Omnitracs, a global leader in fleet management solutions, announced the acquisition of Blue Dot Solutions, a leading provider of cloud-based workflow software and platform solutions to the transportation industry. Through this move, Omnitracs will now integrate its Omnitracs One platform with Blue Dot’s cloud-native MilesAhead solution – helping fleets improve their productivity through a unified workflow experience that features an elegant user interface and a high degree of workflow configurability.
Omnitracs has been in the industry for over 30 years, beginning as a satellite communications system for trucking companies developed by Qualcomm. In 2013, Qualcomm sold its Omnitracs division to Vista Equity Partners. Blue Dot’s roots are in the field service market, but it has focused on transportation and logistics for the past seven years.
“We’ve been squarely focused on workflow and in trying to improve the everyday usage and experience for drivers and back-office personnel. We are working around mobility and differentiated user interface experience for our mobile users,” said Mick Milnark, the co-founder of Blue Dot Solutions. Post-acquisition, Milnark will be the vice president of product at Omnitracs.
“The key point with this acquisition is that we will be working together to increase driver satisfaction and retention, which I believe is at the core of the transportation and logistics industry,” said Greg Nelson, chief commercial officer at Omnitracs. “At our company, we want to deliver a truly unified driver experience, and we are doing this with our next release of Omnitracs One.”
Nelson explained that Omnitracs would be taking its enterprise-grade platform and merging it with the unified workflow experience capability of MilesAhead. This will create a modern and intuitive workflow to bring improved usability to both drivers and back-office personnel. The Omnitracs One platform is expected to be unveiled in the fourth quarter of this year.
Milnark spoke about how the acquisition was a tremendous opportunity to focus Blue Dot’s resources through the integration of the MilesAhead solution with the Omnitracs One platform. “Prior to this, we were taking the MilesAhead workflow and integrating it across all sorts of different partners. But now, the acquisition has enabled us to really focus on innovation,” he said. “The new release will be a disruptive experience for the end customers as the integrated solution is going to be a powerful product.”
In a press release, Omnitracs mentioned that the integration of the MilesAhead product into Omnitracs One would provide drivers a highly intuitive mobile user interface, eliminate steps and time wasted on reporting. “Through this acquisition, Omnitracs will set the pace for next-level driver satisfaction by easing the exhaustive administrative burden continually being placed on drivers,” it further said.
