Fleet Management System

Keeping people and projects moving in some
of the harshest environments

Kjaer Group A/S is a specialized provider of vehicles and automotive solutions. Being an authorized provider of vehicles and motorcycles, Kjaer supports the aid and development market. This places them in the service and support network of leading vehicle manufacturers which translates into full warranty and after-sales support locally.

Since 1962 they have gained expertise in keeping people and projects moving in some of the harshest environments. With a focus on Africa, Kjaer Group leverages the strength of having people on the ground and by supporting transportation needs with innovative services.

How to manage true costs?

One of Kjaer's businesses includes a Fleet Leasing Service. For their leasing customers an easy to use web based Fleet Management System was needed which allows customers to:

• Ensure the safety of vehicle drivers and other organizational assets,
• identify and account for the true costs involved in running their fleets.

The information managed by the system has three main sources:

• GPS and other data collected directly from devices placed in Fleet Care vehicles and accessed via a third-party satellite data provider,
• vehicle and customer records from Kjaer Group's ERP system,
• and information that is entered by the customers themselves.

Searching for an independent organization that could design and develop the Fleet Management System, Kjaer and Brains4All found each other. After a period of thorough communication a project plan was proposed which led to the start of developing the Fleet Management System.

Dutch speak Danish?

Good communication is the first step for building a successful product. Of course we'd like to think we're good communicators. But for all our international projects the official language is English.

A project was setup on our extranet to serve as a communication platform. Key stakeholders from the customer's and the project team involved in the creation of the web application were invited to share information and give their feedback and opinions. Communicating this way offers very valuable information which would be unknown by having a less open approach. A more thorough insight results in an optimized product.

Pleasant earlier contact with Kjaer's project lead Carsten Heise made user interface and creative designer Serge Nijsten so enthusiastic, he couldn't wait to get started designing.

" This is simply super design and 'look and feel'. Great work by Serge "

Designing the systems 'look and feel' automatically brings forth an unwritten manual of the systems 'style definition'. A style definition is a set of rules to stick to in current and future design. Sticking to these rules is important that is styles characterize specific functionalities and make them recognizable in one eye rise. Repetition of styled elements and functionalities creates consistency which results in a more intuitive and easy to use application.

Design proposals were made and discussed in the extranet. Once the concept was clear and understood by everyone, the design was agreed upon and the next step was easy to be made.

Designing the system user interface

Most important in designing an easy and intuitive to use system is to know how the system works. Therefore the system process was analyzed and sketched roughly on paper by Marko van der Puil and Serge Nijsten to get insight of the systems flow. Where information lacked or wasn't understood feedback was requested and received via the extranet and telephone. Now every screen and functionality could be designed and discussed separately upon a high level of usability was reached.

Next step was creating the XHTML and CSS which was installed on a protected environment on a development server so it was ready to have the code implemented in.

GPS and other data collected and accessed via a
satellite data provider

In May 2007 the development of the system programming code started. In cooperation with Kjaer's in house IT experts the system was developed in small incremental steps. The new code had to fit seamlessly to Kjaer's existing web application infrastructure. The logical choice was to go with Ruby On Rails.

The Fleet Management System is fed with two main categories of information from sources outside the web application:

• Data concerning the customers fleet (from the Kjaer ERP System) and,
• information regarding the safety/tracking of the fleet, vehicles and drivers. (from 3rd party satellite and GSM GPS providers)

The safety/tracking information is an optional service and may not be activated for all system users as it requires the installation of additional equipment in the vehicles. An user access rights managed infrastructure was coded which allows creating user accounts with specific roles, permissions and accessibility's.

Coding continued and the system was ready to exchange data and user information with Kjaer's Active Directory network and MS SQL Server-based ERP system.

Now the system could exchange data from Kjaer's ERP system and information could be entered by the customers, an interface had to be realized between third party satellite data providers and the system. The data obtained by satellite includes information concerning vehicle speed, the vehicles driving routes and safety of the vehicles drivers.

After a period of thoroughly testing and fine tuning, the system was successfully delivered in October 2007. This Fleet Management System supplies the tools to monitor true costs involved in running leasing customers fleets and that ensure the safety of vehicle drivers and other organizational assets.

" Also from my side it was a pleasure to work with you. Looking forward to continue the work!

Cheers, Carsten "