SCHAAN, Fla. — Hilti and Trackunit have announced a strategic partnership to advance digital transformation in the construction industry. The partnership is focused on bringing global scale to the tool and equipment connectivity domain.

Together with Trackunit, an industry leader in fleet management services, Hilti is now able to strengthen its ON!Track solution. At the same time, the Trackunit platform will be enriched with additional tool-related data. The partnership also seeks to expand the ever-growing network of Trackunit devices, providing increased connectivity around the globe through advanced Bluetooth technology. It enables the industry to detect tags on smaller tools and equipment, capture insights from tool and equipment data and offer an integrated customer experience across platforms.

"Connectivity is rapidly changing our industry. Through this unique partnership, we are excited to leverage our joint expertise to also further connect tools, machinery and service vans around construction sites in the near future — ultimately providing customers with innovative and integrated solutions that improve productivity and profitability," said Michael Neidow, executive vice president at Hilti and Head of the Tool Services Business Unit.

The partnership is a joint ambition to increase productivity and eliminate downtime in the industry. It also marks a new digitalization frontier in construction focusing on tools and equipment.

"By partnering with global market leader Hilti, we can further realize the collective digital business transformation of our industry," said Soeren Brogaard, CEO of Trackunit. "Together, we are uniquely positioned to help customers unlock insights from light equipment and tools, providing ample opportunity in decision-making, efficiency and continuous learning. The partnership goes way beyond standard ISO feeds and builds deep integration where data insights are now being made available across the two platforms in real time. The integration will deliver a standardized and stronger customer experience out of the box — eliminating the need for custom configuration and expensive IT integrations."

Hilti provides market reach to a well-established Trackunit solution and enlarges the global network. Trackunit serves some of the world’s largest OEMs, rentals and contractors and with this strategic partnership Hilti brings the access to the retrofit market and mid-market for expanding the Bluetooth network. With the data exchange model, Trackunit will also strengthen its offering to cover unpowered equipment and assets for their existing customers. Data insights are now being made available across the two platforms in real time, so that tools registered in Hilti’s ON!Track system can be viewed on the Trackunit platform, and heavy machinery equipped with Trackunit hardware can be viewed in ON!Track.

The partnership will allow Hilti to expand its ON!Track solution beyond light equipment to also cover heavy machinery, while creating an innovative solution for van inventory management for all customer categories in the construction industry. This is a great fit because it elevates the customer experience to the next level by making sure tool and data insights are accessible on both platforms. Moving forward, you can expect further announcements about the partnership in the coming 24 months.