Telvent relocates and takes a global stance on ITS

Telvent's Manuel Sanchez Ortega, on relocating the company's headquarters to the US and how that fits in the international scheme of things

The change-of-address cards are in the post; Manuel Sanchez Ortega has just moved homes. The domestic upheaval of 134 Telvent's Chairman and Chief Executive comes as a result of the decision to relocate many of the company's headquarter functions from Madrid to Rockville, Maryland in the US. Viewed in the context of its significant recent acquisitions in North America - among them, PB Farradyne and Caseta Technologies - this latest development could be viewed as a reorientation of Telvent's business interests to serve more exclusively the transport market on the western side of the Atlantic. That couldn't be more wrong, says Sanchez: it very much represents a truly global stance which fully reflects the size and importance of quite a number of different geographic regions. It is a symbiotic relationship, he asserts, in that it is impossible to be truly global without being in the US. By token, it is also impossible to be in the US without being truly global.

"But I should make clear that this is nothing 'new'," he adds. "Telvent has been active in several sectors in the US for over 20 years."

Nevertheless, considered circumstances were behind the decision to move to Rockville: "Firstly, 30 per cent of our business is already in North America, and I anticipate that that figure will grow. Secondly, we wanted to show commitment to our North American team. Sharing the headquarter functions between the two locations goes beyond 'just a couple of acquisitions' and reflects longer-term ambitions.

"In line with that commitment to the team is a commitment to our customers. It underlines that we're not just looking for short-term gain."

Global opportunities

Sanchez notes that this isn't his first time away from 'home'. He has previously lived in Mexico. The move to the US, therefore, sees him gaining direct involvement in all three of Telvent's major markets: "Latin America is very important to us and we have a long-standing presence there; we opened our first office in the region in 1985." Looking forward, he sees major opportunities for the company in China and the Middle East.

"China? You need to be there," he says. "As a global company, it's hard to understand the world if you're not. Years ago, you didn't see Chinese companies competing internationally. That's not the case now.

"We have an office of 150 people in Beijing. There's no doubt it's a tough market but you need to take the opportunity to compete with Chinese companies on their own turf; it makes you more able to successfully compete with them abroad. China was a low-cost manufacturing nation. It's not now: it's a low-cost engineering nation which has the financial resources which allow it to be very strong in R&D. We're seeing a lot of talent coming out of the country's universities and you can't ignore that and stay stuck in the past. China is going to become a very important player at the technical level." The Middle East, by contrast, he regards as a net importer of technology.

"Oil prices have meant that there is a lot of money available with which to address some pretty huge infrastructure needs. Like China, there is a real absence of legacy infrastructure to deal with, which makes implementation easier in many respects. Again, like China, the Middle East is hungry for the absolute latest technologies."

The role of technology

Turning back to the US, Sanchez says that the more widespread use of technology to manage society's and transportation networks' ills should be a key goal. It is an observation, he notes, equally applicable around the world.
"The new transportation plan recently unveiled by Secretary Peters makes some welcome steps forward in terms of the use of charging and tolling, for instance, but we need to create a better, wider understanding of just how much of a difference IT and ITS technologies in particular can make.

"The 21st century will be, I'm convinced, the 'IT century'. The generations growing up now have existed with IT since birth, their use of it to problem-solve is second nature. But we shouldn't wait for them to reach the age where they hold the big decision-making positions in society. There are significant environmental and safety gains to be made right now and the greater use of IT really is our only solution.

"The next administration's Transportation Bill should include a greater emphasis on the improvements to be gained from the better monitoring and measurement of the movement of goods and people - of the effects on emissions, security and safety. Senior politicians' and managers' thinking needs to become better aligned with the idea of technology as an enabler. We need to take a much more aggressive stance when it comes to deployment." The task of achieving that is a shared one, he says. Industry agents and the various national associations need to work together, and harder, to impress upon politicians that they have to make more positive contributions to the lives of the people they work for. The main challenge, though, is always going to be money.

Common choices

"There are some great ideas out there and some very strong technologies but we need to solve the finances. The public sector can't do it alone.

"I don't see any wrong in the public and private sectors working together. In fact, I think it would be wrong to stop the private sector getting involved in some areas that have traditionally been public sector-only concerns. It comes down to some very stark and simple choices: do people want to use technology-free roads without charge and suffer congestion and reduced safety as a result, or do they want equipped facilities that are efficient and safe? They should at least have the choice.

"We're already seeing these kinds of things happening in Europe and Latin America. In Spain, for instance, we've seen a 30 per cent drop in road casualties as a result of the increased levels of investment that such an approach has unlocked. We need more debate, to get the different interests at the same table to hammer out the issues and find the correct balances." The assertion that the current situation is a result of a lack of competence on the part of governments around the world is unfair, he says.

"I don't view it in terms of failure. We're now faced with having to make decisions over situations which simply didn't exist 50 years ago. The world's population is growing exponentially - at a rate much higher than historically. With that growth comes a huge demand for mobility.

"We have to radicalise transport thinking. Working from home is often raised as an ideal solution. Okay, so it has benefits in terms of family cohesion, productivity and greenhouse gas emissions. But such solutions are never going to solve things 100 per cent. At the end of the day, when they've finished working, people want to socialise. They want mobility. That has to be recognised and managed." Value pricing in all its forms - tolling, congestion charging and HOT lanes - are going to be significant growth areas in the coming years, he feels. Aligned with that will be the opportunity for much more extensive traveller information services.

"We have a €400 million business in the traffic space, and almost 30 per cent of total greenhouse gas emissions are as a result of road transportation. But we have a real opportunity to reduce that. I'm optimistic that we're finally seeing customers waking up to the idea that ITS isn't just about traffic management. It's about improvements to the quality of life."

Security: an opportunity

Security has been a notable growth area in recent years. In the US in particular, post-9/11, homeland security has become something of an industry in itself. Far from being a retrograde step, Sanchez feels that it has benefited ITS to a huge degree.

"There is the opportunity to do much to improve traffic monitoring and management on the back of such developments which doesn't compromise privacy," he continues. "The environment and security are, I think, society's two biggest concerns at present and the increased emphasis on homeland security, which has spread around the world, is a huge boost to the ITS sector. In fact, if we don't use it to improve and expand ITS deployment I think it would be a big mistake and a huge opportunity missed.

"The next step, cooperative infrastructure programmes such as VII, will make our movements even more intelligent. Again, there are massive possibilities if we can just convince people of the role that technology can play. The upcoming World Congress in New York will, I think, give us a superb opportunity to do just that."