In our last article, we discussed everything about fleet management software and why you should consider opting for it for your business. We also discussed many advantages of fleet management software in enhancing your logistics and transportation business and even offered you five compelling reasons to invest in fleet management software. If you missed it in any case, here’s the link to our article – What is Fleet Management Software and Why opt for it?
In today’s article, we will be covering the top twelve things you need to consider when investing in fleet management software. Read on to know more!
Fleet management software has been prevalent amongst fleet managers as a source for tracking their fleets and ensuring their drivers’ safety. A useful fleet management software provides you with a mobile-first platform that automates and streamlines all your fleet management operations.
Further, as the fleet technology is becoming more advanced, the fleet managers are actively accepting the fleet management software for managing their transportation services. In such a scenario, it becomes critical for you to adopt a fleet management software to survive and build success for your organization in this competitive era.
However, investing in fleet management software is not a piece of cake. It can be a tedious task or a massive undertaking like sailing a boat in the high seas. We all are aware that every business has different requirements and wants and, similarly, various issues. That’s why you have to consider a dozen factors while investing in effective fleet management software for your business growth. What factors need to be considered? Are the features? Is it the cost of the fleet management software? Maybe there are certain factors much above that!
Choosing the Best Fleet Management Software
When planning to invest in fleet management software, certain factors need to be addressed before the implementation phase. You need to figure out what works best for your organizations, and what aspects of the fleet management software need to be customized so that it perfectly blends with your business operations.
For simplifying your work, we have come up with a list of the top twelve things you need to consider while investing in the best fleet management software for your organization. So, let’s dive in!
1. Business Requirements
The first and foremost aspect that needs to be considered while making any fleet management software is understanding your business needs. As discussed earlier, every business has different needs and wants. Now, it might be possible that one feature that is perfect for a specific organization might not be valuable for you, and vice versa.
So, to prevent such situations and deploy a perfect fleet management software in your organization, you need to analyze your business needs and wants. Try to determine your fleet’s requirements, and then decide the perfect features for your fleet management software.
For example, if fuel wastage and route optimization are one of your issues, you might be interested in software that offers your diagnostics rather than scheduling features.
2. Ease of Use
It is often seen that some fleet managers become apprehensive while shifting from manual operations to a completely automated fleet management software. That thing even deepens when your opted fleet management software does not have user-friendly features and a simple interface.
Fortunately, we have some best software engineering firms like Matellio that offer the most simple yet intuitive fleet management software making things much more comfortable. Additionally, better customer support and training of your employees make it feasible for your fleet managers to readily accept the fleet management software.
3. Simple Implementation
The complexity of your system, or in other words, the ease with which the system can be implemented in your organization accounts for a perfect fleet management software. You need to opt for software that can be seamlessly deployed in your organization, like a web-based fleet management software.
With a web-based software solution, you don’t have to worry about on-site implementation and other assets needed, as it only requires an active internet connection to work. As soon as you create your account on a web-based fleet management software, the complete set-up and onboarding are a breeze.
Additionally, specific educational resources like video training, user-guides, adn webinars can also simplify the implementation and adoption of fleet management software.
4. Mobile App
In today’s digital world, every aspect of the global market has become mobile. Whether we talk about education, retail, e-commerce, or even manufacturing, mobility has covered nearly every aspect of the world. Transportation and logistics are no exception.
With an effective and feature-rich mobile app, you can seamlessly control and monitor every aspect of your fleet management operations. Be it real-time reports, your drivers’ current location, or the present performance of your fleet, you can get everything on your mobile screen with a fleet management mobile app.
Another advantage of a fleet management mobile app is that the users can seamlessly update their data in real-time while keeping the communications at par. That also mitigates various issues that might happen with a communication gap between the fleet managers and drivers, or drivers and customers, or customers and fleet managers and vice versa.
5. Scalability
It is no surprise that all the fleet businesses are different. However, it should not impact the performance of the services of your fleet management software. Meaning, whether you have ten trucks or 20,000 trucks, your fleet management software should be capable enough to cater to all your needs effectively.
A scalable fleet management software helps you in the long run without compromising on the quality of services. It offers the best features to you based on your needs at a cost-effective price and scales as your company grows with time.
6. Third-party Integration
There are many instances where integrating third-party systems into your fleet management software makes it further improved and effective for your organization. Even when some organizations didn’t use fleet management software, they used telematics solutions or vehicle tracking apps to streamline their operations.
While all these tools are useful on their own, integrating them with fleet management software can be a lot beneficial. They can bring value to your system by offering you vital reports, over maintenance, external repairs, billings, and so on. So, always look for fleet management software that is equally capable of integrating with other third-party apps and software solutions.
7. Security and Privacy
Security and privacy are the two most crucial aspects that have been on the list of marketers for the past many years now. Additionally, with the advancement in the digital era, the concern for security increased significantly. If you do not invest in proper security tools and systems, then there are high chances that your valuable business data and customer information may become open to hackers.
Hence, always look for a fleet management software provider that assures you of your system’s complete security. Furthermore, it also invests in best IT security practices to mitigate the conditions like online hacking and data breaches. Additionally, you can use demos to have employees log into it with aliases and dummy information. Then check how much information is released if the security level is set on your employee’s data.
That will eventually reveal the exact condition of the security and privacy level of your fleet management software. Remember, if even one of your aspects is not safe, you have more chances of getting your data leaked. So, be more careful and invest in the best security systems.
Read More: Enterprise Application Security Best Practices 2020
8. Total Cost of Ownership
The total cost of ownership is one thing that fleet managers are most concerned about. They can spend days and weeks in calculating the accurate value of their fleets during a particular time. While it not only takes much of their crucial time but also consumes their valuable resources.
What if I say that all those tasks could be completed automatically, without much resource usage? Yes, you heard it right! With fleet management software, it is lot easier to calculate your vehicle’s total cost at any specific time.
So, try and look for features that can give your fleets’ real-time reports like fuel usage, part’s lifetime, maintenance, and so on. That way, you will identify the accurate cost of your vehicle seamlessly.
9. Automation
Automation is another crucial aspect that you need to consider while investing in fleet management software. In today’s competitive world, it becomes much more tedious for fleet managers to track the right data and analyze it for future uses.
An automated fleet management software is thus necessary to monitor and track the right kind of valuable data for your business. With an active and automated technology, many activities like inspections, preventive maintenance, and data collection can be improved. It helps you frame a perfect future business strategy and provides you detailed insights over your critical business operations in real-time.
All in all, instead of tracking the information, you can analyze it for framing powerful strategies while eliminating manual data entry errors.
10. Customer Support
It is no surprise that customer support is the most vital aspect of every software solution. Meaning, even if you take all the precautionary measures, there will be times when your software will be down. In such cases, every person reaches the support team of the software provider.
Make sure that whatever fleet management software you choose, its customer support services should be efficient and helpful. They should have a dedicated problem resolution system in their department and, if necessary, offer you expert solutions. All in all, they should benefit your business from the systematic transition.
11. Upgrades
We are today living in a tech-driven era, where everything is reaching new heights in a fraction of seconds. The same scenario is with technology, or to be more precise, the fleet management technology. The fleet management services have become an ever-changing landscape, and the only way to survive in today’s competitive world is to upgrade your services as per the latest trends.
Make sure that your fleet management software provider continuously provides upgradation services to keep your system per the ongoing trends. Furthermore, you should also focus on technology while developing your fleet management software. Include all such technologies that you are sure will make further advancements in the nearby coming time.
A strong R&D department can also be the choosing factor when finalizing your fleet management software company.
12. ROI
Last but not least is ROI. ROI or return on investments is one of the significant factors that marketers pay heed to before making any sort of investments. ROI depends on many of the factors, and in a way, it is the driving force behind your endeavor.
Before buying any fleet management software, ask its sellers to list all the benefits of that system. You can also leverage their case studies to get assured of their ROI trends. Contacting previous customers and knowing their experiences is also one way to check the ROI of that particular fleet management software.
Over to you!
To conclude, we can say that the world is evolving at a much faster-pace, and so are the customer needs. What once was thought of leisure and an added perk, has now become the much-needed aspect of today’s world. Fleet management services are continually evolving to meet the industry standards and growing customer needs. People have begun using automated solutions to cater to the complex needs of their transportation business.
In such a competitive scenario, it is much needed that you keep up with the ongoing trends. And one of the ways to stay updated and keep your business in trend is by adopting fleet management software.
We, at Matellio, provide useful services over fleet management software. We have years of experience in developing solutions for the people engaged in transportation and logistics services. Our expert software developers have advanced knowledge of fleet management operations. They promise to deliver a complete package including vehicle tracking, geofencing solutions, freight brokers solutions, vehicle locking apps, toll management systems, and much more. Reach us to transform your idea of fleet management into reality. Plus, get a free 30-min expert consultation on your visit!
