Telematics CEO to Address New York Security Analysts
DALLAS & FORT WORTH, Texas--May 9, 2005--The president and CEO of ATX Group, the world's second largest telematics service provider to the automotive industry, will discuss how the next generation of digital-based telematics applications will trigger new growth in the consumer vehicle telematics industry at the New York Society of Security Analysts Wireless Industry Conference, May 17, 2005, at the Harvard Club in New York City.Steve Millstein has served as President and Chief Executive Officer of ATX and other predecessor companies merged within ATX for nearly eight years. His involvement in the telematics industry goes back to the 1996 Lincoln RESCU program, the first telematics program launched on a consumer vehicle.
In the past, consumer-oriented telematics programs such as ATX's primarily have featured voice-delivered, safety- and security-oriented services tailored for vehicle owners. The next generation of services from ATX will be data-centric and focused more on reducing costs, increasing customer retention, and generating revenue and added value for automobile manufacturers and dealerships.
ATX pioneered the development of vRM, an acronym for vehicle relationship management, for automobile manufacturers and their affiliated dealerships. Much like the more established business practice of CRM or customer relationship management, -- using data about the customer to provide more customized service to achieve greater customer loyalty and retention - vRM adds the element of vehicle data to the customer data. The result is better enabling both manufacturers and dealerships to keep better track of their customers' needs and satisfaction as well as their products' performance over the lifetime of the vehicle.
ATX is a privately held company that recorded a 49% percent increase in revenue growth in 2004. Future growth in the business is expected to result from the migration of telematics technology as an option on luxury-brand models to a standard feature on mass-market vehicle lines. Accelerating this migration will be the adoption of vRM applications, thereby expanding benefits beyond telematics' traditional services that focus on safety and security applications for consumers.
Telematics involves the integration within the vehicle of wireless communications; in-vehicle electronics; hands-free interactive or automated voice technology; positioning technology; and off-vehicle data management.
Based in the Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas, area and Dusseldorf, Germany, ATX Group is the world's second largest provider of telematics services for the automobile industry, serving both North America and Europe. ATX telematics services are designed to provide enhanced safety, security and driving convenience to vehicle owners. These services include location-specific emergency and roadside assistance, automatic collision notification, stolen vehicle recovery, remote diagnostics and real-time traffic and navigation assistance. ATX, the largest independent telematics provider not owned by an automobile manufacturer or telecommunications firm, also provides telematics services designed to help automobile manufacturers and their affiliated dealerships to use telematics data to reduce costs, enhance vehicle servicing, and more closely manage customer relationships. ATX services are provided to vehicle owners through the brand names of its customers -- Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Maybach, and Rolls-Royce Motor Cars.
For more information, visit www.atxg.com.