Mar 5 2009

Top Analyst Firm puts Skymeter on Green IT Radar

Toronto, Canada – IDC of Framingham, MA, a global market intelligence firm, today put Skymeter Corporation on its list of “10 Canadian Green IT Companies to Watch”. This study profiles emerging companies offering solutions that, IDC believes, have the potential to benefit the environment through the use of information and communication technology (ICT), or to make ICT itself more environmentally responsible.

“Canadian entrepreneurs are introducing innovations that enhance the efforts of the big manufacturers," says Chris Sullivan, Vice President at IDC Canada. "But there are also creative applications of information technology to other fields, especially energy management, that will provide much greater benefit to society by adding intelligence to the consumption of resources through feedback, business intelligence, and real-time control."

“It is expected that Green IT will play a critical role in addressing resource efficiency and emissions,” says Kamal Hassan, Skymeter’s CEO. “IDC must see a huge number companies touting the benefits of Green IT. We’re very pleased that as a company that addresses traffic congestion and automotive emission measurement, Skymeter stands out for analysts in one of the largest new IT categories we will see in years. Our solution promises to create exciting new business models that cross a number of categories such as “pay-as-you drive” road-use and insurance while addressing key issues such as parking congestion and infrastructure funding.”

This report follows some positive developments in both the US and Asia. A recent report by the United States Congressional Commission on National Surface Transport Infrastructure Financing (NSTIF). In its report released on February 26th, 2009, the Commission recommended that the U.S. transition from fuel taxes to a system where all roads are financed by drivers’ actual use of roads. The commission states that this can be done privately, efficiently, and most cost-effectively, by using GPS-based tolling technology (such as that offered by Skymeter). In the executive summary to their report the Commissioners wrote: “If the federal government fails to act now…we will waste non-renewable petroleum and harm our environment unnecessarily.” The Skymeter solution further underscores the opportunity for America. “Opting for a sensibly-designed VMT user fee system, America’s total CO2 emissions will be reduced by 5% or 350 million metric tonnes, the same reduction as if one out of every four cars on the road were replaced by electric cars,” says Skymeter’s CEO Kamal Hassan.

Recently, Cisco Korea endorsed Skymeter as its technical solution partner of choice for ‘Smart Transportation Pricing’ technology in the city of Seoul under the Connected Urban Development program (CUD), which “demonstrates how to reduce carbon emissions by introducing fundamental improvements in the efficiency of the urban infrastructure through information and communications technology (ICT).

Skymeter Corporation is a Toronto, Canada-based data services operator that enables location-based payments using financial-grade GPS telematics. Its billing-delivery services include Time, Distance and Place (TDP) metering for road use, parking and PAYD insurance. These services incorporate methodologies for both privacy and anonymity to ensure motorists enjoy complete privacy while traveling and absolute confidentiality of their trips. This is equivalent to an anonymous, in-car cell-phone that automatically pays for all these services based on actual usage.  Skymeter enables every form of road-use charging from small city areas such as London (UK), and Stockholm's cordon charges up to metering every vehicle in a state, province or country in order to replace fuel taxes.