It\u2019s no surprise that data and analytics are #trending. While most trends come and go, this one is here to stay. But fleets have always relied on data, so why the increased focus now?<\/p>\n
First of all, there is just so much data available. And we\u2019re integrating it from all aspects of the fleet: fuel and maintenance usage, tolls, motor vehicle records, vehicle condition reports, personal and business mileage logging. But the real game changer has been connected vehicle data. The data we receive directly from the vehicle not only enhances the value of all the integrated data sources, but also enables new opportunities for optimizing fleets.<\/p>\n
There is a greater expectation that fleet decisions are based on documented criteria and then tracked to analyze performance. While still valuable, tenure and well-developed instinct isn\u2019t enough. The sourcing and supply chain experts have played a large role in shaping expectations.\u00a0 Those functions have been at the forefront of data-driven decision-making.\u00a0 There also more members of the fleet team who have gained experience in the digital age and are eager to dive into data and analytics.<\/p>\n
At Wheels, data is central to everything we do. And we bring that data together in a number of ways in order to make it useful and manageable for our users. Our account managers are diving into the data, analyzing it on behalf of our clients, and proactively making data-driven recommendations based on documented best practices and fleet priorities. There is our Client Analytics Team, who are our data scientists performing sophisticated analyses for complex scenarios with an emphasis on predicative modeling. And many of our clients want to dig into the numbers themselves \u2013 explore, manipulate and share it. Some are looking for a one-stop portal while others want to pull down the data and use it within their own businesses intelligence tools.<\/p>\n
As the product manager for FleetView\u2122, my focus is to make it a comprehensive tool for the majority of data needs. We\u2019re continuously integrating more data sources and enhancing the tools we have in FleetView to meet the evolving needs of our clients.\u00a0 We recently expanded our advanced data visualization tools into FleetView to allow users to explore, manipulate, and take action on fleet trends.\u00a0 We\u2019ve made this an organic, intuitive experience for users to drill down through layers of data, from high-level KPIs down to sophisticated dashboards at an individual driver or vehicle level.\u00a0 The result is a more seamless workflow versus having to run a separate report to understand what is behind a particular trend. It also provides a way for our users to quickly identify the specific vehicles or drivers on which they need to take action.<\/p>\n
We also know that different users process data in different ways which is why we put a lot of effort into gathering user insights and using those to optimize our interactive dashboards. Some people want to get at the raw numbers right away, some are more visual learners who understand the data best when it is presented in a visual, and others process data more easily when it is verbally explained to them.\u00a0 This is why FleetView is designed to include a combination of data tables, charts, and narrative explanations of the data to be accessible to a wide variety of users.<\/p>\n
Our configurable reports are popular for users who want to pull down data or want data pushed to them. These reports can be automatically shared with members of the fleet team on either a one-off or on-going basis.\u00a0 We\u2019re continuing to expand this capability to more data sets and features.<\/p>\n