2. Reaping the benefits
TCH Leasing is reaping the benefits of switching its internal
fleet management software to DRIVE Software Solutions.
TCH went looking for a modern IT platform when their incumbent supplier was unable to
update its product – leaving them with an outdated system which was preventing TCH
Leasing from being able to offer the products and services its clients were increasingly
demanding during contract negotiation.
One of the main issues with
the previous system was
around an inability to manage
electronic communications
such as invoices and payment
notification. Additionally, the
legacy system required more
manual input than was ideal.
TCH spent several years
investigating potential systems before settling on DRIVE.
Talking about the process of looking for a supplier, Joint
Managing Director Mark Hammond said:
“Companies had approached us and asked us to look
at what they were offering. We looked at them, and
some appeared to be little more than an expensive
empty box.
“A rival of ours alerted us to DRIVE’s products and
once we started looking we could see there was a
potential solution for us. I would not say we had no
concerns, but we did our due diligence and had several
meetings. I am pleased we went down this route.”
The move to a new supplier came about due to
frustration with the previous supplier’s unwillingness to
develop its system. Hammond added: “We had one or
two blue sky meetings discussing what we would like,
but nothing happened and the sky stayed grey. That is
why we started looking for something new. We
previously had a basic online quoting system but it was
not very effective and it had not been developed over
the years.
“Customers are more demanding these days. They
want better reporting and real, actionable information
about their vehicles and drivers. We just could not do
that. It took an inordinate amount of time to get anything
done because the supplier did not want to develop the
system. Often, it was easier and more effective for us to
work around the old system rather than get it changed.
This can lead to more work and process vulnerability.”
Now that the switch to DRIVE has been completed,
Hammond is positive about the future of the system and
what it will be able to do for TCH Leasing. He said:
“Drive will release people's time to do other things and
allow us to exploit even more functionality in the solution.
It is an on-going project to develop the system and grow
the business in tandem. We have started to look at
workflow - and that will benefit the business significantly.
Joint managing director
Mark Hammond
3. Once we can complete the
circle it will be a win-win for us and
for our customers.
“
We can automate elements of our business and give our
clients timelier information. The system will ensure we
maintain a high level of customer service. It also has the
power to ensure that tasks are not forgotten over time
by prompting either ourselves or customers and taking
away the need for manual notes or diarising off-system.”
Ken Buckley, Sales Director, believes the move to
DRIVE will help the firm expand the business and grow
its fleet based around the increased online offering now
available. He said: “The online facilities we had were
limited – in fact, they were virtually non-existent.
“Customers want an online facility to be able to
access all of their account, whether it be the
maintenance
element, accounting information or their quotations.
They want to manage their vehicles and drivers and
have relevant fleet management reports. With the old
system, this was not possible.
“With DRIVE, we will be able to satisfy these crucial
requirements and automate an element of the support
which will allow TCH to take on more business without
additional resource or cost.”
Teething issues
One of the big challenges in implementing the new
software was the complex accounts system in place
at TCH Leasing.
Accountant Bozena Kowalyszyn said: “From the time
it went live and up to where we are today there have
been very positive changes from our point of view. We
have resolved a few issues which I am very happy with.
“Our part of the business was very heavily affected by
the change of system. DRIVE needed to understand the
accounting requirements of our business. We initially
had issues with direct debit collections and emailing
statements. But we put a lot of hard work into that and
with help from DRIVE it is now working very well.”
Joint managing director Mark Hammond with
Simon West-Oliver from DRIVE Software Solutions
4. Easing frustrations
Administration Manager, Diane Shaw, believes the
move to DRIVE will end some of the frustrations the
TCH team had with their old system.
Much of her frustration centred around the inability to
send quotes from the system via email. Talking about this
Diane says: “On the old system emailing statements was
just not possible. I had a box that said ‘Email’ but it didn't
send an email. The old supplier was just not able to fix
the issue..
“The fact that I can now actually generate a quote and
press the button and send it to the person I want it to go
to and say, ‘here you are’, is an absolute revelation.”
The tail wagging the dog
The previous system, used by TCH Leasing became so
out-dated that staff were having to work around it to get
on with their jobs – a case of the tail wagging the dog.
Describing this, Administration Executive Jennifer Jones
said: “Pretty much in every area of the business there were
problems. We kind of made our day-to-day tasks fit with
the way that the system was. We were doing manual
things because it couldn’t do what you needed it to do.
We had to manually key in the invoices for daily rental
hire that came from an outsourced platform because it
couldn't cope with the interface. The system was also
limited on the amount of characters, so when you were
searching for a particular vehicle, especially with vans that
have a really long description, you were not always sure
that you were getting the right one resulting in ordering
and supply errors. DRIVE is much better designed in this
respect giving certainty in operation”
Getting up to date
Steve Rogerson, who works in group systems support,
says one of the reasons for moving to DRIVE is to get a
more up to date system where customers can log on to
the system and get details about their own fleet which
was not previously available.
And, after numerous meetings with the old supplier, it
appeared that updates from them were never going to
happen.
He said: “We kept asking the question, ‘where are we?
What is happening with the development of the system?’
but they said, ‘we've got other things on the go at the
moment’. So the result was that nothing changed“
Ironing out issues
As would be expected, several issues cropped up
during the implementation of the DRIVE system.
Accountant John Honeywood said: “Things have
definitely settled down and we are running smoothly. I
am looking forward to taking advantage of the
improvements DRIVE can deliver.
“The main issue that DRIVE has helped us with is
reconciling the fleet to the nominal ledger. Reporting the
details on any given lease such as start date, end date,
number of months paid in advance, etc., to establish
from the fleet side, what we expect the balance in the
nominal ledger should be and then comparing the actual
balance in the nominal ledger to ensure that what is
reported in the accounts is correct.. This used to be
problematic with a lot of manual workings, but the guys
from DRIVE wrote a report that does that for us now.
“With more automation, it feels like we have a bit more
time to investigate issues as they arise. . I am looking
forward to an even smoother running operation from
here on.”
Looking to the future
Purchasing Manager Jane Ibbotson hopes that
recommendations made by employees will filter
through to make amendments to the new system.
She said: “I'm hoping for it to speed our jobs up a little
bit. There is clutter on there that I think we don't need,
so over time hopefully we will be able to remove it ’ to
make the screens look neater so that we are only dealing
with what we need.
“We have quickened up on the ordering and we want
to make it even better.”
“We now have a new schedule that accommodates a
client who is ordering 50 identical vehicles so he can
have just one schedule, and not have 50 schedules.
The previous system meant we had to complete this task
manually.“
5. A single phase implementation of DRIVE, making full use of ORACLE scalability, reliability and referential integrity
capabilities, to deliver the core business functionality consisting of:
l Fleet Administration: At the core of DRIVE is the administration which provides a central control of every
aspect of the “day to day” operations of a fleet centric business.
l DRIVE Financials: The DRIVE Financials suite is a fully interfaced financial management module and offers
profitability reporting at lease and vehicle level.
l Quotations and Leasing: Fully supports a busy sales centric organisation with both internal and external
web facilities.
l Short Term Rental: The fully integrated short term rental module provides control of internally owned
assets or for “back to back” rental arrangements with third party rental companies.
l Credit Management: DRIVE provides for credit line management whereby credit variables and a rule set
can be quickly applied to a product or group of companies, this includes hierarchical rules.
l Workflow: A fully integrated DRIVE developed product, Workflow monitors activity in real time and
provides timely reminders or instructions based around the customer, product and SLA metrics.
l e.Modules: An easily deployed web facing environment designed for users external to the business,
where the look and feel can be easily customised and controlled.
l Customer Management: Analytical reports are supported with simple workflow and task management to
ensure a full proactive sales management process.
l Reporting: ORACLE-Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (OBIEE) is included.
l Management Queries: Management queries enable on screen reports to be run against a defined set of
search criteria and results columns.
l Bespoke Reporting: DRIVE provides a BI (Business Intelligence) reporting tool with a rich set of features
and presentation formats.
l TCH Specific functionality supported in DRIVE.
The DRIVE solution provided to TCH Leasing comprises:
6. The DRIVE perspective on working with TCH Leasing, Simon West-Oliver
Drive Software Solutions
(DSSL) was approached by
TCH Leasing following an
extensive review of the
suppliers to the sector and a
suggestion from one of their
local competitors that they
should really talk to us.
DRIVE as a solution was
viewed by many as a supplier for the large end of the
market, multi-nationals and OEM’s. It was fortuitous for
both parties as DSSL were about to launch into the
market a hosted managed service solution aimed at
businesses just like TCH Leasing. After several meetings
and detailed due diligence TCH Leasing agreed to be
the first client to embrace this new way of delivering the
latest market required functionality and technology.
The key issues that TCH Leasing wanted to address
stemmed from their incumbent IT supplier who didn’t
appear to be keen to support a highly agile business
that had a desire to embrace technology to help them
grow their market share. It was apparent that TCH
Leasing needed a stronger digital presence and
needed to secure their hard earned client base by
offering them flexibility and a range of on-line facilities
to manage their fleet assets. A key driver for TCH
Leasing was modernisation and the ability to compete
with larger suppliers who were starting to offer a true
digital experience to the market.
Businesses the size of TCH Leasing are often IT
support constrained as they tend to be very sales and
persona driven organisations, offering a highly
personal level of account and relationship
management to their customers.
Having the time to lose key members out of the day
to day activity of running the business to implementing
a new solution is always a major issue. To meet this
challenge, DSSL increased the level of both remote
and on-site support and extended the time to facilitate
and support the key staff involved.
Now that TCH Leasing is up and live with DRIVE,
they have a true “cradle to grave” platform from TCH’s
online landing page and front of shop website, to a
hosted managed service, so TCH have an almost plug
and play business application that is future proofed by
the ORACLE technology platform it sits on.
Simon West-Oliver
7. About TCH Leasing
Based in Sheffield, TCH Leasing is one of the country’s
top 30 contract hire and fleet management companies
and is one of the few remaining privately owned
companies of its kind in the UK. TCH Leasing operate
from new, purpose-built premises adjacent to M1
Motorway Junction 35A.
TCH Leasing holds true to the principles of the
Group's founder and is committed to providing first
class quality services, designed to meet, and exceed,
the real needs and expectations of each and every
client. As part of the T C Harrison Group,
TCH Leasing has traded under the same control and
ownership throughout it’s 50 year history and the firm’s
commitment for the future is to maintain this continuity
for the benefit of it’s clients.
TCH Leasing’s parent company, T C Harrison Group
Limited is one the UK's largest privately owned motor
groups, with a substantial network of car and
commercial vehicle dealerships, JCB earth moving
equipment dealerships.
About Drive Software Solutions
DRIVE Software Solutions Ltd (DSSL), is a privately
owned UK business dedicated to the delivery of fleet,
vehicle management, contract management and leasing
solutions.
Drive Software Solutions Ltd are the creators and
owners of the DRIVE Fleet Management and Leasing
software product - a single generic product applicable
to vehicle management requirements worldwide and
which represents over 200 man-years of development
by our software experts.
DRIVE is a proven product and is currently installed
and operating successfully in 16 countries worldwide.
Our policy of continuous product enhancements and
DRIVE’s modular structure enables it to be configured
to meet the precise and unique needs of each of our
clients.
DRIVE is used throughout the world by leading vehicle
leasing companies, major vehicle manufacturers, and
other operators of large fleets to whom we continue to
provide additional services and on-going 24/7 support.
