Navman Wireless expands global operations

Bangalore: Navman Wireless is bucking the business contraction trend by expanding its operations into six new countries so far this year. The company has opened local offices in Italy, Mexico, Taiwan and Ireland, while in Canada and Thailand the company has partnered with local distributors to provide its fleet management and vehicle tracking solutions.

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This brings the number of countries in which it now operates to 15, tracking over 100,000 vehicles for more than 7,000 customers worldwide. Ian Daniel, Vice President Asia Pacific and Latin America at Navman Wireless, says that the company evaluates potential markets against three key criteria: market penetration; addressable market size; and competitive assessment to evaluate Navman Wireless's point of difference.

Navman Wireless's strategy is to meet local market conditions and it adopts a flexible approach when it comes to determining the best business model for each new market. "Partnering with a local distributor, as we have in Canada and Thailand, means we can quickly establish a footprint in the market place. In both those instances the distributors approached us because they wanted be able to offer our solutions. The local knowledge of our partners is incredibly valuable in those markets," says Ian.

"As a rule Navman Wireless aims to partner with the dominant telco in the market and often we're able to leverage the success of our existing relationships in other countries," says Ian. "In some markets there isn't an obvious partner. In that case we set up a Navman Wireless office and hire people on the ground. It's a big commitment and it takes a little longer to get established to drive sales, but the long-term results are invariably far better."

Reaching new markets such as Taiwan and Thailand is made easier by the robust translation process in Navman Wireless's OnlineAVL2 software, which is developed here in New Zealand. "We're able to easily translate our applications into the local language of the countries in which we operate. Our developers here have built that ability into the software, which gives us a tremendous advantage as we continue to expand into new markets."

Navman Wireless continues to look to future growth and already has concrete plans for expansion into new territories in 2010.