Qualcomm, a provider of business-to-business wireless enterprise applications and services, recently hosted more than 100 customers and Qualcomm Alliance Program members at its first InnoVision User Conference. The new annual event, which was held earlier this month in San Diego, was a conference for Qualcomm customers and partners in the U.S. transportation and logistics industry.
Transportation executives and senior managers gathered to learn about new technology innovations and best practices designed to improve business operations and performance. Attendees of InnoVision 2006 learned about the newest tools and technologies designed to enhance productivity and streamline business operations, including two new tools from Qualcomm: the Critical Event Reporting application and the DataVisor business intelligence platform.
“Qualcomm is committed to being a partner, not just a vendor, to our customers to help them find solutions to their business challenges,” says Norm Ellis, vice president and general manager of transportation and logistics for Qualcomm Wireless Business Solutions. “This conference was designed to help our customers maximize their investments in Qualcomm fleet management applications and services, and address today’s most critical challenges to the industry, including high driver turnover rates, soaring fuel prices and new regulatory requirements.”
Presentations by industry experts and customers covered topics such as optimizing fleet fuel savings and technology tools for safety and accident prevention. Several customers shared best practices and discussed real-world applications of Qualcomm technologies, including trailer tracking and driver performance monitoring in their own operations. Qualcomm technical advisers were available to answer questions and give live demonstrations of next-generation onboard computing technologies; and attendees had the opportunity to see product demonstrations from seven Qualcomm Alliance Program members, as well as view demonstrations of technologies developed by Qualcomm for markets outside of the transportation industry.
Guest speakers included Patrick E. Quinn, chairman of the American Trucking Associations and co-chairman of U.S. Xpress Enterprises; Paul Knoll of Schneider National; Randy Vaughn of Distribution Technologies (DistTech); Lori Pavlish of Dow Chemical; David Potts of ATA; Perry Norman of Target; John Pope of Cargo Transporters; Barry Pottle of Pottle’s Transportation; and Sam Wilkes of FleetRisk Advisors. Keynote speaker Quinn spoke about the state of the transportation industry, offering his perspective on the industrywide driver shortage issue and the importance of leveraging technology to improve productivity.
