Lincoln International's expert from the Technology, Media & Telecom Group provides perspective around the convergence of offerings and opportunities for investors in fleet management, field service management and asset management software categories.

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The convergence of two or more of these offerings creates value by connecting data in a seamless way to efficiently manage vehicles, workers and/or equipment. The formation of this digital thread provides the greatest opportunity for investors because when merged, the solutions enhance one another—generating value and differentiation from other competitive offerings in the market.

This convergence can happen organically through innovation or through acquisition. A common combination to date has been fleet management and field service software, offering capabilities to better manage employees, the work they do and the vehicles they drive. For example, the 2020 acquisition of ServiceBridge, field service management, by GPS Insight, fleet management; or Azuga, a fleet management company that developed their own field service solution. Another common combination is field service and asset management software, offering capabilities to ensure employees efficiently and even proactively execute repairs and maintenance. For example, PowerFactors, an asset management company, built their own field service add-on module or IFS, an asset management software provider, has aggressively acquired over five different field service management players over the last four years.