Car Leasing: Transition to Miles Software


resume
  • a transition to Miles substantially amounts to more than using other software
  • the transition to Miles is an organizational change. The car leasing company must adopt a different way of operating its business. That is why there will be changes in the organization itself and in the processes of the organization
  • employees of the car lease company (at all levels) are requested to perform duties during the transition for which they have not been trained and for which they lack the time to perform them
  • every car lease company differs in the way the work is organized. Miles can be shaped to suit the way the lease company is organized
  • the staff of the lease company needs to be supported in order to overcome their lack of skills for executing the content of the project. This must be thoroughly managed
  • Advicom supports the organizational change, the project management and the helping of the staff (content management). Specific for Advicom is the acknowledging of the necessity for content management

general
A car lease company that supplants the company software for the operational processes with the software environment Miles (of Sofico) can use Miles for bulk processing, extended management of the incoming and outgoing documents, competitive pricing for contracts, better contract management, better revenues of remarketing. Next to that Miles can be used for Retail (B2C) among other things for private lease with in the same environment Fleet (B2B) with among other things full service lease, and at the same time dealing with the differences in contracts and processes for Retail and Fleet. The transition to Miles is not only using different software, but also the restructuring of the processes and the organization itself. Sofico can assist the lease company with the transfer to Miles, but the lease company itself must deal with the changes in its own organization.


Advicom supplies the project bureau, content management and change management
The car lease company must be aware of the fact that the transition cannot be made a success with only a project manager. This is due to the organizational changes and its staff lacking the skills and time needed to perform their part. If the lease company wants to be successful it must give its staff the support for a broad field of skills. The company cannot expect its staff to perform their part of the transition to Miles without help. The staff needs all kinds of skills the staff normally does not have. E.g. test management skills.

Advicom can give advice for the organizational changes. Next to that Advicom can provide the project bureau the lease company needs for its own tasks. The project bureau needs, next to a number of internal employees of the car lease company, at least a project manager who can steer the project, and a manager who can give the support the employees need for performing their tasks (content management). Advicom supplies the project manager and the content manager.


adjusting Miles
The way car lease companies do their work differs from company to company. Miles can be adjusted in order to comply with the wishes of the care lease company. Together with the specialists of Sofico, the supplier of Miles, the car lease company determines how Miles has to support the existing of adjusted company process. A lot is possible. Miles can be adjusted in many ways. A lot of this can be done by adjusting parameters, and a lot can be done easily by making alterations in the software itself.

The changes are made by using alterations of an extended set of 'basic requirements'. Specific wishes are recorded as divergent requirements. Specialists of Sofico determine these divergent requirements together with core users of the lease company. They do this per subject (part of the business process of the car lease company).


the lease company has its own team
The employees of Sofico and the employees of the lease company work closely together during the duration of the transition to Miles. For this cooperation Sofico has its own approach. In this approach the lease company needs its own team, consisting of project management, content support of the employees involved, but also of core users who have to give input for the adjustments, automation employees who will transfer the data, and many others, e.g. for testing, for preparing the organization for the changes to come, building the documents for the new system, making user manuals and documentation. Sofico has its own project manager. This project manager organizes the work of the Sofico employees and advices the project team of the lease company.


the division of project and content management
Having a project manager and a content manager (who helps the staff in the performance of their tasks) is striking. The tasks of these managers are different, but also complement each other. To illustrate this we will give an overview of the most important tasks of both.

The project manager wards:
  • the process
  • project employees of the lease company
  • achieving milestones
  • giving feedback to stakeholders and company management
  • motivating the employees of the lease company in doing the work they have to perform next to their normal work
  • communication
  • arranging training if needed

The content manager wards:
  • the recording of everything that has to be adjusted in Miles. Sofico organises workshops to that effect. Although Sofico also records what has to be adjusted and how, it is important that the lease company has its own records of this. This may prevent misunderstandings
  • supporting the employees of the lease company in their work. They have to perform tasks they normally never do and are not trained for. E.g. with testing, adjusting their own production environment, making documentation
  • supporting data migration. The data held in the existing software environments can be insufficient for a transition to Miles. The reason for this is that in Miles a lot of things are fully automated, much more so than in the previously used application(s). This leads to different demands for the data. The data need to be complete, possibly enriched, and be altered in a way that the data are usable in Miles. This is especially needed when using bulk functionality in Miles
  • train the employees of the lease company if needed