Press Release
June, 2011
Norton Way selects MoDel to automate vehicle delivery for leasing company customers
Leading dealer group, Norton Way, has selected the MoDel system from Ebbon-Dacs to automate and speed up the new vehicle delivery handover and collection process for the 6,000 fleet vehicles it delivers each year on behalf of contract hire and leasing companies.
Norton Way operates four franchises - Honda, Peugeot, Mazda and Suzuki - from six sites, including the flagship Chiswick Honda brand centre on the site of the former Honda UK head office.
MoDel, short for mobile delivery, is the latest launch from Oxford-based software provider, Ebbon-Dacs, and automates the new vehicle delivery handover and collection process by employing electronic authorisation and invoicing.
It integrates seamlessly with Ebbon-Dacs’ highly successful Leaselink e-procurement trading platform, which is used by dealers and leasing companies around the UK and in mainland Europe to electronically source and manage more than 100,000 new vehicles per annum.
Before selecting MoDel, Norton Way looked at other suppliers and products that were available in the marketplace but felt that none had the understanding of their processes or offered the functionality that the Ebbon-Dacs’ system did. The Group was also involved in an initial pilot scheme involving the new system.
David Wright, Corporate Quality Manager at Norton Way, said: “What impressed us most about MoDel was the seamless integration with Leaselink plus its functionality, including the ability to record photographic evidence of the condition of any vehicles being returned. In the long run, we are looking to automate as many processes as we can in trying to achieve a paper-free utopia.
“The other main benefit from our perspective was that we are already partners of Ebbon-Dacs so we knew the MoDel product would be well supported with an IT infrastructure that we trust. We had already built a lot of our processes into working with Leaselink and this, for us, was a simple case of process modification to incorporate MoDel to match our requirements. It is also very cost effective,” he said.
Norton Way expects that the savings in time and efficiency that MoDel creates will enable them to provide a better quality of service to the fleet customer.
“We deliver between 4,000 and 6,000 cars a year to the fleet market which generates a huge amount of paperwork. We currently have to print off delivery instructions and match these to our customer liaison officers’ paperwork for several thousand vehicles. MoDel automates this process totally.
“It also speeds up our invoice authorisation and payment considerably. Within 10 minutes of delivery, we are now able to upload the required documents to the leasing company and receive payment for the vehicle within agreed credit timescales. The fact I can invoice immediately, electronically, starts the payment process a day early. This means I’ll get paid earlier and the leasing company can start their new contract earlier.
“Everyone wins. Chasing any payments is incredibly easy, as everything the leasing company requires is permanently available in Leaselink within minutes of delivery,” he said.
Ebbon-Dacs calculates that the MoDel solution reduces debt days by an average of at least one day per vehicle because of the automated nature of the solution. For dealers that supply large numbers of vehicles on behalf of leasing companies, that can make a huge difference. In some cases such as lost or spoiled paperwork, or where there is a weekly deadline for invoice submissions, the savings are significantly higher.
Robert Pilkington, managing director of Ebbon-Dacs Leaselink division, said: “Norton Way, as an early adopter, has been quick to see and receive the benefits of MoDel which really is a Godsend for busy fleet dealers.
“Imagine you supply 1,000 fleet vehicles per year. With MoDel you invoice each of them, on average, one day earlier than usual and, as a result, you get paid a minimum of one day earlier thereby saving at least 1,000 debt days during the year. That’s before we start discussing the costs of recorded delivery, lost paperwork, illegible forms and so on, all of which add to that one day saving.
“This is the proposition Model delivers to fleet dealers nationwide. One day doesn’t sound like much at first until you consider that more than 100,000 vehicles are traded on the Leaselink system a year. Then it adds up to some very big numbers indeed,”he said.
David Wright, Corporate Quality Manager at Norton Way
Ends
Notes to Editors
About Leaselink
Following seven year’s development, Leaselink is Europe's market leading web based e-procurement solution, linking franchised dealers and motor manufacturers to major fleet management, leasing and rental companies.
An established online community, Leaselink is accessed by over 700 franchised dealers and dealer groups every day to respond to tenders and optimise the supply of fleet vehicles. In 2008 the trading platform was responsible for in excess of €3.15bn worth of fleet orders in the UK and Europe.
MoDel is an extension of Leaselink, the fleet industry’s leading e-procurement platform which is currently used by 10 of the UK’s 15 largest contract hire and leasing companies who between them supply and manage over 590,000 company vehicles*.
*Top contract hire and leasing companies as identified by the 2010 FN50 league table of leasing companies
About Ebbon-Dacs
Ebbon-Dacs is an online solutions company based near Oxford and specialises in delivering hosted, web technology solutions. The company has a presence in France and the Netherlands and, through partners, in Italy, Germany, Australia and Portugal.
Ebbon-Dacs, which is owned by a private equity group, provides business process automation solutions to a wide range of automotive business enterprises through a number of different business tools and solutions and is a leader in hosted solutions for the automotive industry.
Contact information:
Andrew Wilson
Sales director
Ebbon-Dacs
Tel: 01865 866810
Mob: 07976 337637
Email: andy.wilson@ebbon-dacs.com
Press enquiries:
Mike Gunnell
MGMedia Services
Tel: 01832 275060
Mob: 07786 971 544
Email: mike@mgmediaservices.com