Summit Fleet Leasing and Management (Summit Fleet) has celebrated the 10,000th vehicle contract since its formation – with a little help from the Miles software platform from Sofico.
To mark the occasion, Summit Fleet’s General Manager David Clinch was presented with a special celebratory ‘birthday’ cake at the head office in Rydalmere, Sydney, which was baked by Kalpita Pandit, the wife of Satyakam Pandit, from the Systems Team at Sofico Services Australia.
“Miles forms the backbone of our business,” said David Clinch. “Most other systems throughout our business are heavily integrated or at least rely heavily on the outputs created by Miles. It is definitely seen as our most critical technology solution,” he added.
Summit Fleet is part of the Sumitomo Corporation of Japan, with a majority owned shareholding by Sumitomo Mitsui Auto Service Company (SMAS). With a fleet size of more than 640,000 vehicles and a growing presence in many countries, it is one of the top 10 fleet management and leasing organizations in the world.
Summit Fleet, which was established in 1997, currently manages more than 500 fleet clients in a wide range of industries, including corporate and community groups, health groups and local government bodies in Australia.
As well as the head office in Sydney, it has sales offices in Perth, Brisbane and Melbourne with a total staff count of around 70. The majority of its customer portfolio is funded via fully maintained operating leases, finance leases, novated leases, and providing clients with fleet management.
In 2005, the company went to market via a tender process to replace its existing fleet management system which had been in place since 1997. Following a comprehensive review process that included three other vendors, Sofico was selected as the most suitable ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) partner for Summit Fleet.
“During this selection and evaluation process, it became very clear that the other suppliers could not meet our specific requirements as comprehensively as Miles,” said David Clinch.
Miles’ flexibility in its core configuration, plus a comprehensive list of easy-to-use data interfaces for third party suppliers also increased Summit Fleet’s confidence in the Miles solution and the company went live with Miles in 2006 with 3,500 vehicles on its books.
Since then, Summit Fleet’s business volume has almost tripled, a growth rate in line with that of Sofico’s software systems which now manage more than 1 million vehicles worldwide.
“Since implementing Miles we’ve increased our ability to adapt to changing market conditions. We can better manage our customers’ vehicle fleet requirements utilizing automation and less human interaction,” said David Clinch.
“Our ability to consume and analyze data from various sources has been invaluable in providing meaningful reporting to our customers. This has contributed to our success by increasing our apparent value, not only as a supplier, but as a trusted advisor to our customers,” he added.
Gémar Hompes, Managing Director of Sofico, commented: “We are delighted to be instrumental in helping Summit Fleet achieve its milestone of 10,000 vehicle contracts. We look forward to the next 10,000 with equal anticipation.”
