Drive Talk Summer 2009 Pdf

DRIVE TALK SUMMER 2009 1

SUMMER 2009

The customer is kingAn expert comment

SLAsPower to manage

BelgacomRunning 8,000 vehicles

The pressure is on in the fleet market – from above and below. Finance firms are ever more stringent in

their funding criteria, while customers are tightening their belts and demanding ever-greater levels of service from more cost-competitive offerings. That shifts the onus onto leasing companies to demonstrate that they have the business models in place to secure the finance they require, while leveraging those business structures to provide the best service.

Leaner business models ensure a competitive edge. But it’s not all about cost-cutting – anyone with a spreadsheet and a short-term vision can do that.

Customer satisfaction levels are lower than they have been for some time, so fleet operators are shopping around. The best way for the lease-hire companies to counter this is to focus on retaining existing customers. By tracking performance and proving deliverability to customers, fleet operators can attract new clients.

That’s where the right fleet management software comes in; to consolidate the data you need for informed business decisions, while delivering the best in customer satisfaction.Simon West-Oliver,

DRIVE Sales &

Marketing Director

Suppose you could have all of the information on your fleet at the touch of a button. That’s the promise system providers always make. But how can you be sure that they’ll deliver?

Ten essential checkpoints:

1. Credit check or obtain the last three years’ accounts for any short-listed provider.2. Ask for a COMPLETE list of installed users with a view to contacting a cross-section of companies using the product.3. Take time to visit the offices of the potential supplier to gain a feel for the professionalism of the company and its employees. Bear in mind that you may be contacting some of the latter for help in the future.4. Make sure you have a good understanding of your objectives and the benefits of the features you require within your chosen solution. Ask for a trial period.

5. Ensure the solution fits into your company’s existing IT policy. This avoids alienating your internal staff. Their help and knowledge will be invaluable in the implementation of the system.6. Take a long-term view of any potential IT solution and ask whether a comprehensive sizing exercise is undertaken by the potential supplier. If possible, obtain a sizing document from them in order to ensure that all areas of the system are taken into account for future growth.7. Ensure that the system is future proofed. What language or development platform is it written in? Will this ensure system longevity or is it due for re-development in a newer environment?8. Get written guarantees on product scalability, performance and uptime.9. Can the system be web deployed and provided on a

hosted environment? Web-based solutions are much easier to deploy and website-based e.Modules usually have a low learning curve.10. Do you want to provide access to the system to your customers or suppliers? This often provides a perception of good customer service. In addition, if suppliers and/or customers can update their own data, this reduces the workload on support staff and provides a buy-in to the customer.

There is a quicker and

easier answer...

For forward thinking fleet managers running complex fleet operations DRIVE is the only solution.

DRIVE is one of the few fleet management software houses that has defined a world marketplace for its solution, and has close working ties with Oracle and KPMG to

WELCOME

FUTURE PROOFING FLEET SYSTEMSTen things to do before you adopt a management system

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� SUMMER 2009 DRIVE TALK

NEWS

develop an international network of skilled DRIVE system providers.

The pressure to manage fleets to deliver ever higher levels of service while maintaining cost competitiveness is increasing. DRIVE provides real tools to aid decision makers. Flexible access to data, ‘what-if’ modeling and graphical analysis are all provided to give managers the best opportunity to test decisions before actually making them.

Using Oracle technology, DRIVE also gives organisations the highest possible level of flexibility to adopt and even capitalise on change, whether that change is due to new business practices or new legislation.

Simon West-Oliver, DRIVE’s Sales and Marketing Director, believes that the continuing success of DRIVE is due to its fleet software team and the procedures it has initiated to support customers in acquiring, implementing and benefiting from DRIVE’s leading-edge technology.

“DRIVE is about coping with the future and its challenges. From its initial concept it was always going to be a solution that would change and grow with new technology as it arrives in the fleet sector.

“We at DRIVE are totally committed to providing long-term solutions built on long-

term partnerships with our clients, helping and guiding them in creating a sound IT strategy,” says West-Oliver.

DRIVE provides its clients with a set of procedural guidelines that work with defined targets and objectives to enable a seamless and worry free implementation. This has given DRIVE the ability to be very confident when it comes to providing clients with ‘testDRIVE’ environments and guarantees on solution uptime and fault responses.

This quality initiative is maintained for all potential DRIVE clients as well as the established base. DRIVE is launching a number of online surveys to establish a market view of IT solutions to ensure DRIVE maintains its position as a world leader in innovative fleet solutions.

Martin Drake, DRIVE’s Managing Director, is

keen to underline his team’s commitment to providing quality solution

partnerships.He says: “After

one of our market research meetings, I was

amazed at the poor calibre of solution management, both pre- and post-sales, that the fleet sector was being subjected to.”

Drake goes on to say: “It became very apparent to me that DRIVE has an opportunity to improve the service that this very competitive, and constantly changing marketplace needs.”

RELATIoNShIpAND SERVIcE DELIVERyexperteye gives its market analysis

Research consultancy experteye provides analysis and solutions to the automotive industry. Gary Jefferies, head of Business Development, offers an insider’s view on the challenges facing leasing companies and fleet operators.

The marketplace is tough for those supplying fleets and for those operating them. A restricted availability of funds to the leasing companies and stricter credit underwriting has put many relationships between leasing companies and their clients under strain.

Leasing companies not attaining targets on end-of-contract vehicle resale prices, the subsequent wholesale revaluation of their leasing book, cost reviews and a redirection on future rental pricing add to the strain.

Fleet operators are suffering too, experiencing tighter controls from leasing providers and shifts in the customer/supplier dynamic.

The biggest issue facing the leasing companies will be customer retention. The customer has to be king.

Fleet operators will spend more time reviewing their suppliers and relationships with their leasing companies. Fleet operators are shopping around. One of experteye’s roles is to monitor customer satisfaction levels and market conditions in the sector, and indicators suggest a threat to customer satisfaction levels. Those companies that pay attention to customer retention and satisfaction are the ones that will emerge strongest.

These leasing companies need to manage their customer satisfaction levels through performance processing improvements, investments in efficient

Gary Jefferies: consolidation presents additional concerns

DRIVE TALK IS pUBLIShED By

DRIVE is about coping

with the future and its

challenges

systems, competitor benchmarking and the management of KPIs.

If the market is reviewing its providers, the leasing companies should better understand their sales process to ensure they are majoring on proof of delivery to potential clients while improving performance to existing business.

experteye does not recommend a response to the market based on price. Companies should be concentrating on long-term relationships and delivery of services. Business being sold on price and chasing volume has contributed to the position we are all in now.

While the market is under stress there is a probability that further consolidation will emerge which could result in the surviving suppliers being leaner, meaner and more stable. Brand values and customer focus must not be diluted through mergers.

Looking ahead, the lead leasing companies are improving customer delivery and investing in the customer experience. The sector is at last getting some focus from industry and businesses are getting stronger. Gary Jefferies, experteyeTel: +44 (0) 1844 �96507Email: [email protected]

www.drivesoftwaresolutions.comTel: +44 (0) 1438 317731 Fax: +44 (0) 1438 316222

Publisher: Gordon Lyster. Editor: Alan Seeley.Deputy Editor: Lisa Millard. Production Manager: Phil Long.Business Development Manager: Rob McGowan.Contact Information: Phone +44 (0) 207 1938533Email: [email protected] Website: www.eventsandpublishing.com

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DRIVE TALK SUMMER 2009 �

SHOWSTOPPER

RELATIOnSHIPAnD SERVIcE DELIVERy

SLA MAnAgEMEnTTransparent and seamless systems from DRIVE

Does improving your customer service and reducing administration costs sound like a utopian view of the world to you? Well DRIVE is able to offer just that with the latest version of Events Management combined with the power and versatility of the Master Lease Agreement.

With increasingly demanding customers requiring more tailored solutions and better access to their fleet data and information, the challenges facing the modern leasing

company have never been greater. The industry leading DRIVE solution can provide the controls to manage demanding customers while providing management by exception.

User definable system events can generate activity messages that can be directed to internal or external users, or groups of users. In addition these system activities can be

linked and time-stamped to produce follow-on activities or timely reminders.

The ability to link these messages to

customers or specific products means that highly individualised services can be

offered without fear of increased

administration or poor customer service.

Automated escalation and multiple transmission formats, such as email, text and letter,

provide a defined, auditable and highly automated process flow.

Once these SLAs (Service Level Agreements) have been defined, then management by exception becomes automatic. Only events or activities that require special attention or are either late or have been missed are drawn to the attention of the relevant individuals, both internally and externally. The remedial action can be linked to the activity and transferred directly to the person responsible. This powerful combination provides the highest possible levels of customer service with significantly reduced administration overhead.

When this functionality is combined with an open standard database and powerful business intelligence tools, sophisticated management of KPIs and exceptions becomes transparent and seamless.

By generating a management dashboard or a suite of reports, fleet information can be provided internally to the management team and externally, direct to the customer.

The DRIVE integrated eBusiness suite provides the window into the back office system allowing customers to view their important metrics and even interact with the data, through a fully secure and controlled environment.

Once SLAs are defined, management by exception becomes automatic

Improving customer

service and reducing

costs

DRIVE’S KILLER APPSMaking the most of the best features in DRIVE

contract loaderDid you know that the DRIVE system includes a contract loader that enables sale and leaseback or any bulk loading of lease contracts?

The loader takes care of matching the rental premiums, creating the correct records, setting the lease active and controlling any back billing. The loader can be tested first and the user is in full control of activation.

A fleet with several thousand contracts can be loaded in a matter of hours and will be live and ready for the purposes of billing immediately.

The contract loader can be used for such essential processes as:

Data migration from legacy systems In this mode the quotation uses the customer MLA identified then uses workback to match the billing value in the legacy system placing differences in a finance and service variation charge. This approach ensures that all data structures in DRIVE are complete and billing matches the legacy system.

Fleet management deals In this mode, batches of vehicles are

loaded. There is a bulk contract termination to end these contract types.

Sales and leaseback dealsIn this mode, quotations can be generated in one process against a set of vehicles. Multi-quote generation can then be used to alter parameters and apply to all the quotations at once. There is also a bulk margin workback facility. When the deal is won the process is executed to completion setting all vehicles live on the system in a matter of minutes coupled with generation of purchase orders for all the vehicles.

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� SUMMER 2009 DRIVE TALK

CASE STUDY

TALKIng TELEphonE nUmbERSRoland Stockman, Program Manager for Group Internal Services at belgacom explains how his organisation relies on DRIvE to keep tabs on its 8,000-strong fleet

What is belgacom?The Belgacom Group is Belgium’s main provider of integrated telecom services.

With its long-standing experience as Belgium’s incumbent operator Belgacom Group is able to provide all its customers – private or professional – with services and solutions in fixed and mobile networks.

The Belgacom Group integrates fixed and mobile telephony, internet and Tv.

how big is your fleet?As of May 2009 we had a total of 7,741 vehicles, most of them company cars and vans.

how is the fleet made up?There are around 3,400 company cars. A monthly adapted internal lease ratebook containing around 300 model/make/derivatives is distributed to those employees who need a new car. The budget category assigned to the employee and contribution rules determine an employee’s vehicle choice.

Where it is possible for the Business Services & Fleet

Department to conclude a fixed-price agreement over a longer period with the manufacturing and lease companies, we also offer ‘Best Buy’ cars, being fully equipped vehicles offered to our internal customers.

There are around 3,800 vans for our technicians: about 2,500 of these have a cargo capacity less than 750kg, the others ranging to more than 3.5 tonnes.

The fleet also manages trucks, trailers and plant.

What made belgacom choose DRIVE?The decision to go with DRIvE was taken in July 2001. DRIvE met all our needs in a user-friendly, fully integrated package with visible processes, together with a commitment on realistic implementation planning and a lower budget impact than the competitor solutions.

Was it easy to migrate your system to DRIVE?Our previous home-grown system was rather basic, so a considerable investment in

set up, specifically the construction, testing and running of multiple data loaders, was necessary. Also, acquainting our partners with DRIvE and making them work to the new processes, was a challenge we successfully overcame with DRIvE’s support.

What has DRIVE delivered for you?The major benefit has been process-driven automation of routine administrative tasks in our capacity as an internal leasing company for the Belgacom Group, making full use of the DRIvE leasing, fleet administration and general features modules.

The open nature of the DRIvE system is evidenced by our ability to integrate it with our SAP human resources employee data system; with Jato; with our single fuel provider’s incoming data; with outgoing data feeding the Belgacom Group payroll system, as well as the employee inventory.

This is essential in an organisation where a high data volume is standard.

Despite diminishing headcount in the Business Services & Fleet Department, our investment in DRIvE has allowed us to absorb the growth in our business.

One striking example is the number of company cars managed in DRIvE, which has doubled compared to two years ago following the integration of the car fleet of our two most important affiliates, and consequently into DRIvE.

The discontinuance of Business Objects support by our IT department forced us to implement another solution on the DRIvE Oracle database, and to produce a complete set of operational, management and KPI reports, allowing us to manage the Belgacom Group car fleet, and provide up-to-date inventory data to our car insurance, breakdown assistance, glass replacement assistance, tyre and traffic-fine handling contractors.

Is DRIVE well supported?With multiple personnel changes within our key user

community and in our IT support team,

underlined the importance of a constructive

dialogue with DRIvE. In the second quarter of last

year, in close collaboration with DRIvE, Belgacom took the opportunity offered by our migration to v8.1.0 to get better aligned internally, revisit all our open logs and change requests, and implement our internal processes, which has strengthened our relationship with DRIvE.

Would you recommend DRIVE software solutions to other organisations?Based on our experience to date, yes, of course.

Keeping tabs on telco belgecom’s huge fleet needs some very capable software

DRIVE has allowed us to absorb the growth

in our business

www.drivesoftwaresolutions.comTel: +44 (0) 1438 317731 Fax: +44 (0) 1438 316222

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