About once a week Johan sends out a company tweet about cool stuff that people were working with on Friday afternoon. I was on the way back from holiday but I did see something interesting.

Several months back I switched from a rival navigation system to a TomTom navigation system, and on Friday afternoon the TomTom asked me to make a U-Turn and showed exactly where to make the turn.

With the previous system that would mean I’d missed a turning, but the TomTom is looking ahead for me. As I crested the hill I could see the traffic jam on the opposite side of the valley. The turning point recommended was barely 50moff the tail end of the queue and a couple of turns later I was chasing down an empty B road almost parallel with the original route and picking apart what just happened.

Speculatively I think the following series of events occurred.

1) Several vehicles were stopped in that jam with TomTom devices on board

2)  These alerted home what was happening and TomTom updated a central database of traffic speeds

3) My TomTom called home to check conditions on the route

4) It noted that the route conditions had changed and started looking for alternate routes

5) It recommended a new route and validated conditions with the central server

6) I saved 20-30 minutes in a traffic jam (which would have increased my frustration and my fuel consumption)

7) I got home happy

Microsoft and Gold Partners such as Dot Net Solutions frequently talk about how a Software + Services approach enhances systems design and introduces new business capabilities. It’s right here in my little story. By sharing data about where I am and how fast I’m moving I enable TomTom to calculate more accurate, live traffic data. The services infrastructure enables them to aggregate this data and sell it back to me in a useful format. The Software on my device uses that data when available to optimize my route

I traded personal data and cash for anonymised data and a program that gave me a better experience. It’s clear that TomTom get a lot out of the arrangement as well – they’re not entirely a ‘device’ company they’re a data services company that gives them an edge when people are just evaluating the devices, and gives them a long term relationship with their customers with repeat income.

What data will your customers give you? Can we help you process that data live and make it available to them?