Traffio’s expansion into the United States forms part of a long-term, global vision, geared towards ushering in the next evolution of services for the world’s traffic management industry. Leaders from the company take Roads & Infrastructure inside this vision.
After concluding a career in digital media project management a little over a decade ago, Nicholas Inglis set his sights on “more rewarding and lasting projects”.
It was Inglis’ ambition to solve real world problems by building practical software products. His only barrier: a lack of clarity around how or where such an ambition could be satisfied.
A fortuitous interaction with a contact from the traffic management industry laid the groundwork for what would ultimately become Traffio, as Inglis explains.
“At the time I’d been dealing closely with Nathan [Wright] for years at our local rowing club,” he says. “If you’re going to start something, you want to work beside someone who you can work well with, and trust.
“Still, I was surprised when he came back to me and said ‘yeah, let’s do this’. Around that time, a contact from the traffic management industry reached out and explained that there was an industry-related challenge that he had encountered. ‘Come in and see if we can work something out’ is what he said. And that was our first ever project.”
It’s here that Traffio was born.
A software platform that provides business management and operational solutions – initially focused on the traffic management and construction industries, Traffio now helps a broad range of organisations manage people, vehicles, equipment, schedules, and operations, making processes more efficient, digital, and user-friendly. This digital platform helps to improve and/or replace manual processes, such as spreadsheets or whiteboards, by streamlining scheduling, resource management and other essential business operations and functions.
The company recently celebrated its 12th anniversary of operation, having made a significant impact on Australia’s traffic management industry in that time.
Throughout that time a vision has been developing, a notion that if the company could make such a difference domestically, why not look elsewhere?
Opportunity overseas
While international expansion had long been a part of Traffio’s plans, it wasn’t until 2021 that such ambition was finally realised, when the company brought its services to the United Kingdom (UK).
Inglis says the UK expansion provided instrumental learnings, such as establishing Traffio Global, rather than regionalised and separated offices.
“We made the mistake of not thinking of ourselves in a global fashion. Instead, we thought of these locations as Traffio UK, Traffio Australia and so forth,” Inglis says. “We restructured the team to: ‘Okay, this is our global marketing team. This is our global customer success team. This is our global sales team.’ And so rather than UK being one team by itself, it was actually a part of many teams.
“For what was our first foray into the Northern Hemisphere, that expansion and the time spent there has helped to make us a better product.”
It also helped to inform Traffio on how to operate internationally without losing the authenticity of its culture, as well as its transparency in supporting its customers.
To support further growth, Traffio leveraged participation in trade missions and industry events such as London Tech Week to build connections and credibility in the market. Similarly, Traffio’s return to the ATSSA (American Traffic Safety Services Association) Expo this year is seen internally as yet another milestone in the company’s growing American presence.
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Grand plans
Traffio is now gearing up for what is one of the company’s most significant expansions and developments to date with its sights set on growing its foothold in the United States.
Inglis says it is the next logical step in the company’s international expansion, with the current market and landscape presenting an opportunity to challenge old processes and build better tools.
The US market also resembled similar aspects and conditions the company had already addressed in Australia, such as the reliance on manual processes, as well as other less efficient methods.
The size, openness, and network-driven nature of the US traffic management and construction industries were also appealing.
Inglis says leveraging previous experience has emerged early as a key to establishing and maintaining success.
“We’ve now got that experience from other parts of the world,” Inglis says. “That’s especially important to apply in markets like the United States that have been – and are – very receptive.
“The first step was establishing meaningful relationships, a key benefit of attending ATSSA and becoming a member of the association, which is something that we look forward to being involved in, as we have with the Traffic Management Association Australia (TMAA).”
It was after this attendance that Traffio onboarded its first US-based customers, who provided essential insight into where and how the platform could be adapted to suit local industry needs.
This development once again echoes Traffio’s early days, with every addition or update being led directly by market requirements – an aspect that continues to this day, and one that’s helped the platform to dramatically reduce admin time, support staff training and retention, and ultimately become an embedded service for daily operations.
“What really matters to us are those interactions with individual customers, where and when you can see that they’re having a great experience,” Inglis says.
The next step for Traffio is the further construction of its dedicated US team, including local industry experts to amplify customer success.
Inglis stresses that such services and expertise will remain in-house to maintain consistency, quality and integrity, even as the company continues to grow.
“I remember when there was only four of us in our office,” Inglis says. “Now we’ve got a company of more than 30 people, and a portion of that is approaching 50 per cent female.
“If you’ve got a shared set of goals, you can really succeed.
“That’s why I’m very much looking forward to the success of our team and our customers for years to come.”
This article was originally published in the February edition of our magazine. To read the magazine, click here.
