roadmap monthly newsletter - january 2011

Roadmap Monthly Newsletter | [email protected] | Tel + 351 214 135 670 | Fax +351 214 135 678 Frotcom vehicle tracking system | www.frotcom.com Angola |Belgium | Brazil | Bulgaria | Cameroon | Cyprus | D. R. Congo | Greece | Kenya | Luxemburg | Macedonia | Madagascar | Mauritius | Morocco | Portugal | Reunion Islands | Romania | Rwanda | Senegal | Seychelles | Sierra Leone | Slovenia | Spain | Tanzania | Uganda

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Roadmap monthly newsletter

Editorial

he other day I was reading one of our colleague’s

Facebook page. Here’s what he wrote: “In the last

few days I’ve been thinking about how 2011 will

turn out to be. And I’ve decided: it will be an

EXCELLENT year.“

Isn’t this a great way of looking at a brand new year? It reflects the belief that

the future can be, if not dictated by you, at least strongly influenced by you.

In Frotcom, we believe in this, too. We know that despite all economical and

financial crises, in the end, each company’s vision and strategy will largely

influence its results.

In 2010 Frotcom International’s turnover grew 40%. Operations expanded to 3

continents and the Frotcom system is now commonly regarded as a very

competitive state-of-the-art vehicle tracking and fleet management system.

The recent launch of Frotcom SL was the latest cornerstone, contributing to

transform Frotcom from a local basic vehicle tracking solution into an emerging

global player in fleet management.

In 2011, we believe, Frotcom will continue to

grow. Our network will expand to new

countries and Frotcom users will be given

new functionalities, some of which follow the

requests formulated by Frotcom Certified

Partners and their Clients. Ultimately,

Frotcom will become the de facto vehicle

tracking and fleet management system.

We have decided. 2011 will be an EXCELLENT year. What about you?

Valério Marques CEO - Frotcom International

A note from the editor – If you would like to have your own say in the next edition of this newsletter please do

not hesitate to get in touch at [email protected].

T

January

2011

In this issue

New feature

Frotcom SL

officially launched

Case study

Amalia Coffee Grinding Ltd

Care for a Cyprus coffee?

News and events

Frotcom joins

road safety initiative

This and much more…

mailto:[email protected]


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New Features

Frotcom SL officially launched

After a period of beta tests, it is official: Frotcom SL is here

to stay!

Based on Silverlight technology, Frotcom SL really is Frotcom unleashed.

Waiting for a page to load is a thing of the past. Frotcom SL only downloads

the absolutely necessary data, whilst all user interface related data is kept in

the user’s computer. As a result, idle times are kept to a minimum and the

user experience is much more interesting.

According to Renato Ferreira, Frotcom International’s CTO, “Frotcom SL is a

turning point for Frotcom. Not only have we managed to clearly improve the

user experience; we now have a tool that allows us to respond quicker to the

user needs. In fact, Silverlight allows us to develop software quicker and with

some extra flexibility.”

Frotcom International’s CMO, Nuno Liñan,

added that “We were extremely pleased

when we saw that without a single

exception, the feedback received from beta

testers referred that the user experience

was better than with the previous version.”

Some of the comments received from Beta testers:

“Excellent!”

“Quite quick and pleasant!”

“Bravo!”

“Hi, I congratulate you on Frotcom SL (beta). Runs faster, graphics are much better and so far no problems.”

“Easier to work with.”

“Much more efficient and quicker, an improvement to our operation.”

“Much quicker…how can I make this my preferred version?”

“The new Frotcom SL is quite swift. I have tried to move through a number of screens which used to be slow with the older version and true, SL is faster. I do recommend this shift.”

Give it a try and send us also your feedback!

Did you know?

Eco-driving" is easy to apply and

has significant, long-term effects

Fuel-efficient driving (Eco-driving) can

significantly reduce fuel consumption

and lower CO2 emissions. Slight

changes in driving style enable drivers

to exploit fully the fuel-efficiency

potential of modern technologies.

Eco-driving is easy to apply. Here are

some guidelines:

1. Shift into a higher gear early;

2. Maintain a steady speed at

highest possible gear;

3. Look ahead and anticipate traffic

flow;

4. Switch off the engine at short

stops;

5. Check and adjust the tyre

pressure regularly;

6. Make use of in-car fuel saving

devices such as on-board

computers and dynamic

navigators to avoid congestion;

7. Get rid of surplus weight and

unused roof racks;

Eco-driving can be highly cost-effective:

Eco-driving training leads to a reduction

in fuel consumption of up to 25 % after

training, with a significant long-term

effects of 7% under every-day driving

conditions.

Source: www.acea.be


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All these products are currently distributed to

thousands of professionals all around Cyprus,

through the company’s excellent distribution

system.

In 2010, the company adopted Frotcom to its sales

fleet.

According to Christos Hionas, Commercial

Manager, “Frotcom has proved very simple to use.

It is a very effective tool which allows us to

monitor the sales activities throughout Cyprus.”

Case Study

Amalia Coffee Grinding Ltd

Care for a Cyprus coffee?

Founded in 1948 in Larnaca, Cyprus, Amalia

Coffee Grinding Ltd (www.amalia.com.cy) started

to be a grinder and distributer of coffee.

From 1963 until today, with new installations and improved equipment, Amalia

has enriched its line of products: syrups made from the distillation of natural

almonds, bananas, pomegranates, blackcurrant, black cherries and exotic fruit.

Later, additional products such as dry nuts, rosewater, water with bitter range

Flavor and a massive variety of Cyprus Delights (loukoumia) of 10 different types

were introduced into the market.

Equipped for today’s demanding market needs, Amalia Coffee Grinding Ltd is a

food processing and packaging company which aspires and aims to continue its

founders’ successful work.

ROADMAP congratulates Michalis and Frotcom Cyprus for this successful

project.

Tip of the month

Tell Frotcom which

web interface you want

Recently, Frotcom launched Frotcom

Premium SL. Now, when you log in, you

will be asked about which version to

use: Silverlight or HTML (legacy):

You can choose Silverlight for a faster

and more powerful experience, or opt

for HTML, in case your browser is not

compatible with Silverlight.

Note: please be aware that the html

version may not have access to all the

features available in the Silverlight

version of Frotcom.

If you don’t want to be asked the same

question again the next time you login,

just tick option “Save my choice and do

not show this message again.” Once

you tick the box and choose your

preferred interface, you will be

automatically logged in, thereafter.

You can however, at any moment,

change your web interface preferences

in Administration > My Profile.

http://www.amalia.com.cy/


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News and events

Frotcom’s web site is getting

even more visitors

In the last issue of Roadmap we told you about Alexa (www.alexa.com), a company

specialized in providing information about websites to the Internet community. We told

you that according to Alexa, Frotcom’s web site was being ranked the 635,220th

most

visited site on the Internet.

Well, things have changed. According to Alexa, today Frotcom is ranked the 525,239th

most visited site on the Internet.

An amazing leap which currently puts Frotcom ahead of most of its competitors in terms

of number of visits to the website.

Frotcom joins the European

Road Safety Charter

In January 2011 Frotcom International joined the

European Road Safety Charter. The objective of

the Charter is to help reduce road fatalities.

The European Road Safety Charter is a European participatory platform made up of

enterprises, associations, research institutions and public authorities. These actors

undertake to carry out concrete actions and share their good practices in order to

resolve the road safety problems that they encounter in their day-to-day environments.

Soon the European Road Safety Charter logo will be put in Frotcom’s website as a way of

drwaing attention to road fatalities. Although this is an European initiative, road

fatalities are unfortunately a much wider problem and similar initiatives are taking place

worldwide.

Frotcom’s impact on road safety was in fact recognized In October 2010, when Frotcom

East Africa received a Certificate of Achievement from the National Road Safety Agency

in Kenya, as Best Fleet Management Service Provider in 2010.

Further information about the European Road Safety Charter can be obtained in

www.escharter.eu.

Next, on Roadmap

News and events,

more new Frotcom features

and tips will be presented.

This and more, so don’t miss

the next issue of Roadmap.

http://www.alexa.com/

http://www.escharter.eu/

roadmap monthly newsletter - january 2011

Technology