LIVERMORE, Calif.-- In construction job site management, the key to increasing productivity, effectively managing assets and improving profit percentages is communication – between people, between machines.

In the construction business, mastering the art and science of communication is paramount to success, in a boom economy or during an industry-wide slowdown.

In the construction communications community, the new buzzword is telematics, a word that means the sending and receiving of information via telecommunications.

But in the fast-paced world of telecommunications technology, it means much more than that.

Telematics opens up an entirely new world of communication . . . from transmitting individual pieces of information from big iron to the job trailer, from machines to the home office (no matter where it’s located on the globe), or even from machine to machine.

Topcon Positioning Systems (TPS) has made a giant leap into the telematics marketplace by forming a new Telematics Business Unit, headed by Mark Bittner, senior vice president. The telematics team has hit the ground running with a targeted solution for the construction and agriculture markets. Within the first 60 days of operation, TPS had mobile control and monitoring equipment installed and operating with key customers at five test sites - three in the United States and two in Europe.

Topcon’s emergence as a global player in the telematics business is the result of a joint venture with Divitech S.p.A., a telematics solution provider based in Turin, Italy. The joint venture company is Tierra ™.

Established in 1997, Divitech is an experienced software development and management company with a global footprint providing analysis, design, realization and installation of fleet management systems, as well as value-added, web-based solutions.

“Topcon Tierra™, along with its myriad application is the product of the TPS telematics business unit,” Bittner said. “It uses advanced GPS technology to form a two-way, web-based communications system with unlimited commercial, core-to-client applications.

“Topcon Tierra takes information available from any piece of machinery - regardless of age, make or model, analog or digital - and sets up two-way communications, transmitting data about the tracking or operation of the vehicle, plus behavioral aspects of the machines,” Bittner said.

He described Topcon Tierra as a “tool to increase productivity and reduce costs, allowing users to access a 'window' into machine operations from anywhere in the world, via the web.”

Gianluca Fiori, founder of Divitech and a pioneer in web applications for job site management, said, “Telematics will become the decisive factor in job site management information in the future. With Topcon Tierra telematic service, what you do at the machine will be available from a remote location and all that you do in a remote office will be directly available on the operating vehicle.

“In this way you can have complete monitoring and control of all phases of every job,” he said. “Adopting and utilizing the best technology for a business will help every operator increase productivity and profitability like never before.”

Topcon has been “working hard to get into this market segment,” Bittner said, “and now we’re doing it in a substantial way. It’s a major priority for Topcon Positioning Systems and a key component of our managed services offering.”

Construction companies worldwide are looking “to Topcon to give them a total management solution to better track and analyze their entire operations. With Topcon Tierra, we are giving them the same around-the-corner solutions in the telematics area that we have in machine control.”

The beauty of the Topcon Tierra system is that “it literally puts you in the passenger seat of every single machine on virtually every job site, anywhere in the world.”

Bittner described Topcon Tierra as a “return-on-investment-based solution, guaranteeing each customer measurable time savings in machinery upkeep and repair, in man-hours expended and in increased productivity. Companies realize measurable productivity increases and real return-on-investment from day one. The payback is in months, not years.

“It’s a total solution for every construction firm, big or small, allowing for you to stay competitive through improved operations.”

Topcon Tierra website: www.topcontierra.com.

Topcon Positioning Systems: www.topconpositioning.com.