Management of resources is critical to the sucess of any business enterprise. In fact ,the general economic problem of the satisfaction of unlimited wants with limited resouces underlines this paradigm.This is an issue which the transport industry has struggled with for many years. It comes about due to management's inability to adequately control mobile resources once the vehicle has left the company's premises.
Over the years various systems have been devised to assist management with this problem. Some have been more successful than others. Recently technology has provided the transport industry with fleet management products which enable a manager to monitor the use of a vehicle by an employee. The issue now facing an enterprise is how can these products be evaluated to ensure that the appropriate product is chosen that meets with the needs of that organisation.
The purpose of this article is to provide an objective framework that can be employed in the evaluation and selection of an appropriate fleet management system in order to ensure that the resources of the organisation are maximised and appropriately employed. The discussion will consider definition of requirements, technology evaluation, financial constraints and performance criteria.
Definition of requirements
Prior to considering the various systems available a listing of the company's requirements is considered essential. This list should be definitive and avoid nebulous terms. An example of the former would be, 'Be able to alert management immediately, within 60 s, if a vehicle enters an area designated as prohibited' as opposed to 'Prevent a vehicle from going into a no-go area'.
This method will provide the prospective purchaser with an objective mechanism to evaluate product performance in relation to the organisation's internal needs and not be sidetracked by clever sales pitches, marketing hype and certain product features which may appeal to the individual but not meet all of the requirements of the organisation.
Technology evaluation
Performing an evaluation on the technology platform used, one is not expected to be an engineer. But it is advisable that time is spent on evaluation and to understand how each system works, its advantages and disadvantages.
Examples of this would be understanding satellite technology versus other positioning techniques. Consider the risks of being a secondary user of an infrastructure as opposed to a primary user. Other technical considerations would be the frequency of updates or polls suited to one's requirements and the ability of the system to meet one's needs, software development and support, training, back-up, disaster receiver procedures (DRP), security of the equipment, installation quality and provision of response units to name a few.
With an understanding of the technology used one is able to understand the inherent weaknesses and strengths of each product.
Financial constraints
As every organisation does not have unlimited funds it is suggested that a financial evaluation be undertaken to provide a price/performance analysis of each product being evaluated.
It is suggested that the following issues be considered:
p Cost of update (poll).
p Capital cost of equipment.
p Cash vs rental along with contractual obligations.
p Monthly subscription per vehicle.
p Cost of computer hardware and software.
p Other equipment that may not be specified.
p Cost of recovery resources.
p Cost of installation.
p Transferability of equipment in vehicles with cost implications.
p Maintenance costs and availability.
p Cost of data transfer lines, both monthly and installation.
p Cost of hardware and software upgrades in the future.
p Areas of coverage and stability throughout the area.
Two issues should always be borne in mind. Firstly, the life of initial capital expenditure as against the life of the vehicles and, secondly, that the financial rewards for the supplier is generally not in the equipment supplied but in the monthly revenue that will be earned from you as the customer.
Performance criteria
After having determined one's requirements, considered the different technology platforms and performed a financial feasibility it would be irresponsible to select a product that does not perform as promised by the supplier. Therefore, it is considered imperative to ensure that the product performs according to specifications.
There are generally three ways to ensure the functionality of the product. These are:
p Demonstration by the supplier.
p Visit to current and former users of the product.
p Installation of the product on a trial basis.
These methods are not considered to be exhaustive in themselves but should be used in combination with each other.
Use of these methods will enable one to take comfort in the fact that the product is able to meet with one's needs and performs as sold and marketed by the supplier.
Conclusion
Employing the above methodology will ensure that when purchasing a product one will be able to manage the organisation's resources more effectively and efficiently. It results in the appropriate product being acquired that best suits the enterprise's needs within acceptable price/performance parameters.
It should always be remembered that there is not one best product only an appropriate product best suited to the peculiar circumstances and requirements of the user.
For details, contact Dennis de Jongh, Managing Director of datatrak SA on telephone (011) 444 1111, fax (011) 444 2266 or e-mail datatrak@compuserve.com
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