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Covering all the bases
Page 24
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Vanagement software
company Bynx is convinced there is a huge market for its products in the LGV leasing sector. Group managing director Mark Binks tells Roanna Avison his reasons for optimism. \
From left to right: Owen Goschen, Mark Binks, Shoal b Sheikh
Managing a fleet of commercial vehicles that are leased out to lots of different customers is a challenge; keeping track of when they all need MoTs, for example, is a full-time job. One way of doing this is to invest in software that keeps track of all the assets and one company providing such a system is Bynx Software.
Group managing director Mark Binks says the firm provides the LGV leasing sector with an approach that has historically been found in the light CV and car sectors. "Our software gives our clients the ability to manage their business processes from cradle to grave."
The system is also capable of fitting into an existing IT set-up. "We often find that we have a solution that will fit a niche within a particular area of a business that hasn't been catered for. We can help our clients build an ICT [information and communication technology] landscape that suits their business operations."
Bynx has been in business for 19 years, but Binks says the web has enabled the company to extend the service it offers because the systems can be accessed remotely by fleet managers and their customers, "We're very good at identifying the technology to help a leasing company address its pain points, which is not necessarily the strength of an LGV fleet manager."
Bynx is finding that a lot of leasing firms are realising their existing IT infrastructure is not up to scratch and are making funds available to upgrade to a system that will help them manage their assets and put them in a position for the next upturn.
"Many leasing firms have had a good couple of years," says Binks,"but their infrastructure is not able to cope with the services they are trying to deliver. They want to upgrade and use some of the new [technology] coming through." says Binks. "Most want to make better use of the information they have and have a better view of their vehicles."
Consolidated view At present, Binks says, most businesses do not have a consolidated view of their data their financial information, vehicle location and other information. However many businesses arc being driven to consider a more central approach by the corporate manslaughter legislation that comes into force next April. "People are starting to feel the pain of that or fear the possibilities and want to make sure they have covered all the bases," says Binks.
While Bynx is only now pushing its offerings into the LGV leasing space. B inks reveals it isn't its first foray into this sector. "Before we got involved in the vehicle leasing side, we were heavily involved in LGV maintenance management and workshop management, so we have quite a good understanding of the commercial fleet sector and the management of LGV fleets.
"Because we understand what CVs are about and what operators are facing, we feel this will help as we take our solutions into the LGV leasing space."
However. Binks admits that the commercial world is more complicated than car leasing because of 0-licences and the vehicle checks that have to be made."The amount of technical information for the assets is substantial and can include things such as whether a vehicle is Euro4 and other information to do with emissions."
The volume of data that can be collected and used in the system very much depends on what the customer wants; the look and feel of the system is up to the customer.
-The challenge if you have vehicles out on lease is to ensure that checks are made," Binks says. "It is the leasing company's responsibility to make sure a truck is roadworthy, and to do this they need systems to trigger and track events and make sure checks and MoTs are carried out when required."
To highlight how difficult this can be without a centralised system, Binks points to a project the company has been involved in overseas with a fleet of buses.-The introduction of the system made them realise that a lot of the fleet had not been maintained and was in a dangerous condition." In the LGV world, some of the system data can be made available to the driver via SMS oremail at the discretion of the fleet manager.Telling the driver,for example,that the vehicle needs an MoT is something he needs to know, says Binks. "And we can link to any telematics system, consolidate the data and link it to the technical and financial information in our system."
While Bynx is mainly targeting leasing companies, it is also talking to a number of private operators looking to add this type of technology for the management benefits.
One of the challenges in the CV sector is the configuration of vehicles."Man aging a specialist vehicle build is a challenge and many operators don't have the ability to check that the build requirement is viable, but the builders can be given access to a company's system, using our software, and so the operator can keep track of the build process," says Binks.
Most of our customers at the moment are going for an end-to-end system because they think it will give them a lower total cost of ownership than their existing systems. Traditionally, most businesses will have five or six different systems doing different things; or sometimes they will be running the business from a spreadsheet. We can offer them one integrated system to cover the lot."
Having everything in one system enables the leasing company to give the operator the ability to access the data and manage it at its end too, so it has visibility of its fleet and can make its own management decisions. -Obviously, it would depend on the client as to how much of the information they can see. This is, of course, another way to tie customers in because the leasing company's system can be fully integrated with the operator's," says Binks.
Across the scale
At the moment we tend to operate at the higher end of the scale, but there's no reason why we can't work with a haulier that has five trucks and there are probably more business opportunities for us in the smaller space. The smaller company has the same business needs as the large ones, it just may not have the resources and expertise —which is where we come in."
IT is not a top priority for smaller companies, says B inks, but smaller companies are a top priority for IT firms because a lot of the bigger businesses have already upgraded their IT.
At present Bynx manages 700,000 units across various clients with an asset value of about €50bn (£34bn). About 10% of those 700,000 are CVs. "We look after BT's fleet and have been doing that for seven years," Binks says. And BT is looking to take on external fleets to manage so we could expand to be involved in that too. If we don't have the capability we're happy to build it."
Bynx's message to the haulage industry is that "we have experience and knowledge of the market and can take away some of the pain".
Our industry is renowned for selling blue sky, but we have an application that conies out of the box and can be installed and working in two to three months, not the 12 months, two years or never that the IT industry is renowned for. Therefore there's a quick return on investment.
"We also have fixed-price contracts and deliver on those, so there are none of the situations the IT industry is known for where the customers signs up for a £500,000 deal and ends up paying £1.5m." •