Many organisations have historically used a number of suppliers to meet their fleet requirements – from fleet maintenance to daily rental and accident management to vehicle breakdown and recovery.

However, FSG, which has 55,000 vehicles on its books and since late last year has been owned by ARI (Automotive Resources International), believes the roll-out to customers of an exclusive fleet analytic engine that processes data 3,600 times faster than any system on the market today is a “game changer”.

FSG provides a comprehensive range of fleet services and is holding discussions with customers who are just seeing the operating cost benefits from using the tool.

Data is interpreted and reports are available instantly on a customer’s computer dashboard. In tests, data processing that used to take seven-and-a-half hours can be done in mere seconds.

The powerful in-memory technology enables fleets to act on information as it happens, thus revolutionising decision-making, dramatically increasing the speed of existing processes and accessing large amounts of data in shorter periods of time.

For many businesses, obtaining data such as accident and maintenance costs, from suppliers and inputting it into their fleet management system can be a challenge. Additionally, using different suppliers for a range of services can result in data incompatibility.

More than 40 ARI customers in North America are already using the technology and it has now been rolled out to six FSG clients with more set to benefit over the coming months.

FSG customers using the reporting tool are fleet management clients, but do use other companies for some other fleet-related products.

However, FSG chairman, Geoffrey Bray said: ‘Customers are only just starting to discover the power of the tool, but they can already see huge benefits as they are able to access information that was not possible before. We are already in discussions with those organisations about delivering a wider range of products and services to them because they can see the data reporting and management advantages.’

Mr Bray continued: ‘Fleet managers do not want to trawl through reams of management reports from different suppliers when there is a solution available that gives them data compatibility across their fleet from a single supplier.

‘The ground-breaking technology we are introducing puts all reports in memory and analytical reports on any aspect of the fleet are available in milliseconds. Additionally, the comprehensiveness of the information means that we are changing the depth as well as the speed at which fleet managers can compile their own reports.

‘Management reporting, in many instances, is long-winded. But we now have a tool with such phenomenal capability that it makes absolute sense to have all fleet data from a single secure source.

‘Fleet managers want data integration. We are integrating vehicle and driver management information in a way and at a speed not seen before and to gain maximum benefit sole supply for a range of fleet services is the future,’ he added.

In the future ARI is planning to further enhance its reporting technology to enable customers to benchmark total cost of ownership data against other fleets and across different industry sectors.

Tony Candeloro, ARI’s director of Client Information Systems, said: ‘The range of fleet, driver and journey information available to fleet managers is already a game-changer and we will continue to drive forward with technology to aid performance management.’

ARI president, Carl Ortell said: ‘Technology is a major differentiator for ARI. Our investment in technology has resulted in the delivery of numerous online management reporting tools to business and we are now bringing those solutions to the UK.’