The worldwide market for advanced mobile resource management (MRM) solutions is forecast to grow 35 percent over the next five years, representing a compound annual growth rate of 6.2 percent, according to a new ARC Advisory Group study.

A range of suppliers experienced a reduction in revenues during the recent global economic downturn.  However, many of these same suppliers have more recently reported substantial revenue growth.  This growth trend is expected to continue due to increased adoption being driven by numerous factors, including advancement in supporting technologies. "The price reduction of on-board devices and the enhancement of terrestrial-based communications have made advanced mobile resource management solutions more cost-effective, leading to increased adoption and an expansion of the addressable market," according to enterprise software analyst Clint Reiser, the principal author of ARC's "Advanced Mobile Resource Management Worldwide Outlook."

The federal compliance, safety, and accountability (CSA) initiative will closely monitor motor carrier safety metrics.  It also requires motor carriers that fail to meet the program's guidelines to adopt and utilize electronic on-board recorders (EOBRs).  Many carriers are voluntarily adopting advanced MRM solutions that utilize EOBRs to capture vehicle data and driver activity.  This trend is expected to continue.  In addition, the mandated adoption of EOBRs is expected to drive additional adoption of advanced MRM solutions when this section of the regulation becomes effective in 2012.  ARC believes these regulations have already influenced recently reported sales increases by leading providers such as Qualcomm and XATA.

The range of advanced MRM applications available has expanded and the ability to analyze and report on information has progressed considerably.  In addition, advanced MRM applications are now being integrated with other enterprise applications to deliver additional value.  For example, vehicle location and track-and-trace functionality is being integrated with planning and scheduling applications to deliver dynamic routing functionality.  These advancements have enabled advanced MRM applications to serve as a multifaceted platform for fleet and asset management, improving their value proposition and leading to increased adoption.

ARC expects high growth rates in advanced MRM sales within Asia and Latin America.  In addition, consumer use of closely related automatic vehicle location solutions is rising in many of these regions.

Source: ARC Advisory Group