Image courtesy Radian IoT.Radian IoT yesterday announced the launch of its latest software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform, which is aimed at floorplan financiers, boatbuilders, dealers, rental fleet operators and boat owners. The company’s compact telematics device — installed during the manufacturing process — turns boats and other assets into data generators that provide a variety of information through a web-based platform.
“Radian was born from decades of boatbuilding and dealer development experience in the pursuit of thrilling boat owners,” Radian founder and president Scott Crutchfield said in a statement. “This industry has always been data-starved, so we decided to go beyond the traditional uses of GPS tracking technology to that of reporting data directly from the assets themselves while they are in the supply chain.”
The system utilizes Radian’s M2 device, which the company said will report for five years under its own power. The M2 contains a Qualcomm 4G LTE cellular modem that supports international reporting and recognizes GPS, Galileo, GLONASS and Beidou constellations. It also features Bluetooth connectivity, an internal date and time clock, accelerometer, and ambient temperature and battery voltage sensors. Exterior motion, door, bilge pump and water level sensors are sold separately.
“While the benefits of GPS monitoring solutions for the end-user are well-established, these devices all need to be connected to the boat battery before they can perform very simplistic duties,” Radian CEO Joe Czarnecky said in the statement. “This is a major shortcoming of existing solutions because so much data is lost between the time of manufacture and when the customer takes possession and when the asset battery is disconnected in the offseason. With our solution, we can provide the manufacturer and dealer with a wealth of operational and experiential data that will transform the industry.”
The web-based user interface has searchable analytics and a rule-based alerting engine with preprogrammed and custom alerts. It has customizable e-commerce integration supporting order management, invoicing, subscription management and payment processing. Consumers can download and access the system using the the Radian IQ app.
For marina operators, Radian allows managers to keep track of the locations of stored boats and trailers, and it allows rental fleets and boat clubs to monitor vessels for a better customer experience. Financiers and insurers can use the platform to verify asset location and recover missing assets more quickly.
Once the vessel or asset is delivered to the consumer, the new owner can subscribe to Radian’s end-user platform, with no device to buy.
