| Driving Revenue
| Technology Profile
by J J Eden
Partnerships with startups
can bring new customers
to your business
“Practically speaking,
companies can’t buy
every startup. That
is where partnerships
can come in to play”
March/April 2020 Traffic Technology International 069
www.TrafficTechnologyToday.com
At this year’s consumer
electronics show (CES) in
Las Vegas, mobility
ranked as an emerging area of opportunity
for technology firms. For the first time,
Delta Airlines attended to showcase virtual
concierge services that assist customers
when it is time to board. Technology is
enabling legacy firms like Delta, to partner
with startups to find new ways to enhance
value for customers. The value of customer
service can make or break a company as
customers ultimately drive revenue and the
bottom lines in all businesses – including
transportation.
As we increase automation and better
understand technology, legacy firms
cannot keep up with investments and
innovations. This technological life cycle
leads organizations to invest in startups
who provide innovations that can be
monetized through capital markets.
Practically speaking, companies can’t buy
every startup. That is where partnerships
can come in to play. Companies partner
where complementary services augment
and grow their company through the
relationship and sharing of limited use
data for the purposes of attracting more
customers to use their product. Currently,
airlines partner with ride sharing
services and rental cars or hotels to
help provide services that expand their
value to the customer.
A successful partnership is formed
when you meet or exceed a customer
expectation. Some people call this the ‘of
course’ or ‘duh’ moments. Naturally, as
a transportation operator, we consider
discounts or premiums to help customers
reach their destination in a timely manner
at a fair price. One of our favourite ‘of
course’ moments are partnerships between
DOT’s, DMV’s, and other transportation
regulatory and government organizations.
Why isn’t there a single transportation
account to pay for vehicle registration,
driver’s licence and tolls? That’s a good
question and it is time to answer with a
technological solution. When you consider
creating a partnership, start with a review
of core products and services and then
identify where value added services or
additional services may serve new
customers or in fact provide you and your
partners access to additional customers.
Once you have identified those potential
partnerships, develop a plan to motivate
customers to leverage programmes and
services with your partnerships. As
customers begin to leverage programmes
and services, a reward system should be
incorporated into the relationship with the
customer that encourages them to use
these programmes that in turn benefit
them and your organization and partners.
Partnerships are for everyone, small
or large, no single organization can be
everything to everyone. Even with nearly
unlimited resources, large Fortune 100
companies must partner to survive.
Partnerships exceed expectations and
attract customers to market and help your
organization grow through more use of
your services and products. A successful
partnership network is necessary to thrive
in our service integration economy
as we work to provide more value for
every customer.
JJ Eden is executive director of North Carolina Turnpike
Left: Hardware and
software form Tecsidel’s
turnkey solution
To meet customer demands,
Argentinian public road
authority Vialidad Nacional
relied on a brand-new Tecsidel
Toll+ BO web module developed
to manage tickets/claims
reported on highways. CMS+
is a customer relationship
management (CRM) solution that
integrates different resources,
channels, processes and
instances of customer service.
It is an application software
for ticket management including
follow-up activities for
emergency situations. Providing
an interactive interface for the
management of claims, and
many other aspects that the
end user wishes to get in touch
for, communications can be sent
in numerous ways,
Comprehensive service
In summary, CMS+ is capable
of: providing a comprehensive
experience of road user service,
contemplating a quality strategy
and continuous improvement in
services; monitoring the entire
life cycle of an incident from
the time it is registered as a
ticket by the end user through
different channels available
until it is solved; producing
statistics and metrics requested
by the public road authority and
coordinating benefits between
public and private management
assistance teams to
concessionary end users.
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