During the good times it was hardto sell the benefits of fleet repor -ting tools to companies that were

doing well.Senior managers probably knew thatthere were some inefficiencies in the sys-tem: inflated supplier costs and surprisebills, drivers not filling up with the chea -pest fuel and “guesstimating” drivingdistances etc. They could easily dismiss

it as the cost of moving fast, getting onwith the real business. And as long as thatwas showing growth, well, they wouldjust pay up and move on.Now times are hard, well it’s still difficultto sell the benefits of fleet reporting toolsto companies desperate to reduce costs.Who’d be a fleet supplier, eh? Muchmore of this and you’ll start to feel sorryfor them!

Thankfully, fleet operators who havesigned up to ICT reporting are often ableto show significant savings by using thedata and analysis intelligently. Identify acar that’s set to exceed its contractedmileage early enough, and you can dosomething about it. Identify a driver whouses too much fuel and gets too manydents in his car, and you can do some-thing about him. If fleet reporting toolsaren’t saving the client money, they are awaste of time and effort.

Overload data or exception reportingCompanies like Eurofleeting, CFCSolutions, Chevin and Bynx are inde-pendent fleet consultants developing themost innovative reporting software. Someof these companies work with leasingcompanies to provide IT solutions toleasing clients. Reporting tools can wearthe leasing company’s branding, but mayhave been built by an independent deve -loper.It’s fair to say that early reporting toolsfrom leasing companies were geared tothe business of leasing. Metrics includedfleet profiles (manufacturer/model), con-tract details, vehicles on order, mileageprojections, invoices etc. Initial CO2

reporting was based on manufacturers’claims rather than actual fuel used ormiles driven. In recent years, leasing com-panies have caught up with the IT deve -lopers, often by working with them, toprovide much more extensive fleet repor -ting toolkits.But it’s interesting to note that in a verysmall survey conducted in advance ofthis special edition of Fleet Europe, met-rics quoted by leasing companies aredominated by leasing-type reports, while

Martyn MOORE

FOCUS ICT & Telematics

As fleet focus zooms in on cost control, the tools that deliver that control need to be smarter than ever. This overview of ICT fleet reporting tools looks at the latestdevelopments in the fleet sector and what the market hopes to offer you over the next ten years.

Now and in the future

The ‘next big thing’ in Telematics will be centred around the concept of mobility. Here you see an in-car iPad installation. ©Carscoop.

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Between mobility and mobility

responses from the consultants and ITdevelopers are far more interested inanalysing real-life data from the vehicle,actual fuel consumption, paid invoicesand evidence of driver behaviour.Some consultants are critical of leasingcompanies for holding back valuabledata that could make their systems evenmore useful to clients.An early criticism of fleet reporting toolswas information overload. Data couldbe keyed into the system (often by apoor fleet manager with sore eyes andtyping fingers) and then sliced, dicedand spewed back out in a bewilderingarray of figures, graphs and dynamicphrases like ‘drilling down’.The information overload problem hasbeen fixed by ‘exception reporting’. ICTtools have stopped telling you EVERY-THING about your fleet, because theycould, and now tell you about deviationsfrom pre-agreed parameters. You don’twant to know about the cars and driversthat are performing exactly as youexpected them to; you want to knowabout the ones that aren’t. This has beena huge step forwards and deals withoperators’ fears of drowning in data.Export to Excel remains a key benefit,which seems a bit odd because Excel isthe system most ICT reporting tools havebeen designed to replace. But before wedismiss Excel as old-fashioned and obso-lete, it’s worth remembering that itremains the system of choice for most

fleet operators. It is an incredible tool inthe hands of a power user, able to ge -nerate excellent graphical representa-tions, perfect for use in Word andPowerPoint, and is already installed onmost of the world’s business com puters.Most IT developers dream about thatkind of market penetration. However,most fleet operators are not Excel powerusers and the appeal of fleet reporting

tools is that they spare managers thefate of working like accountants (apolo-gies to our finance director readers).

Mobility becomes keyThe ‘next big thing’ will be centred aroundthe concept of mobility – the manage-ment of data coming in from the vehicleand end user and monitored throughsmartphones and iPads.The moral objections to telematics are allbut defeated. Monitoring the movementsof vehicles brings tremendous safety

benefits and efficiencies. If it means youmight get caught doing something youshouldn’t, well tough.Phones, sat-nav devices, cars and vansare reporting their positions and conditionnow. It’s here and it works. Not to use thetechnology to reduce costs and improvesafety, that would be the crime.Sometimes, when considering the future,it helps to look outside the sector.

Jason Hiner is the editor-in-chief of thetechnology website, TechRepublic andhe sees big changes on the horizon thataffect all business ICT, not just fleetreporting.“PCs still make sense on the desks ofknowledge workers,” says Hiner. “Butfor all of these other workers who regu-larly move around as part of their dailyjob, the stationary PC often changes thenatural flow of their routine because theyhave to stop at a system to enter data orcomplete a task. That’s about to change.“Mobile computers in the form of smart-phones and touchscreen tablets (like theiPad) have taken a big leap forward in thepast four years. They are instant-on, easyto learn because of the touchscreen, andthey have a whole new ecosystem ofapplications designed for the touch expe-rience. In the years ahead, we’re going tosee more and more development doneon these mobile platforms, which willuntether workers from their stationaryPCs and allow them to interact with peo-ple and products in much more naturalways.”We like the sound of that.

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“ Monitoring the movements of vehicles brings

safety benefits and efficiencies.”

ICT reporting has been responsible for information overload until exception reporting was introduced. ©Brainloc

FOCUS ICT & Telematics

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IF an operator wants to know what’sreally going on with the company fleet,the most accurate and timely infor-

mation will be provided by the assetitself – the car.Drivers can’t be trusted to read and typethe right numbers every time; supplierscan’t be trusted report the right metricsevery time. This isn’t through any kind ofmalicious intent. It’s just that people for-get, they misunderstand, they make littlemistakes. Sometimes they make big mis-takes.Machines tend not to make mistakes.Sometimes they don’t work, but whenthey do work, they get it right. All thetime. Every time.

Car manufacturers have a lot of experi-ence in making machines that work andmost modern cars do work all the time,every time. They’ve had the cold startproblem sorted for years, and the over-heating in summer. Next they dealt withthe problem of wheels locking underheavy braking and more recently they’veperfected the on-board navigation sys-tem.Now they’ve turned their attention totelematics.

To know the driverOn-board diagnostic systems have beenaround for years. System checks can tellyou about everything from low tyre pres-

sure to a blown brake light bulb. Pluggedinto the service computer, a car’s cir-cuitry can tell the technician how heavyis the driver’s right foot and, probably,what she had for breakfast.The development of the emergency alertsystem with its SOS signal and locationreporting has led to cars that are alreadynetworked. Phone and global positioningtechnology is commonplace. Hook thecomms up to the diagnostics and you’vegot a car that will transmit the intimatedetails of its condition and driver’s eatinghabits to all interested parties.Hopefully, it will do this without mistakes,all the time, every time. As is the case withall new technology, the unit price drops

Car manufacturers and ICT reporting

Citroën is one of the car manufacturers that is already offering advanced tracking on light commercials. Telematics and anti-theft tracking is coming to cars soon.

Follow the driver, understand the TCO

Martyn MOORE

OEMs are taking the telematics route into fleet ICT reporting. This is where they can add real value tothe information chain. By building the technology into the car during production, unit cost of devicesfalls dramatically. And a car that can tell us when it needs some attention before it gets expensive is anattractive proposition

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as soon as a manufacturer adopts it andinstalls it into large numbers of cars.

Building connectionsCitroën has been offering its Active FleetData system to French customers since2008 and this month (September 2010)the technology will be offered as stan-dard production equipment on selectedcars.

Citroën’s Marie Guidolin, CommunicationManager, elaborates: “This telematicservice makes it possible to send a tech-nical status of the vehicle, e.g. kilometresof the car, to the fleet manager twice aweek. Moreover, mechanical and safetyalerts (oil level, worn brake pads etc.)are reported immediately by email to thefleet manager.“The fleet manager receives 100 per centreliable data so they can plan scheduledservices, prevent breakdowns, avoidunexpected expenses and optimize theuse of the fleet. The system will proveitself in use. Our studies show that com-panies typically know only one-third of thetotal cost of ownership (TCO) of thefleet. Companies will have a better under-standing of the TCO.”Citroën will also launch localised emer-gency calls and localised breakdowncalls in ten countries with the new system.Looking ahead, Marie Guidolin sees evenbetter connected Citroëns: “The nextstep will be the arrival of internet-basedservices through a ‘car’dget’. Seeing thetraffic jam update or receiving informationon board from the vehicle display couldbe a source of productivity for compa-nies.“More and more customers will have theopportunity to exchange information or touse application data all the time withtheir smartphones. In the coming years,we can imagine that the user wants his

car to communicate. The next significantmilestone will be the integration of inter-net when the car is being produced.“A long-term evolution will be to havean outstanding internet connection in thecar that’s faster and will provide bettertransfer of data. In ten years we couldexpect a connection between thedriver/car, to receive, for example, theappointment of the scheduled service;

the fleet manager who will monitor thecosts of the fleet, and the Citroën dealerwho will receive all information needed tomaintain the performance of the car.”

Online communityAnother European manufacturer pio-neering the use of telematics is Fiat.Fiat’s fleet marketing director RanieriHonorati told us what’s available nowfrom the Italian manufacturer: “At FiatGroup Automobiles we offer a free elec-tronic reporting tool for the fleet busi-ness called eco:Drive Fleet. This is an

innovative, easy-to-use solution thatmeasures – through a telemetric index –the quality of driving. It helps to use lessfuel, to reduce CO2 emissions and tosave money up to 15 per cent.“It is mainly dedicated to our companyclients and uses the Fiat Blue&Me multi-media and infotainment system to pro-vide a tutorial program that helps driversto improve their driving style. There isalso a web-based dashboard that givesthe client a complete overview of thefleet, to be analyzed and managed.”Eco:Drive Fleet will even report its ownmoney- and CO2-saving performanceand the feedback from pilot groupsacross Europe is very positive.Ranieri Honorati believes that the userswill shape the evolution of the technologyand Fiat is encouraging them to feed-back suggestions through eco:Ville, theonline user community.“We see sort of diagnostic provider anda vehicle administrator, with road tax,insurance and parking permit reminders,a timeline and a mileage line. The repor -ting cycle will involve the ICT team toprovide and use information, the car-parkmanagement to get increasing effec-tiveness and the drivers to optimize thegeneral mobility.” �

This Fiat will soon know if it’s parked illegally and if the shopping has maxxed the credit cards.

“ On-board diagnostic systems have been around for years.

System checks can tell you about everything from low tyre

pressure to a blown brake l ight bulb.”

Lease companies developed soft-ware to streamline their businessprocesses. After all, leasing is the

management of finances around a groupof assets – in the case of fleet, the carpark. The monitoring of those assets andtheir costs, together with the predictionof their end-of-cycle value is part of aleaseco’s core proposition. The moretools can help with this analysis, the moreefficient and profitable the leasing com-pany will be.Of course, the metrics used in these cal-culations are also valuable to the cus-tomer and as leasing companies stroveto provide better value and services, theymade their tools available to customers.Common tools include car ordering,

which allows drivers to configure a vehi-cle and then checks it against the para -meters set in the client’s contract. Carordering and contract administration areprobably the most fundamental functionsof the leasing companies reporting tools.Through relationships with other sup -pliers, such as service and repair cen-tres, fuel card providers and breakdowncompanies, a virtually endless list of addi-tional metrics can be added to the repor -ting. It’s this list, the many permutationsof suppliers and the leasing company’sability to tailor its reporting to the specificneeds of a client, that makes it difficult tocompare the reporting tools offered bythe leaseco’s.

Harmonization problemsJörg Essig, head of corporate sales atDaimler Financial Services, explains howhis company operates: “One of our fea-ture systems is xFleet, which is mainlyused to guide drivers through their com-pany car programme and therefore easethe daily work for fleet operators. xFleet‘knows’ the exact details of the driver’scar policy and covers all options eachdriver has. It considers all aspects regar -ding the company cars, including taxa-tion, and supports the fleet operator asit also works as order processing tool.“Additional electronic formats and toolsare made-to-measure in co-operationwith our customers. As part of our con-sultative approach, we help them definethe right set of reports including the for-mats and interfaces. At Daimler FleetManagement, we believe that reportsalone hardly ever create real trans-parency. Tools are only the first step, it’sthe joint evaluation of these reports thatensures a fleet’s long-term efficiency.”Alphabet sees some clients using itsreporting tools very intensely whereasothers are using them in only a very limi -ted way. Again, the company provides a

standard online system, whichis used by many fleet decisionmakers on a daily basis. Inaddition, Alphabet generatesoffline ad-hoc reports asrequested by the client.All the leasing companies wespoke to conduct businessacross Europe with clientsthat operate in several mem-ber states are concentrat-ing on reporting and ICTtools. Pan-European repor -ting is a challenge for allsoftware developers as

Lease companies and ICT reporting

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A different approach to obtain the sam

FOCUS ICT & Telematics

All the leasing companies wespoke to conduct business acrossEurope with clients that operatein several member states areconcentrating on reporting andICT tools. Here an example oftwo LeasePlan dashboards.

Martyn MOORE

The reporting tools from leasing companies have now grown beyond the role of providing leasing-related information, to delivering a much broader range of metrics related to the operation of the fleet and the management of the driver. Most are based on a standard online interface providing day-to-day fleet information, supported by bespoke reporting at the client’s request.

Dr Nancy Storp, Alphabet’s head of inter-national sales and marketing explains.“One of the main obstacles in interna-tional electronic fleet reporting is thepoor level of European harmonization,”says Dr Storp. “Local market parame-ters are unfortunately still quite diverse,e.g. taxes in different countries.Consequently, one integrated reportingsystem for all European countries is stillone of the big challenges the leasing

industry is facing. Since European back-office systems are often quite differentfrom country to country, they mostly donot provide harmonized datafields andstandard interfaces with electronic repor -ting systems across countries.”

Two-way communicationLeasePlan International believes its wealthof knowledge and international expe -rience have helped it to crack this nut.John Houtsma, global co-ordinationdirector, says: “While developingInternational FleetReporting, the main

challenges we faced included translatingcurrency and metric unit data based ondiffering business rules. We were ableto overcome these by setting standard-ized corporate data business rules anddefinitions. We make use of a state of theart business objects system and our cor-porate data warehouse uses manyadvanced technical features.”Michael Goodbody at GE Capital hasidentified client training as key to helping

them get the best out of GE’s iManagepan-European reporting tools.“Fleet managers need to fully understandthe capabilities of the reporting tools inorder to select and prepare the criticaldashboards that will allow them to drivefleet efficiencies,” says Goodbody.“GE Capital and its key solutions teamoffer support and training to the fleetmanagers in helping them selectingappropriate information, reporting for-mat and frequency. On top of our teamof dedicated consultants helping fleetmanagers to navigate through the quan-

tity of information available, GE Capitalprovides training guides available to cus-tomers the day that they obtain theirlogin and password to the system.”ALD Automotive was the first leasingcompany in Britain to fit telematics to allits cars as standard. The company had itsown reasons for doing this, but the benefits are passed on to customerswho choose to take up the service. Thecompany sees the integration of real-time, two-way communications betweenvehicles and leasing companies as thenext significant milestone in electronicfleet reporting.Shane Dowling, ALD’s head of interna-tional sales, cites exception reporting asone of the company’s most effectivetools. “The main benefit of a performingreporting tool is to enable a manage-ment-by-exception, instead of goingthrough every vehicle individually andchecking for the different key criteria.On a day-to-day basis, reports onupcoming maintenance, fuel exceptionreports and accident reports, allow fleetmanagers to guide and monitor their drivers for improved safety and reducedcosts.”

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51“ The main benefit of a performing reporting tool is to

enable a management-by-exception.”

me result

Jörg Essig, head of corporate sales at Daimler FinancialServices : “Tools are only the first step, it’s the joint evaluationof reports that ensures a fleet’s long-term efficiency.”

“One of the main obstacles in international electronicfleet reporting is the poor level of European

harmonization,” says Dr Nancy Storp of Alphabet.

Independent fleet software develo persand consultants have to interface witheverybody and they do it very well.

Most suppliers understand that it’s intheir best interest to make their dataavailable in whatever format their cus-tomers need it, and co-operate in theintegration process.Fleet software needs to interface with aclient’s other systems, too. So, purcha -sing, payroll and HR systems need tomove data in and out of the fleet system.NorthgateArinso is a supplier of busi-ness systems and a fleet component,mycompanyfleet, is a logical addition toits portfolio.

Interfaces with a client’s other businesssystems are already built-in and the com-pany can be quite influential when itcomes to helping clients choose otherfleet suppliers.“We recommend fleet operators makea web service feed a condition of supplyin any tender process. This means oursystems talk to lease companies’ sys-tems in real time with no user interventionto ensure data is always accurate,” saysAndrew Leech, NorthgateArinso’s

mycompanyfleet business manager.“One of our customers has over1,000,000 vehicles on their system withfeeds to 62 leasing companies so weregetting there!”

Single source of thruthBynx puts a similar emphasis on creatingreporting tools that integrate seamlesslywith clients’ back office systems.Gary Jefferies is sales and marketingdirector at Bynx.

Martyn MOORE

FOCUS ICT & Telematics

These are the go-betweens who would like to see all players in the fleet game reporting to clients, andeach other, through their software. Some will argue that they are in the best position to integrate with allthe suppliers’ systems and act in the best interest of the end users. It’s an interesting relationship, andnot without its tensions…

Consultancy and software developers on ICT

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To save time and money

Various screenshots from anumber of NorthgateArinsodashboards.

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He told Fleet Europe: “bynxFLEET offersa ‘reporting layer’, providing open accessto the customer so they can interact withthe most popular end user reporting toolssuch as Oracle Business IntelligenceReporting and Hyperion, BusinessObjects and Crystal. Basic ODBC drivers allow direct connection to appli-cations such as MS Excel.”Gary Jefferies would like to see datacoming into fleet management systems tohave similar levels of compatibility. “By enabling the data from all sources to be of a service-orientated architec-ture (open architecture), and by the useof web ser vices, the industry will be able to provide a real-time and robustsingle source. This is an area Bynx isinvesting in heavily – the single source oftruth.”Sometimes it’s not easy for consultantsto get access to the data. Peter Hennionis the general manager of EuroFleeting, acompany that specialises in providingpan-European reporting across multiplesuppliers using supplier invoices to givean accurate view of total cost of owner-ship (TCO). EuroFleeting would like tosee more openness from leasing com-panies.

“Leasing companies are not interested inshowing real cost reporting,” claimsHennion. “Competition between leasingcompanies is driven by the price of thecontract. Extra charges are often hiddenand I have the impression leasing com-panies are not interested in making thesecosts really transparent. If a customercould see the different refurbishmentcosts charged by the different leasingcompanies, this would be taken into con-sideration when selecting a new provider.“I think that the next milestone will be thepossibility to have ‘real cost reporting’instead of ‘contract reporting’. This willonly be possible if across Europe all sup-

pliers provide electronic billing in a moreor less standardized format.”

Multitude of interfacesThe epyx 1link Service Network hasestablished itself as a link between lea -sing companies and their service, main-tenance and repair providers. Its e-com-merce system speeds up theauthorisation and administration of jobs and gives greater accuracy of data.Ken Trinder, head of business deve -lopment at epyx, says it offers cost savings, too. “1link Service Network is all about reducing cost through animproved process. Without the platform,nearly all fleet service and maintenancehas to be booked and authorised byphone and fax. In contrast, with 1 linkService Network a large portion isapproved by the platform automaticallyin line with standard parameters put inplace by fleet managers. Studies showthat a single 1link online transactionreplaces seven pieces of paper to beprocessed.”Automated data feeds and avoiding information overload are important toCFC Solutions, too. Managing directorNeville Briggs is proud of his products’

adaptability for international clients. “Our international systems can be con-figured on a whole fleet or country-by-country basis. Data from fuel card com-panies, insurers, IT systems and manymore are drawn automatically into thecore fleet manager system. Some of ourfleet users run systems with up to 20 suchexternal interfaces, completely avoidingthe errors associated with manually key-ing information.“The most important principle within oursoftware is exception reporting. The fleetmanager sets up a range of parameterscovering all kinds of aspects of fleetoperations and a notification is gene -

rated when these are exceeded. Thismakes reporting proactive rather thanreactive and automatically brings issueswhich need tackling to the attention ofthe fleet manager.”Ashley Sowerby, managing director ofChevin Fleet Solutions claims similar suc-cesses. “An example of this is aFleetWave client who on average purchases Euro 30 million of diesel per annum from a number of fuelproviders. Previously this data was man-ually downloaded by the client andupdated into FleetWave. However, byworking with the client and their suppliers,this data is now ‘pushed’ by the supplierto an SFTP site and FleetWave con tinually‘polls’ and looks for the data beforeimporting it automatically. This allows the client to manage any transactionsby exception, saving time and moneyand putting the onus on the supplier toprovide the data to the client, rather than the client having to search for thedata they have already paid for.”

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Peter Hennion, general manager of EuroFleeting : “The next milestone will be the possibility to have

‘real cost reporting’ instead of ‘contract reporting’.”

“ Sometimes it’s not easy for consultants to get

access to the data.”

The International Fleet ManagersInstitute recently called for an inte-grated reporting system to help

international fleet performance reportingacross multiple suppliers.One of its main champions is BruceMacLaren, global auto program managerat Microsoft, who is based in Germany.We asked him why he is so keen to see anintegrated reporting system.“One cannot manage what one cannotsee,” he says. “The strategic benefits arelower cost, consistency, control, more

informed decision-making, increasedscope of management with few resources,better relationships with suppliers andless local resistance as the system allowsfor international management independentof local supply structure.”He offers a practical example: “Imaginebeing able to push a single button andreceive every single VIN number of everyunit globally that you purchased/leased in a given period. Imagine being able toclaim your volume-related-bonus from themanufacturer with that kind of ease. Yet, such a system must go beyond inven-tory data; it must contain elements ofcontrol, best practice sharing, surveys,libraries, contracts, push-pull communi-cation, savings, cost and have multiple views for the various people andorganizations that need to access it. It is not a single application, it is a platformof various applications that are inter -operable.”He’s even drawn us a picture. A very goodpicture (see illustration).

Change of attitudeBruce MacLaren says that to create sucha system will require a complete changeof attitude among suppliers and believesthat there are companies out there todaythat could harness their enormous know-how in the industry to create an entirelynew ecosystem of revenue flow.“Suppliers must shift the paradigm,” hesays. “Embrace innovation not as a pointof sale, but put it at the core of what theydo. Suppliers must clearly define what‘international fleet management’ means

or else the clients will define it in theirown disparate ways. Fleet suppliersshould realize that developing softwaretoday is not about understanding thecode. It is about understanding what thesoftware should accomplish.”

Leasing companies claim to be in sup-port of the initiative, although some admitit’s not a priority for them. Peter Hennionof EuroFleeting thinks he knows why thisis. “Every leasing company wants tobecome sole supplier for a customer, localor international,” he says. “Why wouldthey be interested in participating in aplatform that allows customers to work ina multi-vendor environment and changesupplier structure easily?”Leasing companies claim that some ofthe client information they would berequired to share is confidential, butNorthgate Arinso’s Andrew Leech isn’tbuying that.“We already have the tools and techno -logy,” he claims. “We just need leasecompanies to allow us to integrate to theirsolutions via a web service or xml. Theyoften claim data privacy issues preventthis, but this would point to a flaw in theirsecurity model. Many government agen-cies allow this type of integration so whynot lease companies with your data?”

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FOCUS ICT & Telematics

“ Bruce MacLaren, global auto program manager at Microsoft,

is one of the international fleet managers that is hoping to

see an integrated reporting system one day.”

ICT and the IFMI

Bruce MacLaren’s single platform concept illustrated.

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Brave new single-platform world

Martyn MOORE

An influential group of fleet managers from across Europe wants to know why ICT reporting systemscan’t adopt a single set of standards for reporting fleet data. One visionary thinks such a system couldoffer opportunities for supplier revenue as well as client cost-saving. Suppliers believe it’s possible,one thinks we can do it now. If only we could access all the data…