Web-based or enabled?

Questions to ask

• Is your system web-based or web-enabled?
• How do the speeds of the different systems compare?
• Which would suit my requirements more?

Fleet managers need to ask whether they need a web-based or web-enabled system.

Most fleet management software currently available is web-enabled. This means that a portion of the software resides on an organisation’s server while the other portion resides on the user’s computer. Any changes to the software need to be made on both.

In contrast, web-based means that the software was written to run on the web, which allows users to access it via a browser without the need for software to be installed on each computer.

Users access the same data-centre regardless of where they are in the world and it’s far quicker to add more users.

Web-based systems are widely regarded to work faster than web-enabled ones, which owes much to the fact that there are far fewer network requirements.

Ultimately, the type of system that’s right for you could depend on whether employees who need to use the fleet software are based at a central office, making regular upgrades to web-enabled software possible, or work from disparate locations making web-based software more appropriate.

Cost of investment

Questions to ask

• How does the cost of the software break down?
• Are there any extra charges?
• How and when are payments made?
• Is hardware paid for upfront?

Price is clearly critical in any purchasing decision and bespoke systems are always likely to be the most expensive.

But equally important are value for money, value added service delivery and product innovation.

Jaama’s Martin Evans says that appropriate software systems frequently provide payback over time.

He says: “A good system will monitor, control and reject erroneous expenditure and provide automated checks and balances to make sure that processes are operating as intended and within predefined parameters without the requirement for someone to intervene and run manual checks.

“Fleet managers can justify their employers’ investment in sophisticated systems by the amount of administration time they save in addition to the ability to deliver huge operating cost savings.”

More on page three