Fleet FYIs: A Podcast by Utilimarc

How BI Fills the Gap Between Fleet Data and Actionable Reporting | Utilimarc Fleet FYIs

August 26, 2022 Season 3 Episode 28
Fleet FYIs: A Podcast by Utilimarc
How BI Fills the Gap Between Fleet Data and Actionable Reporting | Utilimarc Fleet FYIs
Show Notes Transcript

Show notes for today's episode can be found at: https://www.utilimarc.com/blog

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Gretchen Reese (00:07):

Hey there. Welcome to the Fleet FYIs podcast, the weekly podcast by Utilimarc that reveals how you can make the most of your data for smarter fleet management. My name is Gretchen, and every week you'll hear from me or some of the industry's finest in candid conversations that will not only shed some light on over two decades worth of fleet data insights, but also some of the industry's hottest talking points and key metric analysis with the aim to help you better understand your fleet from every angle.

(00:52):

But before we begin, if this is the first time you've heard our show, thanks for stopping by. I'm so glad you decided to come along for the ride with us. But I've got a quick favor to ask you once you finish today's episode. If you could take a few minutes to leave us a review on your favorite podcasting platform, we would really appreciate it. Give us a rating, five stars, I hope, or tell us what you liked or leave us a comment or a question about what you've heard in today's episode. If we haven't yet covered a topic that you're interested in hearing more about, let us know. We would be happy to go over it in detail in a later show.

(01:35):

Hello everybody and welcome back to another episode of the Fleet FYI's podcast. I'm really excited to bring today's topic to you for this episode because it is all about Utilimarc's specialty and that is Business Intelligence. I wanted to take a deeper dive again into the technology of this kind because I think when it comes to Business Intelligence, you hear these two words and a lot of people, at least when I encounter them at these different events or sometimes with different response to email campaigns. The biggest question is what is Business Intelligence and how does it apply to fleets and fleet management? And I think that's a valid question because sometimes technology can feel a bit evasive when it comes to really being able to dive deeply into what it can do for you.

(02:29):

To start with, leveraging fleet data is effectively becoming more and more critical to managing a successful fleet operation. I think we've all come to the conclusion that this is the case at this point. Fleets today are collecting data into many systems, all geared to track different things. So we're talking about usage and maintenance, fuel cost, and so much more. I mean, any fleet system that you can think of, any type of data you're collecting, that's what we're talking about here. Data is a super, super powerful tool, but the inherently siloed nature of these systems, think about it. Your fuel system may not talk to your maintenance system, and that definitely may not talk to what's measuring your facility emissions or your fleet emissions. So these siloed natures of the systems themselves, they make it really, really hard to track fleet operations and gather insights that work cohesively together to track on your goals or your initiatives. That might be company wide or fleet department specific.

(03:31):

Modern fleets are using different tools to try and combat this. But again, like I said, the one we're talking about today is Business Intelligence and Business Intelligence solutions to act as this tech layer on top of all fleet data systems to be able to clean and standardize and unify all of your data into a single environment where custom-built analytics can be built from, you can gather insights from, and really you can have an easier time connecting the dots because who doesn't love being able to do that in a quicker and more efficient and more accurate way? Once fleet data is streamlined and scrubbed, for example, a data agnostic BI solution is the tool that delivers insights that an enterprise fleet could really gain a lot of use from. For example, if we're starting with this high quality data that we've touched on for a bit, and I want to give you a quick overview before I really dive deep into this episode here, because I know this is a big topic.

(04:26):

The process here begins with that high quality data that all of us are after. It's that kind of unicorn in the mud here, but what I mean by high quality data is that it's reliable, it's error free and it's unified onto one platform. The key here is the one platform, because if we're trying to connect the dots altogether, having them in one place is going to be critical to this. When you merge these various data streams like FMIS or telematics, fuel cards, enterprise resource planning software, it allows for a multi-angle view of fleet performance in general and down to that really needled in specific viewpoint.

(05:06):

From this custom reports can be built around corporate KPIs or fleet department specific metrics, like I said, facility emissions, different goals, initiatives, whatever you like, whatever you want to build. Typically you can do that with BI software. Now, with high quality data powering these custom reports, fleet managers are able to see exactly where data visualizations are coming from and they can make key decisions for their fleets or for their departments that aren't based on guesswork. That is something that I think is so crucial to being able to work with your data because it's no longer saying, Hey, I think this is best. It's knowing what's best, and I'd like to share a little bit more about that with you today. Let's dig in.

(07:02):

So I'd like to start this episode off by talking a little bit more about how Business Intelligence technology helps you to work with your goals when it comes to planning, when it comes to preparation, and when it comes to the execution of these new initiatives that I'm sure pretty much every fleet and their mother have within their operational strategies or sustainability strategies going forward. So from utility fleets to municipality fleets, many organizations share some major goals in common: cost reduction, operational efficiency and fleet sustainability, especially as fleets are modernizing and moving forward with carbon emissions tracking and all of the hullabaloo that surrounds that. It becomes a little bit tricky to navigate and the waters can feel a little bit murky at least until we have enough information to truly be able to step into this new environment even more confidently than we already are.

(07:58):

And to touch on the first piece, which is cost reduction, any business striving for success likely wants to keep cost minimal and boost profitability at the same time. However, without knowing which unnecessary costs are driving up your annual spend, it can become really, really hard to become fully cost efficient. And that's one thing that I'd really like to touch on. From usage and fuel to maintenance and asset bloat there are several different areas in which your fleet could be overspending in comparison to similar fleets that are either of your size or in your same niche or your same industry, whatever your connection points are. So for example, we can look at rightsizing or replacement scheduling or even total cost of ownership reporting. These tools become super, super, super powerful for fleet managers because what they can actually do is break down the bigger figures into a per unit, per usage day or per mile based metrics.

(08:53):

And from this data, you can actually gain a deeper insight into the recommended fleet size based on utilization or availability, which vehicles could be most impactful to replace, direct comparisons, whether you're looking for an electric vehicle replacement or hydrogen fuel cell replacement, CNG, or even industry peer comparisons. And that's the really cool thing I think about this tool because the list is endless in terms of the technology options available or I guess not really endless. It stops where the technology options stop, but you get what I mean at this point.

(09:28):

My point is though, is that when it comes to right sizing, when it comes to being able to break down these huge figures into a smaller, more digestible metric, it makes this whole initiative of cost reduction and cost or asset streamlining and allocation, so much more simple to be able to understand from garage level to C-suite, and it makes it understandable for everyone involved. And that's the really cool part about technology and especially this type of technology, is that you can do that and it makes it very easy for anyone to be able to work with the technology on this level as well.

(10:05):

Now, the next initiative that I really wanted to touch on is operational efficiency, because you've probably heard this term thrown out a few times, and if not a few times, it's been a lot of times and probably within the last, I don't know, 10, 20 years. Operational efficiency, everyone's been striving for, and that won't change anytime soon. When you're trying to boost the efficiency of day to day operations. It's a common goal that fleet managers have. We've been talking about this in so many episodes on this show, I can't even count. But the goal here is to be both efficient and effective in all facets of fleet operations, efficiency, effectiveness, two big E words right there.

(10:46):

A BI platform can help fleet managers achieve this by, say, for example, measuring resource allocation and streamlining, resource utilization and maintenance, fuel consumption, staffing, downtime reduction, all of those key metrics there. And data dashboards can actually quickly show you the metrics such as maintenance cost per unit, again, to that per unit basis here, vehicle usage by department and even average productive shop time. That's kind of a cool part here, is you can even break it down to the exact technician hours if you would choose to. Now, when it comes to Business Intelligence, a lot of fleet managers use dashboards like this, technician productivity that we were just talking about, staffing levels, safety score carding or preventative maintenance to better manage their fleets. And in addition to streamlining daily operations, these BI tools can really help to protect the health of your fleet and prevent major unavailability due to vehicle maintenance.

(11:41):

These preventative maintenance reports that we've been talking about actually really help managers to diagnose small problems before they become the massive super expensive problems, oh my gosh, the sky is falling, today. They can keep workflows going and they can increase vehicles lifespans overall because what you're trying to do is keep your vehicle healthier for longer, which actually if you ask me, it's a lot easier on your pockets too, which is a very, very good thing. Double bonus if you ask me, because as we said in the first section, who doesn't like to save a little bit of cash when they can?

(12:18):

Last but not least, fleet sustainability is up on my list to mention, and I can't go an episode without mentioning sustainability at least once. We all know me by now. That hasn't changed no matter what. And whilst some consider sustainability to be an afterthought to fleet management, especially when you hear all these super, super green wash terms or very, very charged terms like "We have to switch to EVs now," or, "Focus on your emissions". It's part of it, but it's not the whole scope of sustainability that we're talking about here.

(12:48):

But my point is that whilst this afterthought mentality still exists, more fleet managers are realizing that increasing sustainable practices is actually greatly be beneficial to your organization as well and your customers and your employees. And the lucky thing here is that fleet data actually makes it easier to understand which approach to sustainability works better for your fleet in order to then take action on these findings. We all know at this point that sustainability can look different for every single fleet in existence. So strategizing around what you think a fleet is supposed to do can be a lot like shooting in the dark. Say for example, one fleet might be better off keeping all of their internal combustion engines or diesel on the road, but maybe pursuing a cleaner form of diesel or better mapping out their vehicle usage for internal combustion engines or someone in a more suitable climate might be more preferential to electric vehicles or hydrogen.

(13:45):

It can look different for every single person or every single fleet. And the cool thing about Business Intelligence is that it analyzes your fleet performance to provide insight into your options. Again, like I said, whether that's EV implementation, fuel optimization, or even switching to an alternative fuel like CNG.

(14:03):

If you're looking to dive into electric vehicle or alternative fuel initiatives, if you're looking to dive into this fuel optimization we've been talking about, or even measuring emissions, a tool like Business Intelligence can help you narrow in and standardize your metrics to make for easier reporting as the time change and as your fleet's needs evolve. And the cool thing is that with this being a scalable technology, it doesn't matter what new fuels come into play, it doesn't matter if the technology changes. It can actually help you translate your metrics from internal combustion to electric vehicles, for example, kilowatt hours per mile versus miles per gallon. It all is translatable in some way, shape or form. My point is though, is that the technology itself changes with you and it changes with your fleet, making it easier to be able to tackle new initiatives like this.

(16:09):

At the end of the day, using multiple different systems to make decisions leaves you with a partial understanding of your fleet, and that can result in unnecessary cost spend and an inefficient operation. With comprehensive analytics dashboards, industry benchmarking, life cycle reporting, custom solutions, all for your fleet, Business Intelligence can give you the playbook for making key decisions and driving overall success.

(16:33):

But I would love to hear from you. I'm curious if you've ever thought about using a Business Intelligence tool. If you're curious to learn more about them, what would you like to know? What don't you know? What can I clear up for you? Please, please, please give me some feedback here. Tag me on LinkedIn, send me an email. You can use the hashtag UtilimarcfleetFYIs on any social platform you like, or you can send me a carrier pigeon. I love to hear from you guys and I love to hear not only how I can make this show better, but how I can answer any questions that you might have now or in future. Anyways, that is all from me for this week. I will look forward to chatting to you guys again next Friday. Ciao.

(17:37):

Hey there, I think this is the time that I should cue the virtual high five because you've just finished listening to another episode of the Fleet FYIs podcast. If you're already wanting more content, head over to Utilimarc.com, which is Utilimarc with a C, U-T-I-L-I-M-A-R-C.com for this episode's show notes and extra insights coming straight from our analyst to you. That's all from me this week, so until next time, I'll catch you later.