Huntsville Independent School District in Texas engaged Presidio to implement its connected school bus architecture on the district’s fleet of buses. By equipping school buses with smart Wi-Fi, the district wanted to give students access to learning during their commute to school, using devices they already had.
Soon, other ideas began to emerge. Why stop with student learning? Why not make bus transportation itself more cost-efficient? With the buses’ on-board diagnostics wirelessly connected to district headquarters, the health of the bus could be proactively managed by technicians at the central depot, helping to prevent breakdowns and improve maintenance.
The story gets even more interesting. Presidio created an app so students could be checked on and checked off the school bus on a tablet device, which parents received as a notification. This allowed parents to be immediately informed if their child was not on the bus. Crucial information could also be provided to first responders in the event of an emergency.
Clearly, the connected school bus is about much more than installing Wi-Fi. It’s about using technology for more meaningful communication with students and parents, making transportation itself more cost-efficient, keeping students safe, and providing secure access to student learning. As for the future? Connected architectures and technology can easily be extended into other critical infrastructure to create smarter communities.
A large truck manufacturer had the following business requirement: become “stickier” with their clients, the fleet owners, by providing data-rich services in addition to equipment. Telematics and location data allow fleet managers to proactively plan maintenance to keep trucks on the road longer, and optimize routing to be more efficient with fuel and time. The truck manufacturer asked Presidio to create a connected transportation solution to enable its vision.
We developed middleware that is installed in the truck during the manufacturing process. It securely transmits location and telematics data up to a Presidio-developed hybrid cloud, leveraging our private cloud solutions experience and our expertise with our partner Microsoft Azure. We then developed the analytics platform that presents meaningful data that can be accessed by fleet owners.
Trucking is a highly competitive industry. Connected fleets allow fleet managers to extend the life of vehicles, maximize fuel efficiency, and optimize routes—thereby keeping more trucks on the road and in compliance.
We are seeing leaders in many industries using digital technology to create new businesses, generate new revenue, and attract new customers. Presidio believes that by integrating hardware, software, the cloud, data management, and analytics with device and vehicle connectivity, IoT will shape the next generation of transportation infrastructure.
