Speed, Flexibility, and Continuous Innovation characterize Targa Telematics, the Leading Provider of Connected Vehicle Solutions

“We create value for the customer through continuous innovation, Big Data analysis and full integration with the company processes.”

In this IT revolution, the race is on. Innovative automakers, software developers and tech- giants are leading a radical transformation in the automotive industry. By refining and redefining existing technologies and introducing new, exciting concepts like artificial intelligence and the connected cars, the automobile industry is exploring all the perks of IoT.

Based in Italy and France and part of Elda group, a pioneer in the Information Technology industry since the 1980s, Targa Telematics is an IT oriented company with 30 years of experience in Internet of things and connected vehicles.

The firm offers companies Internet of Cars solutions to more effectively manage vehicles and people with added safety, to save resources while protecting the environment and to develop new business models. Targa Telematics’ high-tech solutions range from telematics to smart mobility and allow you to make effective and timely decisions based on accurate data, to improve performance and to develop innovative services in response to new lifestyles and new market demands.

Let’s Get the Ball Rolling With Nicola De Mattia, CEO of Targa Telematics

What led to the inception of the company?

Targa Telematics is fully owned by the mother company UbiEst. UbiEst, which was established in 2000 with the support of venture capital fund, was founded for developing technology for mapping, location based services, Internet of Things, in its evolution.

In 2006, UbiEst acquired Targa Telematics(previously named Targa Infomobility) from Fiat Chrysler Automobile Group. Targa was started in 2002 for providing services to the FCA group’s customers. The services were towards the drivers, which was basically a button on the dashboard of your car and by pushing it you can connect to the dedicated call center in order to take information about traffic information, booking or parking etc. After the acquisition, the company changed its direction and evolved the business model, the technology and daily proposition taking it into the telematics market.

Targa Telematics is more focused on providing its solutions to automotive, rental cars, construction machinery and airport handling. All the other assets are covered by UbiEst: the 2 companies have in common the digital platform and we are going to merge them in the next months.

Discuss how the customers’response has benefitted the firm.

About 6years ago, we adopted the agile methodology in developing our new technology, products, and solutions. The customer feedback is the crucial information we put in the process in developing something. We re-designed our organization introducing new roles, such as Product Owners, that have the commitment to merge the customer needs with our competence, experience, analysis and studies, in order to take the right decision in a short time. With this new organisation we produced something real, useful,and valuable for the customers.

Can you talk about the corporate culture in Targa?

Definitely! The corporate culture is really the key factor in our success and we push a lot on that. Basically, we have a set of values like honesty, passion, courage, curiosity, responsibility, transparency,and agility and so on. These values are really in our DNA and all the employees here have to observe and take care of them.

We even have some panels and our goal is to remember these values daily. We apply these values in everything we do and in all relationship that we have with our colleagues, customers,and third parties. In addition, we are concerned to use real competences in order to bring real value to customers as well as to say the truth even if it is not convenient for us because our success is based on establishing long term relationship and partnership. So, our reputation about that is the most important thing for us.

What makes your company one of the best companies in the industry?

In one word -COMPETENCES. What we do and what we already developed is definitely coming from competences. I scale the people working well together and always studying, analyzing, evolving daily for getting our level higher and it is one of the most important assets for us in order to compete better.

What is the future roadmap of Targa?

I see it more international. Which would be, more involvement in different markets, growth in different market and increased revenue. We provide digital services for the IoT and Telematics market and we daily evolve our platform.  Every 15 days or so, we launch in the market, new products or features or evolution. This is our company’s pace of the innovation in this market.

However, definitely with the same organizational structure, same values, same philosophy, even if we will be doing or using different technologies. Most importantly, we remain consistent in our approach to our market, to our customers and partners.

“Our capabilities and know-how are the result of over 30 years of experience in IT. Our first Telematic solution for the automotive sector dates back to the nineties. We continue to develop innovation, challenging ourselves towards constant creation of new solutions. Experience and innovation: this is the essence of Targa Telematics.”