Technology - INSIVATE · 1.3 Rich Internet Application (RIA) using Microsoft Silverlight 5.0...

Document Title: Insivate IFMS Overview v2.docx www.insivate.com

Copyright: Insivate CC – 2014 of 8 [email protected]

1 Technology The key success criteria for any technology company is the concepts of INSIGHT and INNOVATE. The name INSIVATE

was thus derived through combining these two key concepts.

Applying these two key concepts to real-time vehicle tracking and integrated fleet management has led to the

selection of the technologies described below for INSIVATE’s Integrated Fleet Management Systems (IFMS).

1.1 MT4000 Vehicle Tracking Unit (VTU)

Novatel Wireless offers an extensive range of vehicle tracking units and

their MT4000 is a feature rich quad-band GSM/GPRS unit.

Key features include:

Flexible application customization through Smart Agent

programmable rules and event engine

Innovative internal cellular and GPS antenna design

Configurable driver behaviour reporting, polygon geo-fencing, driver

ID, and multiple GPIO capabilities

Deep sleep and low power management for 12 V & 24 V passenger

cars, trucks, and transit vans worldwide

The Novatel MT4000 is distributed and supported in South Africa by Vodacom.

1.2 Microsoft Bing Maps Platform

Today’s economy intensifies the need to

improve fleet management for effective

asset tracking and efficient fleet utilization

levels. The Bing Maps Platform supports

software-based monitoring and tracking

solutions that help mitigate loss and

control operational costs for

transportation companies and other

organizations with fleet vehicles, mobile

assets, or mobile workforces.

1.3 Rich Internet Application (RIA) using Microsoft Silverlight 5.0

Microsoft Silverlight is a cross-browser, cross-platform implementation of the .NET Framework for building and

delivering the next generation of media experiences and rich interactive applications (RIA) for the Web.

Silverlight uses the Extensible Application Markup Language (XAML) to ease UI development (e.g. controls,

animations, graphics, layout, etc.) while using managed code or dynamic languages for application logic.

1.4 Microsoft Windows Services

The Real-Time Vehicle Tracking Server (VTS) is implemented as a multi-threaded Microsoft Windows Service and

executes on a server hosted at Vodacom. The VTS receives and stores all the tracking event data sent by the VTU’s.

When a VTU connects to the VTS, a dedicated thread with its own UDP port is allocated to the VTU. This design

approach enables the VTS to support more than 60 000 VTU’s per server depending on the processing power of the

server.

Figure 1: Novatel Wireless VTU

Figure 2: Microsoft Bing Maps



Tracking event data received by the VTS is processed to detect events (over speed, harsh braking/cornering, geo-

fence violations, etc.) and create associated alarms.

Communication between the VTU’s and the VTS is via a Vodacom Corporate APN using UDP messages.

1.5 SAP BusinessObjects Crystal Reports

Intuitive Design Environment

o Design elegant reports quickly using a "what you

see is what you get" (WYSIWYG) layout that offers

popular design, integration, and deployment

options.

o Use rich design tools to create the precise report

layouts you need

o Reduce tedious report formatting efforts with

templates and wizards

o Set parmeter values and get results without

refreshing data

o Explore results interactively with on-report sorting

and filtering

o Set sorting and formatting to match local

language customs

Powerful Report Viewer

Figure 4: SAP BusinessObjects Crystal Report Viewer

Figure 3: SAP BusinessObjects Crystal Report Designer



2 INSIVATE IFMS Overview Leveraging the above technologies has enabled the development of a fully integrated real-time tracking and fleet

management system.

A select sample of screenshots is provided to demonstrate some of the basic functionality.

2.1 Secure Authentication and authorisation

Figure 5: Secure Authentication and Password Expiry

Users are assigned unique usernames and passwords are encrypted in the database. Password expiry policy is

implemented and users must periodically change their passwords.

2.2 Real-Time Tracking

Figure 6: Real-Time Tracking

For the purposes of the development and testing, the VTU has been configured to report event data at a high

frequency and coloured pins are used to indicate alarm conditions.



2.3 Organisation Hierarchy

A multi-tiered organisation hierarchy is supported with no programmed limitation on

the number of tiers. However for practical usage purposes, it is recommend that the

number of tiers do not exceed five or six.

Vehicles can be assigned to an organisation entity at any level of the hierarchy.

The IFMS reporting supports selection of a single organisation entity or an organisation

entity inclusive of all child organisation entities. This is especially useful when doing

cost reporting for the entire organisation, a business unit with sub-departments or just

a single selected department.

2.4 Vehicle Search

To support any fleet from small to large, vehicles can be searched on a combination of registration number (including

wild cards) and organisation unit. If an organisation unit is included in the search criteria, all vehicles belonging to the

organisational unit and child organisation units are available for selection.

Figure 8: Powerful Vehicle Search functionality

2.5 Vehicle definition

An extensive list of information can be captured for each vehicle. The information captured is used for:

Service and Warranty Management

Depreciation Reporting

Monitor vehicle usage (average speed for trip validation and maximum speed for alarming)

Figure 9: Comprehensive Vehicle Definition

Figure 7: Organisation Hierarchy



2.6 Vehicle Cost Management

A key aspect of fleet management is the accurate recording of vehicle operational cost and cost reporting. The list of

cost items is configurable and additional cost items can be added without requiring software code changes.

Figure 10: Capturing Vehicle Cost Items

Where vehicle cost items are received via text files from suppliers, these files can be uploaded and processed.

2.7 Indicating Alert conditions

In this specific example, the vehicle has been configured with a maximum speed of 90 km/h and as a speed of 91.674

km/h was measured, the event has been marked as an alert condition.

Figure 11: Flagging Alert Conditions



2.8 Real-Time Alert Monitoring

Alerts can be monitored in real-time per vehicle or for fleet. The Alert list is periodically refreshed with a configurable

refresh period. Alerts are created for: speeding, acceleration, braking, cornering and geo-fence violations.

Figure 12: Real-Time Alert Monitoring

Figure 13: Typical Geofence Alerts

2.9 Person Configuration

Persons are configured and categorised as User, Driver and/or Administrator. Each Person can be linked to an

organisation unit and can only access and view vehicles associated with the organisation unit and sub-units.

Figure 14: Configuration Users, Drivers and Administrators

2.10 Email and SMS Alert Notifications

For each vehicle and email and SMS recipient is configured and when an alert is created for a vehicle, the recipients

are notified immediately.

Drivers for vehicles are identified with i-Buttons and when an alert is created for a vehicle, the driver is also notified

immediately. Notifying drivers of alerts whilst they are busy with driving, encumbers good driver behaviour.



2.11 Geofence configuration

Multiple complex polygon, polyline and circle geofences can be configured and associated with vehicles. Geofences

can be configured as “alert when entering” areas or “alert when leaving” areas.

Figure 15: Geofence definition



2.12 Sample Report: Vehicle Trips

A wide range of reports are available and below is an extract from a weekly vehicle trip report. The report can be

used to easily asses the correct usage of the vehicle as the distance travelled per week, the time travelled per week

and the average speed per trip is included in the report. The specific extract below indicates excessive idling times as

many trips have a distance of 0 km.

Figure 16: Sample Weekly Vehicle Trip Report

Technology - INSIVATE · 1.3 Rich Internet Application (RIA) using Microsoft Silverlight 5.0...

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