Spireon Redefines Vehicle Telematics with Hardware and Mobile Innovations, Fueling Strong 2018 Results

IRVINE, Calif., March 21, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Spireon, the vehicle intelligence company, closed 2018 with eight awards and significant year-over-year growth across transportation, fleet and franchise dealer business units. The growth was driven by hardware and mobile innovations designed to increase profitability, improve asset health and enhance operational efficiency for customers. New solutions and a nationally recognized customer service department contributed to increases in revenue, active subscriptions, new business orders and average order size for several market segments targeted by the company.

"In 2018, Spireon delivered more than 50 new hardware and software releases to market, including several 'first of its kind' solutions, such as Kahu's test drive analytics for franchise dealers, FleetLocate's IntelliScan™ cargo sensor which delivers 99 percent accuracy, and the new GoldStar Connect consumer app, which lets subprime dealers and lenders generate profit from GPS," said Kevin Weiss, Spireon CEO. "We're extremely proud of earning eight industry awards last year recognizing our innovative technology and world class customer service, but nothing is more gratifying than earning an all-time high Net Promoter Score of 72, which highlights the trust we earn from our customers every day."

Spireon's achievements in 2018 are highlighted below:

Kahu:
Spireon's Kahu connected car solution for franchise auto dealers continues to set the industry standard. In the second half of 2018, Spireon launched new enterprise analytics that deliver unique insights into test drives, inventory mix, aging and other vehicle data, helping dealer groups optimize inventory and sales efficiency based on consumer interest. In 2018, Kahu was adopted by 129 new dealers, and Spireon achieved over 300 percent growth in revenue year-over-year, along with an 84 percent increase in consumer adoption of Kahu via dealer sell-through. Spireon continues to build on this groundswell with the launch of Kahu's My Dealer feature at NADA in January 2019, offering the industry's first mobile solution designed for growing service revenue and customer loyalty through customer data mining and highly targeted, personalized consumer engagement.

GoldStar:
In the second half of 2018, Spireon launched GoldStar Connect, a new consumer app for Buy Here Pay Here (BHPH) dealers and auto lenders that helps them increase profitability by offering connected car features on older vehicles that have no connectivity. Since launching in October, more than 100 dealers and lenders now offer GoldStar Connect to their customers.  Many of the larger dealers, lenders and credit unions are achieving high consumer adoption rates, exceeding 75 percent sell-through of GoldStar Connect to consumers, and turning GPS from a cost center to a profit center for the first time in the industry.  Further, despite a sluggish BHPH market, Spireon saw average order size for GoldStar increase by 14 percent for dealer, reseller and strategic accounts in 2018, driven by new value-added features for GoldStar, such as Quick Locate instant vehicle location and a nationwide Impound Lot database, the most comprehensive of its kind.

FleetLocate:
Spireon's fleet and trailer business also demonstrated success in the last year through significant growth and innovative product launches. New solutions included FL Flex, the industry's first modular trailer tracking solution, enabling mixed fleets to deploy a single, small footprint device across its full range of trailers, and then customize the unit to meet the specific needs of each asset.  Spireon also launched a groundbreaking new FleetLocate IntelliScan™ cargo sensor, which uses optical imaging and laser time of flight to provide trailer fleet managers with unprecedented 99 percent accuracy in detecting cargo load status.

In 2018, FleetLocate for asset and trailer intelligence surpassed 250,000 units, a 27 percent increase year-over-year from 2017, and revenues increased 28 percent.  In the SMB Fleet market, FleetLocate subscriptions from direct sales grew by 13 percent year-over-year, while subscriptions through the Sprint channel increased by over 50 percent in 2018. 

Spireon Corporate Growth:
Beyond product-specific milestones, Spireon achieved several organizational milestones, such as:

• Improved Net Promoter Score (NPS) to 72 from 65 in 2017, far exceeding the industry average of 21.2 for business-to-business technology companies
• Enhanced NSpire IoT platform, using high-frequency telemetry to process more than 1 billion data events each month
• Awarded Patent 10,089,598, covering technology used in Kahu for managing an automotive dealership's vehicle inventory by pairing a tracking device to a vehicle
• More than 25,000 devices shipped from Spireon's fulfillment center per week, a 25 percent increase compared to the first half of 2018
• Surpassed 1 million installations performed by Spireon's 300 certified installers
• New private equity investment by Greenbriar Equity Group, a New York-based firm with over $3.5 billion in capital and investments in the global transportation and logistics industries

Spireon also became the most awarded company in vehicle telematics in 2018, winning eight awards including:

• Compass Intelligence – Spireon named IoT Telematics Company of the Year
• Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service – Silver Award for Customer Service Department of the Year, Transportation category
• American Business Awards – Silver Award for NSpire 3.0 IoT Platform, New Product of the Year
• BIG Awards for Business – FleetLocate named Product of the Year in Enterprise category
• Golden Bridge Awards – Bronze Award for NSpire 3.0 IoT platform for Innovation of the Year in Automotive, Transportation, Storage and Logistics category
• Compass Intelligence Fall Awards – Kahu awarded IoT Innovator in Auto Dealer Management
• Stevie Awards for Women in Business – Gold Award for Female Executive of the Year in Business Products category for Spireon CMO Carla Fitzgerald
• Best in Biz Awards – Spireon named Most Innovative Company of the Year 2018

"The opportunity for Spireon to build on our current momentum and continue to redefine vehicle telematics has never been better.  We have everything we need – the talent, the technology and the resources – to make 2019 another stellar year for the company," added Weiss.

About Spireon
Spireon, the vehicle intelligence company, is the leading provider of aftermarket telematics solutions in North America. By equipping cars, trucks, trailers and other mobile assets with GPS devices and sensors, Spireon turns any vehicle into a connected vehicle. Award-winning products GoldStar, Kahu and FleetLocate deliver 24x7 asset visibility and actionable insights to auto dealers, lenders, transportation companies, service fleet managers, rental car companies and consumers to increase safety and productivity, boost profits and protect assets. Spireon's NSpire IoT platform powers all Spireon solutions, supporting nearly 4 million active subscribers and processing more than 1 billion data events each month. Learn more at www.spireon.com.

For more information, contact
Miranda Lyle
Havas Formula for Spireon
[email protected] 
619-234-0345

SOURCE Spireon, Inc.

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http://www.spireon.com