April 10, 2018 1 Comment
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All Roads Lead to Partner Opportunities in Transportation

In the last few months there have been several mass demonstrations and street protests in my hometown – nothing I can do about that… but I dread having to drive when this happens. Last weekend my family returned from a trip out of town during one of these demonstrations, and trying to find the way back home was a total nightmare. Sometime this is unavoidable, but it comforts me to know that there is light at the end of the tunnel… or in this case literally at the end of the road! Let me explain why…

The transportation sector, just like every other industry, is going through radical change powered by new technology trends such as the Internet of Things, as well as the convergence of Operational Technologies (OT) and Information Technologies (IT). The Digital Transformation of the different Transportation segments is achieved when technology is applied to achieve the main Line-Of-Business objectives, which in the transportation segment can be summarized by addressing the following challenges:

  • Safety:
    • “The (U.S.) National Safety Council estimated that 40,100 people were killed in 2017 accidents, down about 1% from its 2016 estimate but up about 6% from 2015.”[1]
    • “The (U.S.) National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimated that car accidents killed 37,461 people in 2016, up 5.6% from 2015. The government counts only deaths on public roads, while the council includes parking lots, driveways and private roads.“
  • Mobility:
    • “The automotive trade journal Ward’s Autohad estimated that the total (number of cars) crossed 1 billion vehicles sometime during 2010. Now, an industry analyst has calculated that the total vehicle number is 1.2 billion already.”[2]
    • According to a survey by the Auto Insurance Center, the average commuter in the U.S. wastes more than a work week in traffic each year.[3]
  • Environment:
    • According to the Environmental Protection Agency, motor vehicles collectively cause 75 percent of carbon monoxide pollution in the U.S.[4]
    • More than 3 billion gallons of fuel are wasted in the U.S. due to traffic congestion.[5]

 

A Digital Architecture for all the different areas that comprise the city streets and highway networks is required to provide solutions for these major challenges. A Connected Roadways validated design can really help our Partners seize this opportunity. Typical use cases include Smart Street Lighting, Smart Parking for private and business vehicles, Smart Traffic Incident Management and the Connected Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I) communications just to name a few of the most important cases.

In order to design and deliver this reference architecture it is critical to have a Partner Ecosystem that can provide the different components of the Cisco Connected Roadways solution to address the main Transportation Customer business and service objectives.

This is a list of the main types of entities that make up this Partner Ecosystem:

  • Architecture & engineering consultants: Companies that focus on the design and engineering of the physical infrastructure,  their main objective is to increase the consulting services of their Public Sector clients.
  • Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) and Independent Hardware Vendors (IHVs): Software and Hardware developers enable analytics, embedded sensors and devices as part of solution offerings with other partners, their main focus is to include their products into a reference architecture.
  • IT Systems Integrators: IT Systems Contractors that integrate the different components of the solution into an architecture, they want to increase their services engagements and their relevance in IoT applications and use cases.
  • Transportation Services Providers: These are the organizations that provide the installation and systems integration specific to the transportation industry, they want to grow the mobility of the connected vehicle and autonomous vehicle.

Cisco has a strong community of partners which includes all the roles described above to address the Digital Transformation of the Transportation Industry… and finally helping me solve my hometown mobility challenges!

Channel Partners positioning Cisco infrastructure and professional services to deliver customer solutions can focus on building an IoT Practice and a Connected Transportation specialization while also benefiting from collaborating and teaming up within this ecosystem.

To learn more about Cisco’s Transportation Solutions and Partner Ecosystem please visit our Connected Transportation site http://cisco.com/go/transportation  and ourIndustry Transformation Partner Guide http://cs.co/customerin.

Sources

[1]https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/cars/2018/02/15/national-safety-council-traffic-deaths/340012002/

[2]https://www.greencarreports.com/news/1093560_1-2-billion-vehicles-on-worlds-roads-now-2-billion-by-2035-report

[3]https://www.autoinsurancecenter.com/traffic-jammed.htm

[4]https://www.epa.gov/air-pollution-transportation/carbon-pollution-transportation

[5]https://www.energy.gov/eere/vehicles/fact-897-november-2-2015-fuel-wasted-traffic-congestion