Prestige Fleet Servicing has added new functionality to its Unity operating system.

The latest enhancement, which went live last month, integrates Unity with an online parts system with access to over 130,000 vehicle parts prices and details of availability.

Now, service centre managers have instant online access to a comprehensive parts catalogue, allowing them to identify and order the required parts more quickly and have them delivered more time-efficiently and effectively, thus reducing vehicle downtime even further. Unity also provides details of expected parts delivery times.

As the integration of the two systems provides instant and automatic updating of the data within both, the need for double keying is removed, further reducing the risk of human errors and speeding up the process.

Analysis by Prestige has shown that as a result of the two systems’ integration, input errors have been reduced by 95%, SMR authorisation times have improved by an average of 10 minutes and parts delivery times have improved by an average 20 minutes - all due to improved accuracy.

Prestige has also integrated Unity with the back office systems of some of its largest fleet and leasing clients to deliver similar operational benefits and efficiencies.

Clients can now view day-to-day SMR processes on local bespoke dashboards. Consequently, authorisation times have been improved and the jobs themselves have been completed more time-effectively, with fewer human input errors and little or no duplication.

All service centres within the Prestige network of almost 300 outlets, as part of their standard agreement, use the end-to-end system for diary management, SMR authorisations, work progress management and management information reporting.

Unity also provides central electronic invoicing via its unique self-billing function which eliminates input administration time for service centres and allows them to focus on their core activity of servicing and repairing fleet vehicles.

In addition, the online system provides service centre managers with diary capacity management in real-time to ensure they have sufficient resources to meet work commitments, along with speedier authorisations plus invoice retrieval and real-time messaging.

For fleet clients, an enhanced suite of Management Information reports are now available to provide detailed analysis of SMR work times and costs.

Fleet clients can now see overall average invoice values, the average cost of invoices by manufacturer, model and derivative, tyre condition and tyre costs, vehicle condition reports and online booking trends – to name but a few.

Prestige operations director Nick Hutton said: ”The latest enhancements to our Unity system have delivered an assortment of real benefits to both our service centre managers/ owners and our fleet customers.

“We are delivering on our commitment to provide our service centres with the capability to speed up the SMR process from authorisation to completion, while at the same time providing our fleet customers with greater transparency and more detailed analysis of all work our network carries out on their behalf.”