34
ACT
OCTOBER2014
TECHNOLOGY
FLEETMANAGEMENTSOFTWARE
see any faults in theLMI systemor the
engine.”
Weiss remembers thedayswhenblue
tapeon awhiteboardwas as sophisticated
as fleetmanagement got. Shedeveloped
that system forherparents’ business. The
iCraneTrax.comprogram shedeveloped
was initially included inside adifferent
pieceofA1A software - 3DLiftPlan.
com.At that point itwas a simple
dispatch systemon anExcel spreadsheet.
Customers liked it somuch they
continued to ask formore featuresuntil
eventuallyWeissdecided towrite a full-
blown fleetmanagement program.
Throughout its four-year evolution,
iCraneTrax.comhas incorporated
customer relationshipmanagement
(CRM), invoicing andQuickBooks
integration amongother things.Next up:
predictive reporting.
Link-Belt is installing the iCraneTrax.
com telematics systemon all of theirTier
4 cranes and thedataA1A is gettingback
is alreadydrawing a tonof interest. They
are in continuous contactwith the crane
as it’s in the field.
“Whatwe’reworkingon right now is
tying all of that information into the fleet
maintenance side sowe canpredictwhen
certain servicesneed tobedone,” said
Weiss. “Oncemore andmoreunits areout
there andwehave it in sync, ayear or two
or three fromnow,we’ll be able tobetter
predictwhen thingsneed tobe servicedor
when cranesneed tobe replaced.”
As companies likeA1Adeveloped
software specific to cranes,WrightPlan,
out ofOntario,Canada, developed
software for themillwrighting, rigging and
machinemoving industries.WrightPlan
began as aquoting and estimating system
forwhomwouldbecome their first client,
AxiomMillwrighting andFabrication.
Axiom founderDwayneCormier sought
a systematicwayof organizinghiswin
percentageonquotes andpotential jobs
down thepipeline.
Since2003,WrightPlanhas grown from
quoting and estimating to include jobs,
scheduling andmore.
“Theneed for an integrated system and
toget ridof disparate software ledus to
developmuchmore functionality.We
nowhavemodules forpurchaseorders,
job costing, vacationmanagement, skills
management andCRM,” saidMichael
Cox, president,WrightPlan. “Wehandle
everything from the first interactionwith
aprospect right through to invoicing the
job.”
They’regetting inon the crane action,
too.According toCox, theywere recently
approachedbyoneof the largestCanadian
The LR13000 owned byMammoet
doeswork at a plant.
Fleet management software has seen incredible
technological advances throughout the last decade.
John
Skelly
spoke to several industry leaders to find out just
how sophisticated these systems are becoming.
iCraneTrax.com from A1A software
displays diagnostic information about
every aspect of a crane.
WrightPlan’s job calendar dashboard offers a
high degree of customization.
In the office
or the field
D
oes your craneneed servicing?
Well howmanyhourshas
it been in the field?This
metrichas been the standard in the crane
industry for years. It hasworkedpretty
well, too. But as general rules of thumbgo,
it isn’t alwaysprecise.
Precision is exactlywhat thedevelopers
of fleetmanagement software are selling.
Theseprogramsprovidediagnostic
reports that yield extremely largemasses
of data. Somuchdata itwouldbe
overwhelmingwere it not for the software
slicing it up intodigestibleportions.As a
result, craneowners and fleetmanagers
canharness awealthof information
tomake informeddecisions about
maintenance, safety and efficiency.
“There’s almost 300different things that
get reported tous,” saidTawniaWeiss,
owner,A1ASoftware, anddeveloper of
iCraneTrax.com. “It’s communicatingwith
every aspect of the crane. It tells youhow
manyhours areon the turntablewhen it’s
boomingup andboomingdown.We can
