Inchcape
Automotive Services Ltd
Autograph Inspect & Collect®
Automotive Services Company Chooses State of-the-Art Mapping Technology and
Saved £5,000 in a Week in Measured Cost Savings
“While our competitors find that their
customers assets virtually disappear in-between collection and drop-off, we
can track our PDAs and give our customers confidence that their assets are
safe. We’ve already won some new business and retained our existing
customers on the back of this implementation. It’s vital
to the success of our business.” Craig Marsh, IS Manager, Inchcape
Automotive
service company Inchcape Automotive wanted to track where its customer
assets were at any point in time. It also wanted to ensure that its drivers
always took the fastest route to collect or deliver a vehicle.
Microsoft® Gold Certified Partner Anglia
Business Solutions implemented a new infrastructure based on Microsoft
MapPoint® Location Server, Microsoft MapPoint Web Service, and
Microsoft Windows MobileTM 2003 software for Pocket PCs, and
Microsoft SQL ServerTM 2000.
With the new technology in place, Inchcape and its
customers can see where their vehicles are along the delivery process so
customers have greater confidence in the safety of their assets. And because
MapPoint Location Server can calculate the shortest distance between two
specific points, Inchcape can provide its drivers with the quickest routes.
As a result, quotes, which are calculated according to mileage, are more
accurate, saving the company money and helping to ensure accurate customer
billing.
Situation
International
automotive services group Inchcape provides quality representation for its
manufacturer partners, a choice of channels to market, products for its
retail customers, and a range of business services for its corporate
customers. Predominantly operating in the U.K., Greece, Belgium, Australia,
Hong Kong, and Singapore, Inchcape’s core business activities include import
and distribution, retail, business services, automotive commerce, and
financial services. Its key business partners are Toyota, Subaru, Ferrari,
Jaguar, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Land Rover.
To support its services operations, Inchcape’s U.K. division, Inchcape
Automotive, uses a vehicle appraisal system called Autograph Inspect and
Collect®, which is based on Microsoft® SQL ServerTM
2000. Using mobile devices, drivers assess the damage of a vehicle in the
field and report the status of a vehicle back to the host systems and
subsequently onto its customers.
Craig Marsh,
IS Manager, Inchcape Automotive, says: “As technology has moved on and the
demands of the industry and our clients have changed, we wanted to set up a
new Autograph® system that would support wireless, general packet radio
services (GPRS) communication, the inclusion of photographs in vehicle
condition reports, and send data across to our host systems in real time so
information didn’t need to be held on the handheld unit. “A lot of our staff
work away from a traditional desktop environment, appraising or
delivering/collecting vehicles, and conducting in-yard inspections. It’s
vital that they can depend on quick and effective mobile communications.”
Inchcape Automotive also found that it didn’t know exactly where its
customers’ assets were at any one time. It wanted to be able to track the
progress of its customers’ assets so that both it and its customers were
always informed. Marsh says: “We wanted to record the location of vehicles
at key points in the delivery process. We also wanted to communicate this
information to our customers thereby ensuring enhanced customer confidence
in our reliability.”
Solution
Microsoft® Gold Certified Partner Anglia Business Solutions engaged with
Inchcape in July 2004 to develop a new solution based on Microsoft Windows
MobileTM 2003 software for Pocket PCs, Microsoft SQL ServerTM
CE, Microsoft MapPoint® Web Service, Microsoft MapPoint Location
Server, and the Microsoft .NET Framework.
With the new solution, a PDA’s location can be tracked. A MapPoint Web
Service sends the longitude and latitude of the PDA’s location and maps that
data onto MapPoint Location Server in real time.
Information such as customers’ asset delivery location and vehicle damage
assessment is now stored on a SQL Server 2000 database in our hosting
facility, and published to the Web through Web services, where it can be
viewed by Inchcape staff and customers. Around 250 users in Inchcape
Automotive are already using the system and more than 50 customers could
have access to their assets delivery location through the Internet.
MapPoint Location Server can also calculate the distance between two points
and provide mapping and routing information to ensure drivers always take
the fastest route to their next pick-up or drop-off point. Marsh says: “The
new technology helps us to operate much more efficiently. Our drivers will
always take the best route from A to B, and we can calculate the exact
mileage of each journey. That’s of massive importance to us, because we
charge our customers according to mileage.
“If we go over the mileage estimate for a job, we can’t charge for it. We
calculated one week that we lost £5,000 in mileage quoted and charged. Now
we have greater confidence in the accuracy of our quotes, because they have
been calculated by MapPoint Location Server.”
Benefits
Greater
Visibility of Driver Activities Improves Efficiencies
With a clearer view of where its customer’s assets are, Inchcape
Automotive can organise its activities more accurately. Marsh says: “Now
that we can track where our PDAs are at various points in the day, we are
better placed to schedule vehicle deliveries/collections more accurately.
“Our drivers also benefit enormously from the new solution. As soon as they
pick up their handheld device for their first job of the day, their workload
has already been downloaded and their routes planned. It saves time for
them, and means that we have more control over what they do and where they
go on a day-to-day basis.”
Enhanced Customer Confidence Delivers Competitive Edge
With
high-profile clients, Inchcape Automotive is responsible for vehicles that
can cost up to £50,000. Its customers must have the reassurance that their
high-value assets are being well looked after, or
Inchcape Automotive is liable to lose their business. Marsh says: “The
automotive services industry is highly competitive so we must find a way to
differentiate ourselves. We’ve put ourselves at the forefront of our field
with this new technology. While our competitors find that their customers
vehicles virtually disappear in-between collection and drop-off, we can
track our vehicles and give our customers confidence that their assets are
safe. “We’ve already won some new business and retained our existing
customers on the back of this implementation. It’s vital to the success of
our business.”
More Accurate Quotes Result in Cost Savings
In the past,
Inchcape often found that it was losing money by quoting its service costs
according to the mileage a driver had accrued on a journey. Drivers might
make detours, which were not accounted for in the original quote, and could
therefore not be charged to the customer. Marsh says: “Now that we can track
our drivers, and suggest the fastest routes to them, we have cut out the
need for additional travel. Obviously, if a detour needs to be made because
of road works, extra mileage is unavoidable, but that won’t have a dramatic
impact on our bottom line”.
Integrates with Inchcape IT Strategy
As a company that is very dependent on mobile applications, Inchcape
Automotive has been keen to embrace technologies that are based on the .NET
Framework. Richard Jones, Development Director, Anglia Business Solutions,
says: “By using the .NET Framework, developers can take advantage of
pre-built code libraries, so they don’t need to spend hours writing standard
code. This means that any new technology can be integrated into the
infrastructure quickly and easily.”
Future Plans
Inchcape
Automotive plans to integrate Microsoft Office SharePoint® Portal
Server 2003 into its infrastructure so that its clients can view vehicle
information that is specific to them only. Marsh says: “We plan to deploy
specific, branded portals for each customer so that they receive a more
personalized service. “We also plan to use MapPoint Location Server to
extend our service offering. It integrates with mobile phone technology so
that we can alert customers with a short message service (SMS) when a driver
is close to their location. And we are confident that we will be able to
offer more reactive scheduling and re-routing technology for our drivers as
we continue to build on the solution.”
Software and Services
Products
− Microsoft SQL Server 2000
− Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Windows CE Edition
− Microsoft MapPoint Location Server
Technologies
− Microsoft .NET Framework
− Microsoft Pocket PC
− Microsoft MapPoint Web Service