What is new in your software and technology?
Eckel: JLG embarked on the journey to bring telematics and IoT (Internet of Things) in-house with our brand-new ClearSky Smart Fleet offering, which we introduced in the summer of 2023. It's our third iteration of Clear Sky. It's our third iteration of Clear Sky, but there are a few significant transitions in us doing this from a strategic perspective. We launched the JLG IoT platform with more than 20 distinct features, of which only one is telematics. So, we're really changing the conversation about what technology looks like on the job site.
First, we're now offering standard global connectivity across most boom lifts, telehandlers, and scissor lifts. Second, we have introduced industry-leading two-way connectivity, so it's no longer one-way communication — or basic telematics of the past. Third, we're very pragmatic about the value that we deliver through digitizing daily processes for our customers because we understand the return on investment is very difficult to quantify when it comes to a technology strategy, specifically telematics or IoT.
With the launch of ClearSky Smart Fleet, we immediately focused on two things that people could touch and feel immediately: 1) automating manual processes because we know people who do things manually, there's a margin for error, just human error, it happens, and 2) giving our customers the efficiency of time back in their days. So, on average, if it used to take 45 minutes for a branch manager to find a JLG machine in their rental yard or a service tech looking for the machine on the job site that needs to be fixed or serviced, now it takes less than one click of a button. This is the classic scenario of reducing downtime and increasing uptime but with a tangible nature.
Developing our ClearSky Smart Fleet solution in-house means our customers now get to fully leverage JLG’s sales, service and support. We are also now offering a platform that genuinely solves challenges for aerial lift equipment, which are specialty machines within the industry with unique problems. For example, something as simple as machines sending data if the ignition is on/off — 90 percent of the time, access equipment is used in an off state. Operators get to height, turn the machine off while doing their work and then turn it on again to get back down. So, these are the considerations we’ve accounted for in ClearSky Smart Fleet.
We also looked at other value we can deliver through seamless business integrations. For example, we can send machine information to our customers with our OEM data-rich API feed.
One last transition we focused on was moving from the physical to the digital world. How could we digitize what used to be a physical handheld piece of hardware through something like a mobile app? A great example is the Bluetooth analyzer available through the ClearSky Smart Fleet application. Our customers no longer need to carry the handheld analyzer and cable; they now have all the same usability and functionality through their phones.
What effects has AI had on your software and technology and what potential do you see going forward?
The first thing to clarify is the difference between AI and generative AI. Artificial intelligence isn't a new concept; for example, JLG has been using AI through data science and various coding methods for a while now to help make more data-driven decisions as an organization. It has helped us ensure we offer the right mix of products to market that address customers' needs and align with their jobs while prioritizing safety and productivity.
As we look at the world of generative AI, we're only scratching the surface of its capabilities. For example, we are building a solid foundation for deploying generative AI solutions by leveraging basic AI functionality to revolutionize our Assisted Tech Support service with advanced Interactive Voice Response (IVR), a Virtual Assistant (VA) and Voice-To-Text (VTT) transcription. Looking ahead, we will leverage AI to analyze our extensive library of historical case summaries, knowledge articles and technical documentation to help us answer questions and resolve issues.
Another example is that as the world becomes a stronger global economy, and we see a changeover of new people coming into the industry who may have different language barriers, we can use AI in conjunction with Neural Machine Translation and human post editing to efficiently translate into more languages, bringing a vast time benefit to the market and cost-benefit back to OEMs.
By integrating these technologies, we enhance the efficiency of our support services and empower our customers with efficient, accurate solutions.
How important is integration of all of your systems?
Integrating systems is critically important to be successful. If organizations don't have integrated systems, it could get in the way of their ability to scale as growth occurs. A significant effort at JLG through our connected and digital strategy is to create a connection between our physical and digital products and experiences so that one consistent data thread ties everything together. We want stronger data fidelity, increased automation, and improved efficiency through that interconnectedness.
By integrating our systems, we can provide our customers with seamless business integrations and partnership opportunities — while scaling at the rate that users need us to.
What new trends in technology do you expect in the foreseeable future?
Moving forward, many trends will involve a better understanding of opportunities and enhancements with generative AI as it continues to grow and evolve.
Also, I think there will be a real focus in the future on usability and user experiences — for example, the ability to compartmentalize and truncate content. Our industry is still very paper-driven, so how do we get to the point where we can take all this phenomenal documentation and content and deliver it in a bite-sized chunk of information relevant to the right individual at the right time?
Also, if you want to learn more about something specific with a boom lift, there’s an operator manual that's 100 pages long and a service manual that's also hundreds of pages long. That’s thousands of pages to sift through to find an answer. So, how do we help our customers get easier access to this information so they can access exactly what they need when they need it?
For us at JLG, we’re thinking about our strategies or guidelines around generative AI so that they're structured in a way that makes sense as it is becoming a part of everything. Generative AI is another tool in our tool belt that will help us do the things we’re already doing more efficiently.
What are the most important contributions telematics makes to a rental company and how challenging is it to integrate telematics with a rental management operating system?
Telematics' most significant contribution to a rental company is that it provides information to solve problems, such as geolocation to find a machine or notifications on the machine's health.
The challenge with telematics is that so much data is coming off the machine, but rental companies have been limited to one-way interactions with it. With two-way IoT communications, there is a whole new level of machine interaction and integration with the assets. For example, equipment owners and operators can now use the ClearSky Smart Fleet mobile app to find a machine by lighting the beacon light or honking the horn. Or, when looking at data like machine status, users can light up all the machines within Bluetooth range and have them clearly identified through color, seeing immediately if any have active fault codes that need to be addressed. It’s efficiency of time and finding an asset right away. It's about turning data technology and machine interactivity to the next level.
Telematics' most significant contribution to a rental company is that it provides information to solve problems, such as geolocation to find a machine or notifications on the machine's health.
The challenge with telematics is that so much data is coming off the machine, but rental companies have been limited to one-way interactions with it. With two-way IoT communications, there is a whole new level of machine interaction and integration with the assets. For example, equipment owners and operators can now use the ClearSky Smart Fleet mobile app to find a machine by lighting the beacon light or honking the horn. Or, when looking at data like machine status, users can light up all the machines within Bluetooth range and have them clearly identified through color, seeing immediately if any have active fault codes that need to be addressed. It’s efficiency of time and finding an asset right away. It's about turning data technology and machine interactivity to the next level.
What are the main concerns and issues customers in the rental industry are asking about in terms of software being able to solve their problems and help them operate more efficiently? Anything in particular that rental staff are asking for?
Traditional telematics is a dot on a map and primary data reporting that somebody has to figure out what to do with that. So, rental companies must hire a team to make the data actionable. That’s a big challenge. So, we asked ourselves, how does JLG help with this? The answer is to make the data very intuitive, easy to use, and easy to understand so it’s easier for our customers to act. The other component we focused on was digitizing our customers’ daily processes, looking for ways to use IoT to automate manual tasks. For example, it allows our customers to figure out how many hours an asset is and its current state of charge or fuel level, whether it has any active fault codes and so on, by simply touching a button or looking at a data dashboard. That's the efficiency that our customers need and can now get at the power of their fingertips instead of the power of their feet.
What are the most important contributions telematics can make to rental companies?
Based on previous definitions, telematics can only do so much. Basic telematics is one-way data that requires someone to sit at a computer, interpret what the information is telling them and then figure out what action users in the field need to take.
So, as software manufacturers, our challenge is figuring out how to make the actual insights actionable for our customers in the field, who interact with the equipment firsthand. We do this by thinking about problems those people need to solve with our solution.
With IoT, we see a world where we've evolved into this two-way machine interactivity that doesn’t just provide data but rather insightful, actionable information. By having a mobile app, we are giving our users access to the same insights but with the ability to interact with the machine in ways they can see, feel, and touch. We're empowering the people at the branch location and on the job site with a new level of data sophistication and interaction they've never been blessed with before. For example, I'm a fuel truck driver, and I was told to arrive at the job site and refuel the telehandler. But which one? Now, with ClearSky Smart Fleet, at the touch of a button, I can see all of the machines on site, and based on the visual color of the beacon light, the machines are indicating (green – good, yellow – mid, and red – low), I know the exact one that needs attention. That’s the power of revolutionizing telematics as part of a comprehensive IoT offering, like JLG’s ClearSky Smart Fleet solution.
