Technology Record - Issue 22: Autumn 2021

114 www. t e c h n o l o g y r e c o r d . c om is, and provide a degree of management when cal- culating when vehicles should be serviced. However, Microsoft sees fleet management solutions as having a much wider role in future transport systems. “We like to think differently about this area,” says Stenlake. “The fleet manager is not the only person that cares about the vehicle. Stakeholders who are interested in what a vehicle does range from individual drivers to leasing companies, charging operators if it’s an electric car, city authorities and parking operators if they live in a city, as well as the whole automotive value chain including suppliers and dealers. So what fleet and vehicle management solutions should be striving to do is enable that broader ecosystem with OEM data, which would really open up the space for innovation and better outcomes for a larger set of stakeholders.” To help demonstrate the potential of its approach to fleet management, Microsoft has developed its own in-house solution, known as Project Raven. Built by the Azure mobility team in cooperation with Accenture, the solu- tion is currently being rolled out at Microsoft’s Redmond headquarters. As well as helping Microsoft direct electrification of its internal fleet, Project Raven has the potential to inter- operate with transport systems in the cities of Redmond and Bellevue, enabling shuttle buses to better synchronise schedules with existing public transport. “Project Raven is being built by our Azure Mobility engineering team working closely with Accenture,” says Stenlake. “We’re hoping to pilot some of the broader principles of how we can collaborate with stakeholders using some of the information that we collect in order to demonstrate the fact that fleet and vehicle management is a lot broader than just running your fleet efficiently.” One of the dominant trends in all forms of trans- port is the move towards electrification. Electric vehicles are becoming more prevalent, and while the infrastructure is being deployed to support them, availability of charging ports will be a key issue. If a port is not available when needed, jour- neys can become extended or even impossible. “The way that this problem is being addressed today is through providing overcapacity,” says F E ATUR E “These new services are complex and require many actors to be integrated together in a unified approach. That’s the ethos of everything that we’re trying to do in mobility” J OHN S T ENL AK E , M I C ROSOF T