IBEX 365 News

2022 IBEX Innovation Award Interview with Radian IoT

News Date: TBD, 2023

2022 Winner Interviews

Boatyard & Marina

New in 2022

Radian IoT GPS Monitoring Solution and SaaS Platform

Radian IoT takes the benefits of GPS monitoring solutions and unlimited geofencing capabilities and, by installing their device during the manufacturing process, turns boats, trailers, and Powersports assets into data generators that deliver actionable intelligence. An industry first, Radian’s unique platform provides a wealth of operational and experiential data that will transform the industry.

What problem does this product solve?
Radian solves profit-draining problems resulting from our current inability to know the location and status of boats and trailers while still in the supply chain. Manufacturers can use Radian IoT to manage transportation, capture actual retail delivery dates, and automatically register consumer warranties. Plus, they can see what’s selling at the dealerships in real-time, by state, by region, by model, by options, etc. Dealers can use the platform to identify all their stocking units on a map, grouped by geofence location, identify locations of in-transit units, track rigging time, locate loose trailers, and monitor and schedule consumer maintenance. For Marina Operators, the platform determines the exact locations of stored boats, trailers in the yard or in rack storage, and allows Rental and Boat Clubs to interact with users of their vessels for a better consumer experience. Consumer Finance Providers can perform floor checks remotely, to verify that their collateralized assets are properly located, saving the dealer and financier countless hours. At purchase, the new owner can choose to subscribe to Radian’s end-user platform. With no device to buy, those who opt in only pay an annual platform subscription, making Radian the most affordable consumer monitoring solution available on the market. In doing so, they can remotely keep an eye on their boat, and receive alerts if their boat moves outside a custom geo-fence, or if a sensor is triggered, such as a battery going dead.

Radian can clearly solve a lot of problems, but perhaps the biggest problem we solve is gaining a greater understanding of how our products are being used and what we can do as an industry to deliver the kind of experience that helps us attract new boaters.

How did you become aware of this problem?
Radian was born from decades of boat building and dealer development experience. With 40+ years in the marine industry, I had the luxury to have worked in just about every role possible. From cleaning boat bottoms as a kid to being a regional sales manager for an engine company and then boat manufacturers. I stepped into management roles and then ultimately into ownership of one of the largest boat manufacturers in North America. I depended on tribal knowledge for many years and eventually started developing dashboards to better run our business and to get all stakeholders on the same page. The common thread that runs in all our businesses is the lack of real-time data: information that we’re all dependent on that is never forward-looking but always in the rear-view mirror.

Who is the target market for this product?
Radian will benefit people at every level of the market, from manufacturers and dealers to consumers and insurers.

What is noteworthy about the technology used?
Radian leverages an internal lifelong-life battery (up to 5 years) to begin delivering asset location, product configuration, and time-stamp data to the cloud as soon as the device is associated with the hull ID or trailer VN. Once installed, manufacturers and their dealers can utilize Radian’s platform and its unlimited geofencing capabilities, to discover inefficiencies and configuration patterns that deliver actionable intelligence to those responsible for selling to the consumer. All this insight occurs, months before a starting battery is installed for a demo or by the end user. Radian’s unique platform provides a wealth of operational and experiential data that will transform any industry involved in a two-step distribution process such as the Marine, RV, and Powersports industries.

How is it different from any other solution on the market?
Radian is a Big Data company that leverages telematics to deliver concrete insights supported by numbers. I’ve been in countless board meetings where ideas and initiatives are implemented with zero data, simply based on opinion. With Radian, it’s now possible to access the data necessary to test theories and ideas, before devoting financial resources to them.

We intentionally built a platform that can handle billions of attribute changes daily without the limitations of the data coming into it. Therefore, we can turn those assets into data generators that support our ability to deliver actionable intelligence in real-time.

What obstacles did you encounter in the R&D process?
We were attempting to do something that had never been done before. Initially, developers just wanted to reskin existing location-tracking platforms. They could not get their heads around using this technology to provide insight to the boat builders and their dealers in advance of retail delivery. We had to impress upon them the importance of integrating time-stamped GPS location and sensor data with a database of hundreds of product-related attributes unique to that boat, trailer, camper, or Powersports asset. Attributes like model names, colors, dimensions, serial numbers, horsepower, number of axles, model year, and specific options are all populated within the platform and then associated with the specific asset upon each report. Once they understood how valuable this information would become, our development team took the Radian platform beyond what even we had envisioned.

What customizations are available to personalize this product?
White labeling is just one of many flexible options that Radian offers. Radian uses an open API, allowing users to push or pull platform information from any product or software in the market. They also have the ability to change settings to extend battery life, manage navigational maps and road maps, use weather overlays, and share the app and its photos and videos with friends and family. We gather many different types of data, including sensory, experiential, external, and structured attribute data, to ensure the best and more accurate experience for our customers. Our team provides statistical, diagnostic, predictive, and prescriptive analysis and shares it with each customer in apps, dashboards, and reports that can feed the banks, insurers, manufactures, and dealers helping to deliver the ultimate experience to the end consumer all on one platform.

How has the product been received?
Initially, it was received with some degree of skepticism because everyone thought they knew what we were offering. They mistakenly lumped us in with other vessel management technologies, but once the dealers and manufacturers see all the problems that Radian can solve, it’s like an epiphany! They see all the dollars currently wasted in pursuit of managing the unmanageable. Once they finally understand what we can do, their faces light up and they get excited about a future where all this data and information is available in real-time. Once the dealers and manufacturers get behind you, the rest of the industry follows. It’s an interesting transformation, but that’s exactly what the Marine Industry needs: transformation.

Additional comments (anything else we should know?)
After spending my entire life in the marine industry, I’ve seen innovative companies rise through their great decision-making capability. On the flip side, I‘ve seen a number of giants fall through a series of poor decisions and complacency. Radian was born from the need to support better decision-making through actual data, not whims or opinion. Every company is free to decide how they want to run their business, but those who figure out how to utilize the best data will be the ones who rise in the future. Radian is here to work with these companies.

To see all the 2022 IBEX Innovation Award winners, click here.