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The 3C Competence Cuisine Collective group is a family-owned SME founded in 1989, built on the sale, installation, and maintenance of professional kitchens in schools, hospitals, and corporate catering. Its fleet – of which 70% are made up of utility vehicles on long-term rental contracts only – has grown over the past six years, by around 15% per year. In May 2019, Jean-Philippe Edom, CIO, decided to implement Notilus YourWay in the company because the data load had become too great to be managed. The car fleet also generated the firm’s second-highest expenses, right after salaries.
Management via Excel
Originally, Excel was used to manage the fleet. All the rental contracts, expense reports, and other expenses associated with the vehicles were printed. The follow-up was very tedious and the sharing of information complicated, especially for a fleet of vehicles on long-term rental contracts. Each vehicle was subject to mileage limits that were estimated at the start of the contract but had to be regularly adjusted. Three people were involved in fleet management, at the expense of IT: accounting, invoice reconciliation, and fine management.
Change motivated by a desire for centralization
The car fleet was managed by the accounting department. There was no analysis of mileage limits or contract renewals. Following the group’s significant growth, monitoring had become very time-consuming as Excel had shown its limitations, and it was imperative to centralize the information.
“A data not entered at the specific time T in the file generated incorrect results. I wanted a solution that would allow me to share information, but also to manage vehicle assignments. Knowing which technician had checked which vehicle, on which day, and at what time was essential in case of a fine,” explains Mr Edom.
He wanted an intelligent system that would allow him to easily and quickly readjust contracts according to the actual mileage driven.
Managing mileage records: simply put, a pain
3C had been using Webfleet since 2013.
“Before Notilus YourWay, we automatically extracted and compared recorded mileage records to the mileage records of the oil company, and the result was sent to me. These statements were manually dated and entered into the Excel file. Now, they are integrated into the solution via a connector. We have since then switched to Masternaut, with more advanced telematics,” says Mr Edom.
Financial and technical selection criteria
3C, therefore, was looking for a SaaS solution that could be easily adapted to its needs. Notilus YourWay is multi-configurable and can assimilate a large amount of data.
“The Notilus team has proven to be dynamic, responsive, and attentive to its customers and users in developing new features. We benefit from regular releases. Historically, Notilus YourWay is part of the DIMO group, whose software suite we already use in the HRIS area, particularly for driver’s licenses and time and attendance management. It seemed to me that it would be easier to interface all these solutions together,” explains Mr Edom.
The latter appreciated the flexibility and speed of execution of the interfaces, especially when it came to integrating the invoicing flow of a rental company in EDI. Today, the EDI integration in the tool allows him to control and avoid re-entries in accounting.
Methodical preparations followed by quick implementation of the solution
We first had to collect all the relevant data into an Excel file, including registrations, drivers, assignments, dates of entry into the fleet, type of contracts, mileage allowances, costs associated with the contracts, start and end dates, etc.
Once this work was completed, the Notilus YourWay teams imported the file into a test environment before validation and deployment into production.
“Starting a project with only 70% of the data doesn’t make sense, as the more data you have, the fastest the solution will make the switch to production, without the need for retroactive data entry afterwards. This project was deployed in a record time of a single week.”
The value of mileage surveys for contract reviews
Not all vehicles are equipped with telematics boxes.
“For example, when we receive fuel statements with the same odometer reading for the last three months, we send an e-mail to remind users to fill in their meter. […] We can also adjust contracts by making use of the limykeage mileaege. We cross-reference mileage data from several sources, with information from the invoice of oil companies, which tells us, between two dates, the average amount of fuel used at the pump. This way, we can get a good grasp of fuel consumption and identify anomalies. This gives us another lever to control costs.
Cost reduction is complicated to analyze, but not a myth
Mr EDOM has observed significant time-saving thanks to all the data he integrated into the solution, such as mileage statements, EDI integration of invoice lines from various service providers, data exports that eliminate re-entries for accountants, etc. Normally this should translate into a net gain in terms of resources, but it is a bit complex to effectively measure earnings in terms of cost for Mr EDOM since his company’s fleet had increased by 15 % annually for the past 6 years, along with its budget.
Automatically, its overall vehicle fleet budget has also changed significantly.
Nevertheless, by determining the cost per vehicle for different vehicle and driver types as well as their driving style, he ventures he has achieved a 10 % gain.
Mr EDOM has a panel of configurable dashboards that help him determine the cost of a vehicle or a group of vehicles over a given period of time and compare it to another period. As it integrates all invoice lines, he can measure the evolution of cost reduction this way.
The importance of coherence checks between theoretical and actual invoicing
“The alerts we have currently have set in place are very important because, in the case of long-term leasing, the leasing company often continues to invoice after the contract has ended and the vehicle has been returned. With more than 100 vehicles on long-term leases, we would be receiving 60-pages worth of bills at the end. Without a coherence check system, it is easy to omit monthly payments, which is why the artificial intelligence engine is essential. […] The Notilus team’s availability, responsiveness, listening, and evolution, were key in the successful deployment of the tool, its utility, and scalability,” concludes Mr Edom.
Our solution is dedicated to the moblity management. In addition to the expense reports management you can plan, book and track your business trips. It is also possible to manage your car fleet.
