Fleet software in the news
21st October 2009
JAAMA SOFTWARE EASES THE ADMINISTRATION BURDEN AND HELPS MITIE DELIVER FLEET COST SAVINGS
Award-winning fleet manager Justin Patterson has turned to leading fleet management software provider Jaama to deliver high-level management data across the 6,300-strong vehicle operation of MITIE.
The Bristol-headquartered leading strategic outsourcing and asset management company, operates one of the largest outright purchase fleets in the country with Mr Patterson, who heads the fleet department team, responsible for the ‘cradle to grave’ management of the 3,300 light commercial vehicles and 3,000 cars.
With a string of third party suppliers delivering a range of services to MITIE, including fuel purchasing on fuel cards, pay-on-use maintenance and vehicle tracking, analysing essential fleet information is crucial to enable the company to cost-effectively and pro-actively manage the cars and vans.
Mr Patterson, who was this month named Fleet Manager of the Year - Business by industry monthly magazine Fleet Van with MITIE named Van Fleet of the Year, said: “We previously plugged into the online systems of our third party suppliers for fleet information and then downloaded data into spreadsheets.
“That was a hugely time consuming and laborious processes and did not give us the top-level data that we required without signficant administrative input.”
MITIE surveyed the fleet software market and after compiling a three-strong shortlist chose to introduce Jaama’s multi award-winning Key2 Vehicle Management web-enabled software.
“Buying and managing our own large fleet of vehicles we are acutely aware of the pence per mile costs of each car and van and we needed better technology to help us measure and then manage all the costs associated with the operation,” said Mr Patterson.
MITIE, a FTSE 250 business with over 54,000 employees and revenues in excess of £1.8 billion, is in implementation phase with the Jaama software and continues to bring on stream an increasing number of modules to assist in all aspects of management of the fleet.
In the near future, MITIE will be introducing Key2 modules that will enable the company to better manage employees who use their own cars on business trips including the checking of driving licence and vehicle-related documentation.
Mr Patterson said: “We are at the start of a journey and Jaama is accompanying MITIE on that journey. But we have the foundations in place and are travelling at a rapid pace.”
He said Key 2 was chosen because “It was clearly ahead of the others. Jaama offered a highly flexible system that could be tuned to the way we operate. The other fleet management software systems that we came across did not offer that flexibility.”
Mr Patterson continued: “We have a significant number of data streams from our many suppliers and the Jaama system manipulates all that information into a format that we require so we can distribute it to our management centres.
“Equally important is that the technology enables the fleet department to quickly and easily identify costs by exception on an individual vehicle basis. This is particularly essential as we require robust fleet wholelife cost data when answering contract tenders and also when making future vehicle purchasing decisions.
“Instead of a resource-hungry process we will be at the cutting edge of fleet management information analysis.
“We are saving significant amounts of administration time and, as a result, providing the MITIE businesses with clear visibility of the true costs of the fleet operation whether that is by individual contracts or at cost centre level.”
Fleet Van said in announcing the winners of its awards that the MITIE fleet was ‘a strong template for how businesses can maximise cost efficiencies by running their fleet properly. Information about costs is regularly shared throughout the business’.
The publication added that Mr Patterson ‘showed what good fleet management is all about. A proactive and ongoing response to tough market conditions has created a string of best practice initiatives that have managed costs’.
Jaama managing director Jason Francis said: “Flexibility is one of the hallmarks of the company as well as our Key2 technology. Key 2 is a data hub for MITIE with the business using the system to ‘slice and dice’ a constant stream of vehicle information from suppliers to improve its wholelife cost analysis.
“Hi-tech vehicle management systems such as Key2 can seamlessly interact with other internal and external software to dramatically improve operating effectiveness and efficiency.
“The technology is also enabling companies such as MITIE to capture more information on their fleet so they can be far more proactive and analytical in terms of management. That will improve operating efficiencies and ultimately reduce costs still further.”
For further details please call us on 0844 8484 333 or email enquiries@jaama.co.uk
About Jaama
Jaama is a fleet software and occupational road safety specialist. As a certified Microsoft® development partner, Jaama uses the latest technology to provide customers with greater integration, control and automation. It brings innovative vehicle management software to fleet operators, contract hire and leasing companies. And Jaama is the first to combine fleet management software and risk management services to help customers meet their driver health and safety responsibilities under occupational road safety regulations.
http://www.jaama.co.uk
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