The pandemic has accelerated a major shift to digitization for trucking fleets and industrial operations.
That’s one of the takeaways from a new report released Tuesday by Samsara that takes an in-depth look at how the explosion of digital connectivity, cloud computing, advances in camera
technology and artificial intelligence are all driving digital transformation — and how the effects of the pandemic have accelerated the trend.
“This will make the coming years ones of exciting transformation for organizations across a wide
array of industries, from transportation to local government, utilities, manufacturing and beyond,” Ali Akhtar, director of data science for Samsara, wrote in the report titled “Data shows operations are becoming increasingly connected as pandemic accelerates digitalization.”
The highlights of Samsara’s analysis include:
— An 80% increase in application programming interface (API) pings to Samsara’s connected operations platform from January 2020 to March 2021, signaling that organizations are seeking new ways to break down data silos, customize their tech stack and boost productivity through automated workflows.
— An 18% increase in overall usage of Samsara’s mobile driver app and 45% increase in usage of the company’s digital documents feature from January 2020 to March 2021.
— A 20% increase in the number of transportation and warehousing customers connecting their operations on the cloud by using the company’s solutions across three or more distinct areas.
San Francisco-based Samsara provides software and sensors to monitor and manage commercial fleets and industrial operations, with customers in the energy, food and beverage, construction and manufacturing, and transportation industries. Samsara’s software aims to allow companies to connect their fleets, equipment and sites within one integrated platform.
“The pandemic accelerated the adoption of [digital document features] by both employees in the field and back office — who are embracing the benefits of increased productivity and efficiency and continuing to go paperless,” Akhtar wrote.
The shift by transportation and warehousing firms to connecting operations through the cloud also “reveals how cloud-based digitalization is expanding beyond vehicle telematics into operational areas like site security and equipment monitoring,” he wrote.
Samsara’s analysis also shows a dramatic increase in API usage, which signals that organizations are becoming more sophisticated in their use of technology and data, according to the analysis.
“They’ve moved beyond simply collecting data to use within a single system and are increasingly connecting systems across their organization to empower other teams, create new workflows and digitize previously manual processes,” Akhtar wrote.
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