Mark Thomas: 0:03

The common question I get is this is a vehicle. How do you move the vehicle to a cloud, but there is one small piece of the vehicle that you can move to the cloud. And it has an incredible change if you do. And that's the key

Tom Raftery: 0:23

Good morning, good afternoon, or good evening, wherever you are in the world. This is the digital supply chain podcast. The number one podcast, focusing on the digitization of supply chain. And I'm your host global vice-president at SAP Tom Raftery. Hi, everyone. Welcome to the digital supply chain podcast. My name is Tom Raftery with SAP and with me on the show today, I have my special guest Mark. Mark, welcome to the podcast. Would you like to introduce yourself?

Mark Thomas: 0:51

Absolutely. Thank you, Tom. My name is Mark Thomas. I head up, our alliances and marketing team at a company called Ridecell based in San Francisco California.

Tom Raftery: 1:00

Lovely and who or, what are Ridecell?

Mark Thomas: 1:04

Ridecell is a company that, is about the digital transformation of fleets. So I'm excited to talk to you today about supply chain and how that works with vehicles. But our company's birthright is the company that has made a platform so that vehicles can be shared more like a Zip Car, a Car To Go, ShareNow kind of thing. And we've since taken our platform and technology and moved it into all kinds of fleets and brought some of these unique technologies that are used to be just to the domain of the car, share world. Now, bringing it into the supply chain world.

Tom Raftery: 1:39

Okay, can you give me an example of the kind of technologies you are talking about?

Mark Thomas: 1:44

Absolutely. The digital transformation that's taking place is one of those things that's happening in industry. But when it comes to something like an actual physical vehicle, how do you transform it? And today the revolution has been with IOT. It's been with connectivity. People have been putting, either aftermarket telematics into their vehicles and now it's pretty common to get built in telematics from the OEMs or the vehicle manufacturers. It just comes standard because there are so many benefits and there's an entire industry called fleet management. Whose job is to take the signals that are coming off of the vehicles and interpret them, and then take it from raw data into insights. And so that's been kind of wave one of the revolution, but what's happened in this industry is that the, insights come out of the system and they end up on a screen, something went from green to red. They show up as a notification on somebody's phone, or maybe it comes out on a report that gets on sits on somebody's desk until they have time to read it. And, you know, I might be dating myself, but before we called it IOT, we call it M to M machine to machine. And it was because the insights that were coming from machines could actually change the state of the machine and not just. Send a report and say, Hey, I need, I need attention.

Tom Raftery: 3:31

Yeah.

Mark Thomas: 3:33

So that's where we are. We've gone through, the first phase of digital transformation, where, we have all kinds of information. And in fact, when there used to just be one system that was plugged in, you'd use the old ODB, two port, pop it in, and it would broadcast what's happening on the can bus. So that you'd know the state of the vehicle. There are now multiple different systems. It's very common to put in a camera on the vehicle that's inward facing. That's studying the driver behavior and Hey, you've been staring at your phone while you're driving. That's a warning. As you get more systems in place, you get an overabundance of systems that are giving you insights at the same time. And so where it stops is at the fleet manager's inbox or at some fleet supervisor there's phone. And so the, the next phase beyond gathering insights is moving into automation around fleet driven data. We see automation has taken off as a category. For white collar jobs. These are people that say, you know, I get paid the big bucks because what I do, you can't just delegate to a computer. You have, what they found out is you could automate about 50% of a white collar person's job. Just by using a new category of software, relatively new called RPA remote process automation. And that's part of the digital transformation of a white collar job and which, which is genius because honestly it takes the grunt work, the boring work, the routine work off of a white collar person's plate, automates that, and they're able to set up the business rules that say, well, when this condition happens, this is what should take place. In the fleet world where people are dealing with, a thousand vehicles or, 10,000 vehicles having systems that rely upon somebody noticing something on their inbox is not a digital transformation of their industry yet. So the next phase of this journey is to allow these people to create automated workflows, to take the different systems that are in place and use the insights that come from them as triggers for an automated workflow. So for instance, and it's not just information that's coming from the vehicle. Sure, if you detect that, there's low tire pressure or there's a flat tire or pray tell there's an accident, that information real-time can kick off an automation that says call a two truck. Or send somebody out, but there are other kinds of systems where you've got, if you're somebody that rents your vehicles, for instance, and your accounts receivable system says Hey, this person hasn't paid in three weeks, you can set off an automated process that starts to send alerts. Cause that's kinda like the power company you don't pay for, your electricity it gets shut off eventually. Having a system, that's checking all the different solutions and then kicking off the automated workflows is a really important next step for the digital transformation of fleets.

Tom Raftery: 6:59

Okay. And so is it just fleets? And if it is just fleets, is it particular types of fleets? Or, are you going beyond fleets or who are your target customers?

Mark Thomas: 7:11

Well, the digital transformation that needs to take place with any business that has vehicle fleets, is applies to companies that have fleets where the fleet is the business like, uh, rental car company, our original business of car sharing companies. Those all can use a digital transformation to fundamentally change their business. And, and in the case where the, vehicle is the business, you can use this kind of automation to generate more business. Not just save costs and run more efficiently. If you're a company that's using it for last mile or anybody that's worried about their vehicles being stolen, you can set up a different kind of automation that will allow you to run your operations more efficiently, increase the uptime. And if you're somebody in the security and the compliance world, you have the ability to enforce your policies, not just write your policies. So, having the applications of these digital transformations, there are critical for both kinds of industries, but let me say that, just automating two different, either error conditions or business conditions is only the next step. It's not the last step. because the common question I get is this is a vehicle. How do you move the vehicle to a cloud, but there is one small piece of the vehicle that you can move to the cloud. And it has an incredible change if you do. And that's the key. Today anybody holding the key in all practicality has the access rights to drive the vehicle. Somebody steals the key, they get into your car and they drive off. That's a, that's a relatively primitive model. Today if you move the key to the cloud, you have the ability to then have a key that's assigned to an individual, not necessarily a physical key, but maybe an NFC tag, maybe their employee badge, maybe it's just their phone and the app that they've authenticated to that becomes used as their key and the phone establishes a Bluetooth connection to the vehicle. It verifies who you are, or you tap in with your, badge um, that you use to get in and out of the gate at the office and that by making a key associated with an individual versus having a key associated with the vehicle is a dramatic change in how you can structure your workflows. So imagine this, in the situation where your fleet management system detects that there's been a, an issue in the canbus, the malfunction indicator light is on, and the system realizes that, you have a flat tire and this system can be checked prior to a driver showing up, looking at the tire and going, what the heck? You know, now, what am I going to do? I got to go in, turn my, key in pick up the key, to the backup van and have that loaded. Systems like this can automatically check the state of the vehicle and beyond just sending a notification to the driver saying, Hey, your vehicles down, they can issue a digital key to the driver, to the backup van. Seamless for that person. All right. Which parking spot am I going to? Oh, I'm in parking, you know, four to one now. And then, because it can automatically kick off the maintenance that's required the VIN for that vehicle. and the maintenance record saying when is the last time that this tire was replaced, can be sent to the tire repair shop. And they're able to show up with the appropriate size tire, or they're able to show up with a tow truck and, you know, if it requires towing and so that the entire system, in terms of communication, in terms of the information, all of those things are dispatched automatically. And that means. Much much less downtime. It's helps with the drivers satisfaction and, and today keeping the driver happy is actually really important because there's a shortage.

Tom Raftery: 11:31

Yeah.

Mark Thomas: 11:32

So having these ability in the system to not just detect what needs to be done, automatically dispatching it, but then, then having the system, the vehicle state actually change the vehicle state by giving selective access rights. And you know, in the key world we have selective access key. It's called a valet key. When you hand it to the valet. If you have an eight cylinder car, only four cylinders are working for that person or they can't get into the glove box. You can have all kinds of selective access. So if somebody comes to do maintenance, they have the ability to enter the cabin, but not push to start and start the vehicle. So you, you can set up rules based that say for just the right amount of access for the people that need to get in. And because you have the ability to know. When the driver unlocked the door part of the system, and when they started the vehicle, if the system detects that the vehicles moving, but there is no authorized driver, you have an immediate flag that that vehicle is being stolen. So being able to detect movement, if they pull it up on a flatbed. You can detect that if they, they start it, you can detect that. And in fact, you can prevent it because without the appropriate authorization credentials, even if they're holding the physical key, the systems that, that control digitally locking and unlocking the vehicle also have a digital relay buried deep in the engine that serves in a mobilizer. So they can. Drive it off. So we've had customers that are using this system and frequently these vehicles, they take about three weeks to get recovered when. Systems in place. They chose a model that said, look, we're not going to turn the immobilizer on, but if we detect it's being stolen, we'll set the we'll turn the setting on automatically. It says the next time that vehicles stopped putting into park and turned off, they will not be able to restart it. And lo and behold, they stopped three hours later. They can't restart it. They abandoned the vehicle and then our customer just sends their driver down in an Uber, pick up the vehicle, drive it home. That's four hours versus three weeks. And when you're in the business of making money, With the vehicle. That's three weeks of revenue. You've just gained back. Not to mention all the hassle of having to work with the authorities to do a recovery. It's a game changer and all because of one simple act of taking that physical key and moving it into the cloud.

Tom Raftery: 14:29

Nice. Nice. And is security that security use case that you mentioned there is that the big advantage that fleets would get out of it or is reduced maintenance the bigger advantage or, is there some other ratio?

Mark Thomas: 14:47

It again, depends on what you're using the fleet for. So in that case, that's a company that uses those, vehicles, as the means of making money, they rent them out. So in the case of those kinds of companies, having a completely digital process means that their business can be transformed instead of having people have to come. To their lot, where all the vehicles are set up, they can move the vehicles to where the demand is. If college is getting out during the certain week just ship all the vans, drive them all there, leave them there. Students use their phones, put the QR code on the side. And so the idea that people have to go to where your vehicle is, if you're an auto dealership. Why do they have to go to the dealer ship. Why can't they just go to one of the cars that you've parked downtown, where people work and unlock the car, get in, do a 20 minute test drive and then potentially even complete the vehicle subscription digitally from the same app. So these are cases where the business is about. Making money with the vehicle fleets. In other cases, the vehicles themselves are used as an adjunct to the business. It's a fleet driven business, take a last mile delivery company. You can start using this, digital lock in completely innovative ways. We have a solution where, last mile delivery drivers. Their hands are full. They, they take packages out. We're lucky if they shut the door, are they going to reach in their pocket and lock the vehicle? No, they, they leave the keys in the car by having the ability, if they bumped the door closed, by having the ability to do a proximity test to detect that they've left. They're now five feet away from the vehicle. The locks go down the keys still in the car. The immobilizer opens. If somebody tries to steal that car, which has happened quite a bit, more recently, like this is a whole van full of packages with the keys in it. People drive off with them. They take them, you know, 10 blocks away and open up a bunch of packages. Leave the vehicle. This kind of system where you can digitally control access means that you can then, back up and support the driver who just gets out of the vehicle. All they have to do is shut the door locks itself down. They come back with their hands, open the vehicles, unblocked itself when they're five feet away and they get in. If you're a safety or compliance officer, there are rules about when you can and can't drive the vehicle. And every company that has drivers has something called a electric driver vehicle inspection report. And this is where the drivers know, Hey, the seatbelt's not working properly. the fire extinguisher is missing or the, you know, the heat doesn't work and I'm always cold. And those things typically go in and sit in somebody's inbox until, you know, Hey, these aren't critical. The vehicle still runs. Well now you have the ability to use the conditions in the EDVIRs as they're called or information from the can bus, the malfunction indicator or the check engine light, as we're all knowing it as, and even automated systems that when the van returns there's video cameras that are looking at the vehicle and can detect things like the cracked windshield or a bump on the side of the tire, which the tire pressure monitor won't detect. But it's indicative that the tire is starting to fail. Or if they're scratches on the side of the vehicle or a new dent. So having the ability to take all these inputs. Whether it's a driver input, a mechanically viewed input or something from the vehicle itself. And then, have the rules set up by the compliance and safety person that says under these circumstances that this vehicle is locked down and it can't be used until it's fixed.

Tom Raftery: 19:36

Okay. And what, what kind of, what kind of other technologies are critical for the digital transformation of fleets?

Mark Thomas: 19:46

There is a systems that you need to get. Typically the first layer is there's, there's unique hardware that goes in beyond the connectivity that you get from the vehicle. When I talk about this to folks, they say, Oh, that's great. My new Ford truck comes with remote start and remote unlock. Can I do this, this kind of thing with technology that's coming from the OEM today? And the answer is no, because in all instances, when you get these features from a car manufacturer, they're designed to enhance the life of the vehicle owner who still has the key in their pocket. And if you're in a parking garage, you're on a camping trip. There's no internet connectivity. These companies don't build in, a lightweight Bluetooth connection that has digital credentials. They don't build in a windshield reader that lets you take an NFC tag that you've taped to the back of your driver's license or your, employee badge. And tap it to get in. So the first phase is using technology that's designed not just to, to, as an adjunct, to owning a key, but as a complete and total replacement to having a key. There's companies that we're partnering with, like Geotab,

Tom Raftery: 21:16

Yep.

Mark Thomas: 21:17

top company, amazing, dongle base. They have connectivity. They now have a product called Geotab keyless that lets customers. That our Geotab customers upgrade to a system that gives them that complete and total digital access that lets these new business models take place. And so for, for the Geotab solution, one of the industries that's, that's thrilled with this right now are cities and governments who have motor pools of anywhere from, 20 to 200 or in some instances like New York, 2000 vehicles, having the ability to not have to track all those keys, having a system or a platform that lets people schedule when they want it. So more efficient scheduling of the resources as a part of the digital transformation, because today. In many cities, this system has either a lockbox. And that means you use your badge to get the box, which that has the key, or it has the rebuilding receptionist who has a drawer full of keys that get hunted through and what people do because they can't,

they need a car from one to 3: 22:30

00 PM.

They go get the car at 9: 22:34

00 AM. They drive it around the block. They park it. Then they go back and do their work because that's the only way they can guarantee they're going to have a vehicle when they need it with these old systems. Once the system moves to the cloud, the scheduling, the ability to know who needs it when they need it, you can then have a have something that lets people tap their employee badge. If the car's available, there'll be a green light, so they can take it on demand. They don't need to reserve it. If it's already been reserved, they have the ability to, to use the vehicle. And when they bring it back, oftentimes they don't even, they don't lock it. They just say I'm out. You can automatically lock the vehicle when it returns back to the base. It's again, these are very simple use cases, but especially when the parking lot is on a street. Not having the vehicle locked means theft and damage and all kinds of stuff. You've got a homeless person sleeping in it. And then the next person that takes it's unhappy, all of these things have the ability to be transformed, but it requires specialized hardware for keyless. And it requires a platform that knows how to manage that keyless unit.

Tom Raftery: 23:46

Okay. Superb, superb. Mark we're coming towards the end of the podcast. Now, is there any question I haven't asked that you wish I had, or any aspect of this we haven't touched on that you think it's important for people to be aware of?

Mark Thomas: 24:03

Yeah. I certainly think that in combination with hardware, from a hardware specialized company, other companies that make this are Continental, we worked very closely with them. Denso has been an incredible partner. And then when you take, and have a layer that understands how to communicate with these different telematics, like the Ridecell, platform and then layer on SAP where you build your business logic and have integrations and API APIs, so that the SAP systems where you're storing these insights. And where probably you're, generating reports and having dashboards that people involved in businesses need to understand being able to take your existing system and connect it into this new digital front end, is the next really dramatic step in doing a digital transformation for a supply chain.

Tom Raftery: 25:00

Super super Mark. That's been really interesting. If people want to know more about yourself, Mark Thomas, or about Ridecell or any of the things we discussed on the podcast today, where would you have me direct them?

Mark Thomas: 25:13

Certainly my personal email is mark T uh, at ridecell.com. That's R I D E C E L L, or the, the ridecell.com website is also a great place to start.

Tom Raftery: 25:26

Fantastic. Mark. That's been great. Thanks a million for coming on the podcast today.

Mark Thomas: 25:31

Thank you, Tom. Cheers.

Tom Raftery: 25:33

Okay, we've come to the end of the show. Thanks everyone for listening. If you'd like to know more about digital supply chains, head on over to sap.com/digital supply chain, or, or simply drop me an email to Tom dot Raftery @sap.com. If you like the show, please, don't forget to subscribe to it in your podcast application at choice to get new episodes, as soon as they are published. Also, please don't forget to rate and review the podcast. It really does help new people to find the show. Thanks catch you all next time.