A smooth ride from new car delivery to the second-hand showroom

Car leasing organisations need to make sure that they deliver the right vehicle to the right customer; accurately monitor maintenance and repair of the vehicle during the contract; and find efficient ways of reselling cars once they are returned. FleetWeb has used Microsoft electronic commerce software to help UK car leasing organisations to efficiently manage all three tasks.

Company background

The UK car leasing market is a lucrative, rapidly growing sector. Vehicles bought by organisations to replenish their pool of leased vehicles account for almost 50% of new car purchases each year.

Faced with such demand, it is essential that vehicle leasing organisations use the best resources at their disposal to keep existing customers happy, and to attract new clients. There are three key areas which must be managed as effectively as possible to keep customers happy and to cut cost: sourcing and delivering the right vehicle to the right customer as quickly as possible; monitoring the servicing, maintenance and repair of the vehicle as accurately as possible during the contract; and making the most efficient use of resellers and in-house dealers to sell the car at the end of the contract.

In the past, these organisations have used a combination of old-style EDI systems, fax machines and other paper-based methods to exchange information when dealing with these tasks. But now FleetWeb, an innovative electronic commerce applications development company, has developed a solution based on Microsoft electronic commerce technology and the company's digital nervous system strategy, which covers all three areas. Working closely with leading car leasing organisations, the Retail Motor Industry Federation and the British Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association, it is rolling out the Internet-based system which can be then used by any business that wants to buy into the solution.

The electronic commerce solution

Phil Jackson, Managing Director, FleetWeb, explains the philosophy behind his company's products. "Each of the three key areas presents different challenges. We wanted to provide a relatively inexpensive Internet-based solution that would prevent car leasing organisations from having to reinvent the wheel when implementing solutions." For example, when customers order cars they must end up driving the exact vehicle requested. Delivering an automatic version of a car when manual drive was specified can be an extremely expensive mistake.

Solution Summary

It is also important that orders are handled quickly. Very often car leasing customers will ask more than one company to look for a specific vehicle, so speed of response is also essential. In addition, for example, a BMW five series saloon might take five months to order. The car leasing company must ensure that not only does it order the exact model, it must also accurately specify delivery date.

Jackson says: "Our electronic commerce solution ensures that the same order information never has to be keyed in twice, eliminating the risk of simple, but costly mistakes caused by key stroke errors or misplaced paperwork. All three organisations involved - the car leasing company, the customer and the car supplier - can use straight-forward Internet browser-based or middleware systems to access and alter this information as and when required."

FleetWeb has also addressed the tricky issue of car maintenance and repair. Whenever a driver takes a leased vehicle into an approved dealer, the dealer must contact the fleet operator to get approval for the cost of repairs. At the moment, most communication is over the phone and there are often delays at peak call times. Even when the dealer gets through, because many of these organisations work with many fleet operators, there is always the risk that they have wasted time holding for the wrong company. Once approval is given, and the work completed, the dealer must create an invoice mirroring approval. But even then there are risks. Many millions of paper invoices are created every year, and about 12.5% will contain errors, which require time consuming, expensive corrections.

Jackson says: "Our solution enables dealers to send authorisation requests electronically. These will be matched against information on all previous repairs carried out to the vehicle. And by specifying an electronic rule set, both dealer and operator can ensure that the document will only receive automated approval when specific criteria have been met. Otherwise phone based negotiation follows"

Once an approval number is issued, the document is locked and becomes the work instructions for the dealer. Smart cards can also be used to ensure that only authorised parties can access this information and that there is a clear audit trail - essential for meeting the demands of HM Customs. This also guarantees non-repudiation and makes it impossible for the recipient of a multi-vehicle order to deny that it has arrived - a far more reliable method than a faxed document. At the end of the processes the dealer issues a number for the proforma invoice - only then are the transactions completed.

Microsoft technology has also come to the aid of fleet operators when they remarket vehicles where the contract has expired. Leaving aside technology issues, fleet operators normally have four resale options. They can sell the car to the existing driver. This is an attractive option because there is no service or delivery cost and the owner usually pays in cash.

They can also sell to corporates and many fleet operators also act as second-hand car dealers with show rooms. Another option involves faxing a list of vehicles available for sale to dealers, although this is considered rather inefficient. Finally, the operators can send the vehicles to auction.

Once again, Internet technology has come to the rescue. It allows fleet operators to publish details of vehicles for sale online, either to the public on the Internet, or to a more restricted audience via a virtual private network. "Not everyone is happy to part with money over the Internet, but many customers use this service to check what is available, and then check out the car in person," says Jackson.

Business benefits

Given the rigorous demands of the car leasing industry and the number of participants in all three areas served by FleetWeb's solution, it was essential to choose the right technology to support what had to be a highly flexible, robust, scalable system.

Jackson says: "We selected Microsoft technology because it offered us a tool box of components which we could tailor precisely to the requirements of our applications. We didn't have to build our software from scratch, and we also knew that we could trust the technology to support the potentially huge numbers of organisations that could eventually use the system. For example, in the UK there are 12,500 dealers doing maintenance and repair work on behalf of fleet operators."

Key technology components include Windows NT 4.0, SQL Server 6.5, Site Server 3.0 Commerce Edition and the Commerce Interchange Pipeline (CIP). "CIP was especially important," says Jackson. "It allows us to exchange structured orders between NT server users. In many of the services, we pick up the data and send it via the CIP for onward delivery.

Microsoft's digital nervous system strategy was also a key factor in the development of FleetWeb's solution. "Because the DNS is made up of standard component exchanges for the movement of data worldwide, we were able to use Microsoft technology to handle transactions for all dealers and fleet operators," says Jackson.

So far Jackson is extremely happy with the development of the technology. "We are rolling out the repair and maintenance authorisation module. A few people are testing the invoicing and delivery module and there is already an online vehicle retail sales web site called www.motortrak.com operated by our sister company. The future of all three modules is extremely promising, and thanks to the scalability and flexibility of the Microsoft digital nervous system we can build for the future certain that our solutions will continue to meet our customers requirements.

This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY. Microsoft, Visual Basic and Windows NT are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. Other product and company names mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

"We selected Microsoft technology because it offered us a tool box of components which we could tailor precisely to the requirements of our applications. We didn't have to build our software from scratch, and we also knew that we could trust the technology to support the potentially huge numbers of organisations that could eventually use the system."

Phil Jackson, Managing Director, FleetWeb

For More Information: FleetWeb Ltd
Phil Jackson
Managing Director
Email: Philj
http://www.fleet-web.co.uk
Microsoft Connection on
or http://www.microsoft.com/uk/business

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