can be built to suit their needs. BSM absolutely checks this box.

But backing up a little, the approach we take at BSM is to dedicate a project manager, technical account rep, technical trainer, and field service team to our deployments right from the start. Together with the solutions engineers they create a full team and support the client right at the onset. There's always a statement of work (SOW) that clearly identifies the key performance indicators (KPIs) the client needs our help in achieving, so we're held accountable.

BBC: Is this not standard practice in the industry?

No, absolutely not. In fact, some Geotab resellers only have a few employees in their entire company. They might sell a client a few hardware devices and the software, then check back with them in a few weeks. They have very limited resources and no support. If you ever come across a company which operates this way, do not work with them! You'll be left to navigate the telematics deployment alone, which can be frustrating and time-consuming.

BBC: I can't think of anyone who would prefer to navigate a hardware deployment and technology alone over having a team to work with.

JW: Exactly. Our installs are done with such precision and attention to detail that we set our customers up for success. Our project managers work with field services to identify which unit goes into which vehicle on which day, so everything is ironed out before they even install the product. That attention to detail is something every fleet manager must look for in a telematics provider.

BBC: Before we wrap up, can you think of any other ways that BSM differentiates itself from other Geotab resellers?

JW: What sets BSM apart is the team approach I talked about earlier. Our team works closely with our clients to provide a solution tailored to their needs. We ensure clients can make sense of Geotab's data and that reports and dashboards are customized and able to provide our clients with actionable data. Ultimately, our experience and team allow us to successfully manage deployments of all sizes and scale, and meet our clients needs.

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Feeling like we hit the tip of the iceberg on install and deployment of Geotab with BSM? That's ok because our next post is going to chronicle an actual SOW-through-deployment story with one of BSM's largest customers.

Don't want to wait? Check out our previous posts: