RER Innovative Product Award Honorable Mention: ZTR M7 Telematics Solution
Product: M7 Telematics Solution
Manufacturer: ZTR Control Systems
Key Innovation: Global certification, coverage, power and flexibility for the future of IoT, Bluetooth enabled.
Manufacturer’s Description: The industry needed a smaller, more powerful telematics device with flexible options and global coverage – and it needed to be affordable. ZTR responded with the M7.
It’s the latest addition to a family of telematics products backed by years of proven industry experience. The ZTR M7 is designed with a rugged profile for harsh industry conditions and engineered specifically for construction and industrial sectors. It has the latest wireless technologies and powerful processing capabilities, includes Bluetooth, and has the flexibility to connect and control equipment via physical I/O, J1939 or Modbus.
With the availability of a lower-cost IoT device, the M7 removes the challenge of applying the technology to a wider variety of equipment and therefore enables greater adoption of IoT solutions across the industry. With one piece of hardware, users can monitor any machine type from any location. The flexibility to adapt user applications in response to growth over time eliminates the need to invest in additional devices as business and industry needs change.
Despite its small physical footprint, the M7 offers powerful global coverage and connects to the ONE i3 platform to provide access to key equipment information and analytics anytime, anywhere and using desktop or mobile interfaces. Product enhancements make it easier for installation in tighter spaces and allows for greater usage flexibility across an entire fleet of equipment. The M7 delivers value by moving beyond minimal data collection and leveraging rich machine data toward the provision of a clearer picture of usage, safety, productivity, performance, access, and more – all in a cost-effective, compact piece of hardware.
About the Author
Michael Roth
Editor
Michael Roth has covered the equipment rental industry full time for RER since 1989 and has served as the magazine’s editor in chief since 1994. He has nearly 30 years experience as a professional journalist. Roth has visited hundreds of rental centers and industry manufacturers, written hundreds of feature stories for RER and thousands of news stories for the magazine and its electronic newsletter RER Reports. Roth has interviewed leading executives for most of the industry’s largest rental companies and manufacturers as well as hundreds of smaller independent companies. He has visited with and reported on rental companies and manufacturers in Europe, Central America and Asia as well as Mexico, Canada and the United States. Roth was co-founder of RER Reports, the industry’s first weekly newsletter, which began as a fax newsletter in 1996, and later became an online newsletter. Roth has spoken at conventions sponsored by the American Rental Association, Associated Equipment Distributors, California Rental Association and other industry events and has spoken before industry groups in several countries. He lives and works in Los Angeles when he’s not traveling to cover industry events.