I recently had the chance to talk to Graham Wallace, Business Strategist at ESRI

Graham and I sat down to discuss the issues facing the telematics / logistics and IT industries. ESRI (UK) has invested quite a bit of time in order to understand the main trends and identify the main issues that will emerge over the next few years in all three areas.

Oil. It's the driving force behind the the globalised economy - countries have gone to war for it and without it, almost all industries grind to a frictioned halt. But at over $150 a barrel, no other organisations are quite as anxious about the rise in fuel prices as those in the road transportation industry.

The announcement from Microsoft that it would integrate RFID data usage in its mobile device platform makes a lot of sense.

Wow, Masternaut's acquistion of ICM is pretty significant - finally supply chains have a fighting chance of seamless operations if there is integration between the FMS (fleet management systems) and back end systems.

Telematics service provider + back-office systems integrator = a big step in the right direction!

Actually feeding FMS data into logistics management processes will be key to increasing the value of telematics for logistics customers who are craving increased effciency - simply knowing where your vehicles are just isn't enough.