Trakm8 Share Discussion Threads

[woodcutter] 26/7/2017 14:47

QTX interims today are not very encouraging for the sector as a whole. It looks like sector growth has stalled to me.

woody

[emptycup] 14/7/2017 18:05

From the interims..

During the period we devoted much of our engineering resource on delivering three major new product lines: a next generation T10 Micro; the fully integrated 4G Camera/Telematics units; and our Connected Car solution

"Engineering": is that design, build and test or software? I do get the feeling an inordinate amount of engineering hours are spent on the physical aspect of this product range.

And 'Connected Car' - quite a broad statement and about as all-encompassing as IoT. For Trak to do well here they need to be playing in the IoT world and unfortunately that might not be where Watkins wants to go. Why? because this is an open world of information sharing and providing Value as a Service: boxes that are cheap, run apps, talk to other things. It's a world where the strategic statement and underlying 'ownership of IP' may be seen by some major customers as being a bit too closed for their liking. It's the following statement that flags that:

"We continue to seek to increase the number of installed devices reporting to our servers in order to generate long term, recurring revenues. We will continue to own the majority of IP in our value chain and are investing heavily in our technology to ensure we remain at the leading edge of the telematics industry"

If I were head of fleet, my unit would be part of my overall fleet IT/IoT solution; it would not necessarily be seen as the device serving all functions (too risky/hard to get value because one supplier holds the tech) and I'd want it to be interfacing on & off the vehicle into my core solutions.

I'm not so sure this is where they are going.

[nod] 09/7/2017 23:03

Blondeamon, what you describe is like Apple HealthKit for the telematics market. The hard part though is getting the telematics device makers to use TRAK data standards to feed into the TRAK software. This would require those telematics hardware makers to recognise TRAK as the dominant leader in telematics software, including data analysis.Nike did this many years ago with Apple. Now Nike+ integrates with HealthKit and Apple makes the devices branded by Nike. But this as a no-brainer as Nike does not compete with Apple products and vice versa. There are a few devices that now integrate with HealthKit e.g. Misfit, Wahoo, Xiaomi, Garmin, but they all have there own apps.I don't know that TRAK will be able to convince telematics companies that TRAK is a world leader in software. Nice idea but it will take a few years and some outstanding software.HealthKit didn't start without any Apple devices. It started with Apple Watch and iPhone.

[blondeamon] 09/7/2017 12:15

The way I see it, the plan is to sell data and analytics services and not so much the hardware. For the time being we have one of the best hardware products out there so it makes sense to start that way but in a few years the goal will be to only sell the data and the services. (margins 90%)

Take vehicle diagnostics for example. If on a 2000-strong fleet of trucks you manage to prevent 10 breakdowns a year, you just saved the company tens of thousands of pounds in failed deliveries, reputational damage and of course opportunity cost. Right now our hardware ships straight from the factory, is self installed and state of the art. But in 3-4 years if we have the best algorithms, it doesn't have to be ours at all and we could just be a pure software play.

The plan is that a company will come to Trakm8 and get everything they need. Their fleet monitoring, route optimisation, vehicle diagnostics and in the future even ADAS enhancements (this is their next big project, already working on).

A part I particularly was dissapointed from the FY results were the International Sales. They went down from 3.7% to just 1.3%. Only positive was that the EU sales went up 18% although every else was cut.

With Brexit and a weak pound I see no reason why they're still focusing on the UK only and not abroad. If their new salesmen cannot get at least their salaries worth of new contracts they should go home.

Big question mark over the new partneship with the roadside assistance group. I hope there's an RNS within July so we can find out all the details over that. My research says it's the Arc Group with ANWB in Netherlands already launced and OAMTC in Austria following soon. It would be nice to see a 5% of revenues coming from abroad, Trakm8 always lacked an international presence and will help to lead to much higher valuations if we're not just a UK play.

[emptycup] 07/7/2017 14:07

knowbodyyouno/bhxian - thanks for the comments and blondeamon, I can kind of see where in your posts it's the n-factor that is key - that being the number of devices, but, and this for me, IMO is only valid where you reach such levels that it dominates as a revenue stream and JW would need several more floors at BOX to reach that (but would be better off CEMing it out to the Far East). Octo is massive and has been around probably since the start of telematics - they were involved in very early Norwich Union insurance-based stuff and that is going back a long time.

Now - let's talk about Big Data and while we're at it Cloud, SaaS and every other reinvention of a phrase.

Big Data is great for scientists to trawl through millions of rows of it but how do you monetize the output? I'm sure Matt Cowley as Big Boss of Big Data has a Big Plan and that would be pretty high on my list of 'let's see it'.

This is a tough market and the team they have are very knowledgeable about their markets but I do see it maybe time to ditch the distractions (cameras perhaps) and focus on major fleets, more OEs, open systems, driver interaction for automating business processes etc etc.

I'd REALLY like to see the sales strategy.

[blondeamon] 07/7/2017 12:30

Yes but they have worldwide operations, not sure of their exact numbers in the UK.

If you have the time go to Trakm8's presentation of September 2016 and find the slide from john Watkins that had the numbers at the time for both Fleet and Insurance. I've pasted there here before as well.

[nod] 07/7/2017 10:50

Blondeamon, thanks for that info. Octo claims 5 million users in totalhttps://www.octotelematics.com/about

[blondeamon] 07/7/2017 08:25

Trakm8 always identified itself as a Big Data company into the analytics game and not interested in hardware as the mission statement.

Octo is the leader in insurance and Trakm8 is second in the UK, as providers of black boxes. But the difference is massive, I think they have hundreds of thousands devices and we have 124,000

[knowbodyyouno] 07/7/2017 06:58

Fancy an NED role, EmptyCup?
Nice bit of analysis.

[nod] 07/7/2017 01:01

Re Black Box car insurance, does anyone know how many black box manufacturers there are and which black box is used by each UK insurance company?
That information may identify the market leaders today and TRAK's competitors.

This article identifies 14 insurance companies offering black box insurance policies. It ranks 9 of them and mentions another 5 not ranked, including RAC.



I mentioned the RAC T&C to my adult children (under 25) and they were horrified that a few times accidentally over the speed limit would result in cancellation of their policy and "If we cancel your policy this could affect your ability to get insurance in the future."

This is because insurance companies share cancellation information with other insurers. It is something you are required to declare on every insurance application.

Red alerts

If your Driver Score falls below our acceptable limit you will be issued a Red Alert by email. This means you need to make changes to the way you drive – you can login to your portal for advice and tips on how to improve your score. If your Driver Score continues to be of an unacceptable level you will receive another Red Alert.

If you receive three Red Alerts we will consider you as having driven unsafely and will send you a letter or email notification that we are going to cancel your policy - during this notice period you will need to find an alternative insurance provider. If we cancel your policy this could affect your ability to get insurance in the future.

Black Events
If we consider you to have driven with excessive speed a Black Event will be triggered, and you will receive a notification by letter or email that we are going to cancel your policy – during this notice period you will need to find an alternative insurance provider. "If we cancel your policy this could affect your ability to get insurance in the future.

[slartybartfaster] 06/7/2017 22:51

PJ filtering liars allows them to continue unchecked. Mickymouse has trashed 3 of 4 companies im invested in. Thankfully, luke and elrico step up and make the unsuspecting aware of his devious deceitful lies. He always suggested theres discounted placing on the way, each is burning cash when it a lie. Of course, he remains uber bullish where trak is concerned even then it was forced to restate the books, make losses not profits, had less cash than reported, bod had to put their hand in their pocket because there was no insti support. Now imagine bst, nipt or opti BEING FORCED TO RESTATE ACCOUNTS or need a bailout fundraiser. Mickymouse would be singing like a lark, but not his beloved trak. If he was honest about his opinions instead of his vendetta against tw and share price then perhaps a serious debate could be had, but no he even avoids tricky questions by using the filter as an excuse. He wont even engage with elrico anymore because he knows he has been caught in a lie so many times. He even asserts every poster is elrico or lukead or they are the same person. Lunacy rules in his world.

I would sensor mickymouse for the good of this bb perhaps then it wont attract people like that are fed up reading his lies which have the potential to ruin investments in good faith.

[axdelta] 06/7/2017 21:13

I think Route Monkey has a lot to do with this situation

[lukead] 06/7/2017 20:56

And finally PJ1, you are right , this is a TRAK thread and not a M'Mouse thread, but you very well know the FULL background to all this and why Elrico and I am here. I have made my point.

[lukead] 06/7/2017 20:49

I don't think so blondy, don't tell lies. PJ1, ok old sport , at least you have not moderated Elrico and I would advise posters to have a gander at the bear cast, as given in the Elrico post on order to see what this fuss is about. PS in my defence, blondy I was not rude or use foul language in my moderated post. Just pointing out a few home facts. To call me a troll and not others shows me what you about.

[blondeamon] 06/7/2017 20:41

I have larva and lukead filtered ages ago they are famous troll on advfn.

[pj 1] 06/7/2017 20:37

This is the TRAK thread, not a michaelmouse discussion thread please

If you don't like anyone's opinions then please just filter them, that's why it's there

[larva] 06/7/2017 19:26

rescue fund raise soon

[emptycup] 06/7/2017 18:12

This company needs more focus - take a look at the website and just from the 'menu' you can see an awful lot of individual solutions - but are they really innovating? One lists dashboard cameras and the other Insurance Telematics - absolutely miles apart in terms of market and how to support it.

What seems to be really lacking and would be good to see is fully integrated major fleet systems. What I mean is not just optimisation of logistics, but using the telematics platform and it's comms and CAN capability to connect the driver into the backoffice. There's are tenders requiring more intelligent solutions that don't just tick the tracking box. Get that right and you're into more serious recurring revenue territory. Hardware is just an enabler...

[knowbodyyouno] 06/7/2017 16:43

The capital raise was apparently oversubscribed and the BOD only put in a percentage of the cash I believe. However, one must start question competence when there's been such a catastrophic collapse in share price in a relatively short space of time - and largely not due to external factors.

I topped up a little just before close. I feel it's over sold and remain confident in the long-term growth trajectory of the company. But having recently bought a large tranche at 114p, I'm not a happy bunny today.

GLA

[lukead] 06/7/2017 15:58

It's rallying a bit now, it's an interesting conundrum, it was approaching 130 a few weeks ago. And of course has been very much higher. What is certain is that this share is not for the feint hearted.