TSPs' Transition into Data Marketplace Providers Has Started: IMS Launches Vehicle Data Exchange

Insurance & Mobility Solutions (IMS) announced the launch of the IMS Vehicle Data Exchange. The new service provides real-time access to vehicle insights and mobility data from OEM-embedded hardware, combined with the company's existing portfolio of aftermarket connectivity options. The solution aggregates, normalizes, and enriches data from both OEM embedded and aftermarket hardware, offering actionable insights in a single interface. IMS works directly with OEMs and ingests data directly from the OEM cloud, rather than using software in the vehicle, an intentional approach to reduce complexity. The solution is model agnostic and compatible with multi-marque light-, medium-, or heavy-duty vehicles.

The IMS Vehicle Data Exchange offers real-time access to trip data, odometer reading, consumables, vehicle health information, accident detection, driver behavior, and usage-based verification. Some of the supported automotive brands include BMW, Citroën, Fiat, Ford, Jeep, Mercedes-Benz, Peugeot, and Vauxhall. Similar offerings, already provided by commercial telematics players like Geotab and Verizon, will become more common among private vehicle telematics players due to the dire aftermarket hardware sales projections in the coming years and advancements in regulation like the Extended Vehicle Concept in Europe and Right to Repair in the United States.

Leasing, rental, and fleet companies struggle with the complexity and costs of gathering and combining data from their vehicle fleet, often composed of a mix of multiple OEM brands, models, and telemetry technology. With the Vehicle Data Exchange, IMS aims to remove the complexity and resource burden from mobility operators of engaging with multiple OEMs, signing contracts, and managing and aligning data collection from diverse sources.

According to IMS, most of the demand is currently coming from lease and mobility companies with multi-brand vehicle fleets—up to 10 to 15 brands—in Europe and the United Kingdom, mostly looking for milage and fuel consumption data to proactively book and arrange scheduled maintenance servicing. The company also expects increased interest from insurers looking for mileage and driver behavior data from prospective policyholders. Data on non-policy holders empower telematics insurers to price risk more profitably and engage in targeted marketing to the least risky drivers.

TSPs bring tough competition to automative data marketplace companies such as Otonomo and Caruso. To clients, the advantage of using a TSP as a data provider is that an aftermarket device can be leveraged anywhere the OEM doesn't have an available connected vehicle option. For instance, if 90% of a rental company fleet can be accessed via OEM embedded hardware and 10% is not connected, a black box or an OBD device can be retrofitted in the remaining 10%.

Presently, marketplace data companies differentiate by the variety of OEMs offering data on their platforms, but a quick look into their websites shows that the same OEMs send data to every ongoing platform. Thus, competing only by OEMs can be tricky. Besides, TSP companies have the advantage of being established players in their field, with solid brand and experience in vehicle data extraction and analysis, which can help them get contracts with a broader range of OEMs and provide actionable insights.

IMS will also have a strong position among other private vehicle TSPs because it can offer mobility companies quick access to their vehicle data at lower price points because they are not required to install aftermarket devices on all their vehicles. Also, IMS can offer insurance companies data about prospective policyholders and combine data from different OEMs with data from aftermarket devices to develop new algorithms and refine and expand its services. Nevertheless, the competitive advantage will not last long as other TSP players should also enter the data marketplace segment to compensate for the sales decline in aftermarket devices.