Geotab Data Connector Partner Guide
The Geotab Data Connector tool was designed for Fleet Managers to import curated data from numerous Geotab data sources, sourced from their own fleet, into their preferred BI/visualization tool.

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Partner Guide

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Jan 2024

Introduction

Business Intelligence and BI Tools importance Continues to Grow

From a recent study from Deloitte Insights only a minority of companies have become insight-driven organizations:

  1. Three-quarters of survey respondents report that their organization’s analytical maturity has increased over the past year, and nearly as many— 70% expect business analytics to be more important in the next three years than it is now.
  2. Report finds that most large companies are not mature when it comes to business analytics; 62% still rely on spreadsheets.
  3. Organizations with the strongest cultural orientation to data-driven insights and decision-making were twice as likely to have significantly exceeded business goals.

Value Proposition

Geotab leverages our expertise prepping data for reporting and visualization, and makes these curated data tables available through Power BI, Tableau (or Excel) via an easy to use connection and your existing MyGeotab credentials.

  1. Information at your fingertips without coding expertise
  2. Ready to use Power BI and Tableau Dashboard reports
  3. Automated daily reports vs tedious manual reports
  4. Built in security/groupings based on MyGeotab Credentials

Buying Personas

The primary customer targets for this are medium (50-500 vehicles) fleets who do not have the time and resources to fully analyze and utilize the data and insights available within MyGeotab.

  1. Fleet/Operations Manager - Data Connector allows a fleet manager to centralize all of their actionable information into one data hub, easing their workload
  2. Sustainability/Compliance Manager - Compliance regulations are constantly changing, and the need for data is increasing, leading to the need for an automated, centralized reporting system
  3. IT/CIO - Are looking for that “silver bullet” for blending high quality telematics data from their fleet into their company’s reporting environment to make their internal customers’ jobs easier (speed to value vs. creating it themselves). Eliminates the burden on their systems as well in terms of data crunching.

Selling Features

  1. Connect pre-curated data from numerous Geotab data sources into your preferred BI/visualization tool
  2. Combine MyGeotab fleet data with other data sources to provide even more valuable insights and informed decisions
  3. Leverages Geotab’s expertise working with extremely large data sets. No special skills needed to access raw MyGeotab Data and handle complex data pipelines to extract, transform, and load data into a customer data lake.
  4. Ready-to-use Power BI and Tableau Dashboard reports that also can be customized to meet your specific business needs
  5. Direct access to data on Geotab Data Platform, providing robust performance for analytics workloads (i.e. aggregation occurs at Geotab and off your product servers)
  6. Key data metrics are pre-aggregated for easy analysis, aggregated to local time zones
  7. The dashboards provide trend information and comparisons on a monthly, daily, and hourly basis in separate tabs - dashboard dynamically updated.

Pricing

Announced in October 2023, Geotab Data Connector going forward includes a free 30 day trial for all new subscribers:

  1. Unrestricted access to all tools and functionalities to explore its full capabilities
  2. Automatically turns on when subscribed through Marketplace
  3. At the end of the 30-day free trial period, your access to Geotab Data Connector will seamlessly transition into a monthly subscription. Unless you choose to cancel before the trial period concludes.

Software Packages

Go Device Partner Cost (USD) Per Month

3rd Party Device/OEM Partner Cost (USD) Per Month

Suggested MSRP (USD) Per Month

GO Plan / ProPlus1

INCLUDED

INCLUDED

INCLUDED

Base / Regulatory / Pro

$3.00

INCLUDED

$3.50

The curated data is based on your existing fleet’s data plan

1 Applicable commercial Pro Plus plans, contact your BDM/PAM for more information

For complete details on billing please refer to the Geotab Data Connector Billing document (July 2023).

Data Availability by Rate Plan

Depending on your device’s rate plan, some columns may or may not be available. The following table provides a general overview of feature availability per plan. For a comprehensive overview of all rate plan features, refer to the Rate Plan Feature Comparison document.

Base

Regulatory

Pro

ProPlus

GO Plan

Table: Vehicle KPI

Partial

Partial

Utilization columns (e.g. Driving, Idling, Number of Trips)

Engine-status related columns (e.g. Fuel and Odometer)

Fault-related columns

Table: Latest Vehicle Metadata

Partial

Partial

Engine-status related columns (e.g. Fuel and Odometer)

Fault-related columns

Table: Vehicle Groups

Table: Fleet and Vehicle Safety Predictive Analytics and Benchmarks

✔*

✔*

Table: Maintenance Insights

* Detected collisions will be unavailable on these rate plans.

Activation

Precondition: Geotab Data Connector is only compatible with MyGeotab 8.0 or above. Please make sure the client meets the requirement before activating the service for them.

When the client has agreed to purchase Geotab Data Connector, the only step is to set up the client with the Geotab Data Connector Add-In. This Add-In will be available on the Marketplace or via the Add-In source code. We suggest encouraging your customer to install the Add-In via Marketplace by themselves, because they will receive a welcome email with instructions, which lowers the administration effort.

For clients and sales channels that cannot utilize the Marketplace, the method of using the Add-In source code, found below, will be required.

{

"url": "https://app.geotab.com/addins/geotab/dataConnector/manifest.json"

}

As there’s no welcome email if not subscribing through Marketplace, feel free to use the welcome email template and share it with customers after installation.

Billing will be automatically triggered after the Add-In is installed. Partners are not required to order a SKU from MyAdmin.

✱ NOTE: The Add-In page is under MyGeotab Administration. If the user can’t see the Add-In after activation, ensure the user account has the following security clearances: Launch Custom Reports or Add-Ins and View “Geotab Data Connector” Add-In.

Post-sales support

Support for Geotab Data Connector follows the standard Geotab support process.

Additional Resources

Resource

Description

Link

Geotab Data Connector User Guide

This document provides an overview and instructions for getting started with the Geotab Data Connector offerings.

Geotab Data Connector - User Guide

Data Schema and Dictionary

Detailed definitions of the columns available in each of the data assets.

Geotab Data Connector – Data Schema and Dictionary

Template Guide and Library

This document provides an overview of BI tool templates and instructions on how to use the templates and includes all of the various templates available via the Template Library

Geotab Data Connector – Template Guide

Customer welcome email template

Standard welcome email template that can be used to engage customers who have activated Geotab Data Connector through MyGeotab

Customer Welcome Email Template

Data Extraction Solutions Cross Reference deck

Comparison between Geotab Data Connector, API Adapters, and SDK based on you and your customers objectives

Data Extraction Solutions Cross Reference deck

Geotab Data Connector Predictive Safety Analytics and Benchmark User Guide

This document explains two pivotal aspects of modern fleet management: Predictive Safety Analytics and Safety Benchmarking.

Geotab Data Connector Predictive Safety Analytics and Benchmark User Guide

Geotab Data Connector Maintenance User Guide

This document provides details on the individual maintenance-related fault codes included such as Electrical System Ratings, Water in Fuel, Anti-lock Brake Systems, Engine Coolant and more

Geotab Data Connector Maintenance Insights User Guide

FAQ

Q: Will partners/resellers be informed when one of their customers subscribe to the Data Connector?

A: MyAdmin sends an email to the reseller if there are Marketplace Add-In changes to the billing from the customer. Managing this subscription requires assigning the Activation_Notification role to a user (the reseller) through the User Admin page (if they haven't already). Everyone on the account who has this role will receive this email.

Q: When trying to download the Geotab Data Connector through Marketplace the Order now option is NOT available, only the Request Information is available?

A: Normally this is a Marketplace Order Now issue and requires custom product pricing to be setup:

For more information please refer to the Customize Product Pricing Section of the Geotab Order Now Partner Guide

Q: A customer signed up via the Marketplace. Now what?

A: Let the customer know and redirect them to the Add-In page. The Add-In page is under MyGeotab Administration. If the user can’t see the Add-In after activation, ensure the user account has the following security clearances: Launch Custom Reports or Add-Ins and View “Geotab Data Connector” Add-In. We have provided a sample welcome email above in the support documents that can be quickly modified.

Q: My customer signed up for the trial now what?

A: They will have a 30 day trial and if they wish to continue they will start to be charged the month after.

Q: How is Geotab Data Connector deactivated?

A: It can be deactivated by uninstalling the Add-In either from the Marketplace or MyGeotab system settings.

Q: How does pricing work for mixed fleets in terms of different data plans?

A: Data Connector can only be subscribed at the database level. For the devices that are on the GO Plan or ProPlus, it is included free of charge. Once Data Connector is activated for a database, billing applies to all devices in that database. So, in a database of devices with mixed plan, all devices on a plan *other* then GO Plan or ProPlus will be charged.

Please note that in the interest of data quality and consistency, Data Connector is designed to apply to all devices in a database. Specific devices, or groups of devices, cannot be selected for individual billing.

Q: How does pricing work for Government fleets?

A: Geotab Data Connector will be an “adder” that will be negotiated as part of the overall contract.

Q: Is Data Connector available for FedRAMP accounts?

A: Geotab Data Connector does not support FedRamp accounts at the moment. When/if this changes we will provide an update.

Q: Are all of my telematics devices (non-GO devices and other third party devices) included in the Geotab Data Connector data, and are they priced differently?

With Data Connector the data from all the telematics devices will be available including OEM. However, data availability will depend on availability from the source and rate plan. Currently OEM devices are not charged.

Q: Why are some components of the Dashboard not populating/showing data?

A: GDC curated data is based on your existing fleet’s data plan, so some fields/charts shown in the ready-to-use dashboard templates may not be available, or may only show a partial aggregation of the data based on a mix of data plans among your fleet.

Q: White Label Customers and Data Residency concerns / My customers’ operations span various Countries/Continents

A: If you have specific data residency requirements, Data Connector might not be available. Please contact your PAM BD for further confirmation.

Q: Customer is interested in accessing GDC data via API

A: API only customers can access GDC. To subscribe/unsubscribe call system settings through the endpoint you have access to. The rate plan would automatically apply after that.

To uninstall, please message the GDC team to unsubscribe.

Q: Are Tableau, Power BI and Excel the only software that are supported by Data Connector?

A: Currently yes, supported and tested. The Data Connector is an OData endpoint that can be used even outside of a BI tool through the appropriate scripts. There are also other software that may support the OData protocol but we do not guarantee that Data Connector will work properly since they have not been tested.

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