PHH Arval has launched three new technology platforms to replace PHH Interactive, its current Web-based solution platform: Clarus, Clarus Driver, and PHH Xplore
By Mike Sheldrick, Senior Editor, Fleet Management Weekly
Fleet Management Weekly spoke about the new releases with Robert Sandler, senior vice president, Customer Experience and Enterprise Consulting, and Chris Brown, director of Customer Experience. “These tools enable our customers to improve the productivity of their fleet and to ensure driver compliance with their corporate fleet policies,” Sandler said. “They allow our clients improved access to data, the ability to sift through that data quickly, and to make guided and predictive analytical decisions based on the data.” In other words, according to the company, the new tools will:
- Identify anomalies and uncover hidden opportunities for improvement
- Incorporate data trends to develop predictive models
- Formulate action plans and resolve fleet issues
- Take advantage of situational opportunities
In the development of Clarus, Brown said, “every development decision was based on who would be using the technology, what problem they were trying to solve, and making the solution easy, effective and enjoyable.”
Brown noted that Clarus represents a fundamental change in the way that solutions are built by asking who the user is and what is the problem we are trying to solve. “What really stood out was that ten years ago, there was one full-time fleet manager. who spent a lot of time on the site. Today, there are a number of “light” users. These could be anyone from a branch manager to a procurement person to an HR contact to a billing contact,” he said. “The power user still spends 20 or more hours per month. With Clarus, users can participate in developing specialized apps that function much like those on their smart phone.”
Clarus’ design incorporates guided analytics, explained Sandler: “Clarus will help a user quickly sift through the data and identify what is critical.” Even more, he added, the data itself can be used to guide a user to decide what actions to take, and those actions can be built into the solution. For instance, he points to a fuel solution that actually has an “action” button to send emails to all drivers not in compliance. “Guided analytics offers tons of opportunities for using the data to solve the problems that users have.” said Sandler. “Maybe they are planning a budget, maybe they are managing to budget, or looking for cost savings opportunities. We absolutely see Clarus as a differentiator for us in the marketplace.”
In Clarus, specific fleet functions are now organized and displayed in app-like tools that allow users to home in on specific areas, much like a smart phone.
These apps can be arranged in any way desired in a desktop library. The initial release includes a fuel app, to be followed by a much wider variety of apps.
Clarus Driver had its roots in a year-old mobile app that was well received by its 20,000 users. PHH Arval did a lot of usability testing and rebuilt the entire Clarus Driver site, including the mobile app. The solution runs on any platform. It allows drivers to easily access their fleet information. The capabilities include task management, mileage reporting and maintenance and nearest fuel locations. With the tool, drivers can complete vehicle-specific tasks intuitively, easily and conveniently.
PHH Xplore is a business intelligence tool developed to take data mining to the next level. It can access large amounts of data quickly and analyze them in real time, empowering fleet managers to uncover opportunities for fleet savings and fleet productivity. Said Sandler, “Xplore is more of a collaborative that will help identify outliers and anomalies where clients can take action.” He said that PHH Arval will work with clients to develop new applications that can then be incorporated into more “self-service applications” that can be incorporated into Clarus: “it is really about seeing how the clients experience data, how they use it, and listening to those clients. That will help us as we build apps and enhance them in the future.”
Clarus has a website dedicated to Clarus at: meetclarus.com
And Chris Brown has a post on Clarus and Clarus Driver at the PHH Arval blog
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