Media family: Professional media
Periodicity: Monthly
Audience: 74,000
Media subject: Auto-Moto-Cyclo
Edition: October 2022
Journalist: Éric Cibory
Number of words: 2302
Site: FLEETS AUTOMOBILES, p.30-33
Interfaces at the service of fleets
Interface the tools of fleet management with supplier systems is not easy and requires a rigorous approach with these providers. But by multiplying these links, fleet managers benefit from complete, reliable and up-to-date information, without wasting time, for the greatest benefit of the company (see page 32).
As part of fleet IT management, interfaces facilitate the task of the managers concerned. For management software publishers, an interface in fact ensures the automated exchange of data between suppliers, the fleet manager and the departments of their company.
For example, these devices integrate the billing files of service providers into the management software, either by connecting to their server or by receiving e-mails. These connectors also make it possible to communicate with the client company's IT systems, whether they have been developed internally or not.
From the marketing of a software of fleet management up to fleet management, the road ahead may therefore seem obvious. The design of an IT tool requires putting yourself in the shoes of the company and the fleet manager in order to offer the closest possible response to the needs expressed.
Real expertise is expressed, which the publisher can rely on to offer expertise independent of suppliers in terms of fleet management. Software publisher Winflotte, the provider Optixt has taken the plunge and markets fleet management services to businesses.
Define needs...
Marie-Noëlle Bobet, fleet manager at Optixt, thus exercises her skills with three customers whose fleets include between 100 and 150 vehicles. She recalls in the preamble: “Two main stakeholders are working on the development of an interface: the project manager works in tandem with a business consultant”.
The interface is designed by the project manager according to the needs expressed by the client, when the business consultant intervenes on the operational aspect. At the software publisher of fleet management GAC Technology, connected to 200 suppliers, the process of developing new connections also involves “this essential phase of defining needs: it leads to the clarification of data recovery methods and to knowing how our tool will interface”, explains Géraud Porteu, managing director of this service provider.
By specifying, for example, that not all data from telematics will be relevant within the framework of the functionalities developed by GAC Car Fleet, GAC Technology's software.
THE PUBLISHER'S POINT OF VIEW
At the software publisher of fleet management GAC Technology, a “hub” centralizes all costs. Interfaces are created according to the type of data, customer needs and technical resources.
Data exchanges can be done by a simple email or by depositing files on specific servers. Information is collected either from the supplier's server or from the publisher's server. Finally, exchanges can also be done in real time via APIs.
For example, APIs help operators of carpooling to know the availability of vehicles at an instant t. A tripartite relationship between the customer, the supplier and GAC Technology presides over the development of the interfaces.
The customer asks for a connection to his provider. It will define the number of files to be recovered each day, each week and each month, the number of columns required, etc.
Within GAC Technology, a team of four people remains fully dedicated to this task. These specialists set up new connectors and ensure the proper functioning of the devices already deployed.
Today, the main rental companies are connected to the publisher's tool and have been doing so for years. The creation of connections is being made in particular for mobility operators who have recently arrived on the market (carpooling, carsharing, mobility credit, bicycle rental, etc.) and for actors in the electric vehicle ecosystem, such as manufacturers of charging stations.
#gestion_de_flotte, #covoiturage, #IA, #mobilité, #temps_réel
