Norway-based GSGroup is a leading European provider of services and solutions for mobile data collection, including for fleet management. CEO Espen Virik Ranvik(pictured above) gives his company’s view of the current state of the market in the Nordic and Baltic region.

The goal for GSGroup is to make our customers more effective by offering them solutions within asset management and field services. Over the past year GSGroup has experienced increased demand for our solutions. Our growth is strongest in the Nordic countries, but the trends are also recognizable in the Baltic region. We have seen a growing interest for field services and asset management solutions for several years, and the growth is increasing, especially this year.

Even though this growth is perceptible in all products, the market is ripe for acquisition. We have to deliver cost-effective and feature-rich products, and consolidation is therefore required. The acquisition of PPCT (a Finnish provider of telematics for fleet management solutions) was a strategic step to achieve our business vision – GSGroup shall be a preferred solution provider in Europe within field services and asset management.

We see that customers are focusing on environmental accounting and efficient utilization of assets and human resources. In our experience, customers lower their costs by 10-20% at the time they start to use our products, and that’s even before we start to optimize the utilization rate.

Key elements in our solution are:

• Fleet management and utilization;
• Travel log (according to government regulations);
• Environmental accounting and driving behaviour;
• Field services; order planning, order dispatch and documentation;
• Secure valuables (anti-theft);
• Car sharing and driver identification;
• Asset management; and
• Integration of solutions (3rd party).

We also see that customers are looking for scalable SaaS/cloud-solutions. A monthly licence fee is preferred to large investments costs, and this gives a transparent cost structure for assets and employees. We also see this applying to the financing of vehicles and equipment. A recent market survey tells us that about three-quarters of our customers have leased assets, and less than 25% have only self-funded assets. We think the trends are becoming more apparent; customers prefer a scalable, transparent cost structure, reduced deployment risks, and hosted solutions to achieve a strong desire to focus on their core business.

GSGroup thinks this trend will continue over the next years. As long as the customer is focusing on effectiveness and environmental accounting, there will be big opportunities for products such as ours. GSGroup will be measured by the ability to create innovative and cost-effective solutions.

Adoption of new technology is crucial, and the challenge is to find the proper product for the market, where we have to balance features versus costs. As a provider, we have to be able to answer our customers’ questions so that they can operate more efficiently. This is why GSGroup is delivering products and services within field services and asset management; reduced costs, and improved environmental footprint and effectiveness are best achieved when you optimize both assets and human resources.