Chevin Fleet Solutions, a leading global provider of web-based enterprise-level fleet and asset management software, outlined several predictions for fleet software trends for 2017 and detailed how continued development of its FleetWave software will help address a number of industry needs.
Firstly, the company believes that the focus of fleet management software will continue to shift in 2017 to facilitate intelligent utilization and consolidation of a wider variety of both internal and externally-generated data.
“The continual development of mobile and automotive technologies – such as telematics, autonomous vehicles and connected cars – means more data than ever is being generated relating to fleet vehicles, equipment, staff and other types of assets," Ron Katz, senior vice president, North American Sales at Chevin said.
“With fleet operations under continuing pressure to keep costs down and reduce workloads and reduce deadlines to a minimum, many organizations are increasingly recognizing the potential of using data more ‘smartly’ to help streamline processes, improve efficiency and reduce expenditure,” Katz said.
The key to efficiently utilizing ‘big data’ to support positive operational changes, say officials at Chevin, is determining what data is most useful and then bringing it together for reporting and analysis.
“We’re increasingly seeing fleet managers becoming more interested in whether their existing or potentially-available, disparate data could be easily aggregated and consolidated across the organization," Ashley Sowerby, Chevin Managing Director, said. Furthermore, if this is possible then to what end could this data be used? Simply asking the question, ‘how could we enhance our fleet operations by bringing existing internal or external information together using fleet management software?’ can be a powerful enabler."
Meanwhile, with an increasing variety of data being generated externally by telematics systems, fuel cards, maintenance services providers, parts suppliers and fleet management companies as well as tax, title and driver management solutions, Chevin believes that ease of integration will also prove to be a key trend of 2017.
“With so much information potentially available – often coupled with stringent deadlines, administration or cost constraints - the process of integrating data from third-party applications and
service providers into fleet management software should never be difficult or time-consuming,” Sowerby said.
Chevin’s enterprise fleet management software FleetWave, is capable of being integrated with an unlimited number of external systems or data providers and the company will continue to expand these facilities in more efficient and scalable ways.
Additional in Chevin’s predictions for 2017 is an increased use of mobile devices to help with the management of operations and maintenance within fleets – as smart phones and tablets, according to Chevin, can be effectively used as employee management tools if they are intelligently linked to a fleet management system.
Mobile devices can be used to help manage almost any kind of operational activity from providing load, pick-up and delivery details and route information to drivers, or collecting inspection, maintenance or audit information from drivers, workshops, job sites and more.
“A fundamental capability of our software is to provide a robust solution that functions as a centralized repository of fleet-related data," Sowerby said. "With FleetWave’s continuous development in the coming year and beyond, our objective is to continue to help our clients harness a wide range of data and allow them to more effectively manage their fleets through information rather than instinct.”
