Tony Candeloro, ARI

SuperNova Award Category

Data to Decisions

The Company

ARI is a global vehicle fleet management leader that drives the best results for each of its clients’ unique and complex needs through industry-best fleet professionals, programs, technology and consultative services. In the US, more than 450,000 fleet vehicles are covered by ARI’s maintenance management programs. ARI facilitates maintenance and repairs for these vehicles via a nationwide open vendor network.  Currently, the network consists of more than 66,000 vendors with a controlled spend for parts and labor of almost one billion dollars. ARI’s commitment to its customers is to match them with a vendor that is best suited for their vehicle and repair type, to negotiate the best price on the parts and labor costs that get passed through to the customer, and to keep vehicle downtime to a minimum.

The Problem

Maintaining an open network of 66,000 vendors allows ARI to offer extensive coverage to our clients; however we wanted to establish more control to locate suitable vendors faster, to have vendors prioritize ARI customers, and to offer even better pricing to our customers.

The Solution

ARI developed a neural data network that relates all vendors with given a radius throughout the US.  This data drives dashboards that can analyze regional vehicle operating parameters, regional vehicle spend, and regional vendor operations to identify opportunities to leverage and target our clients’ total spend. With that information, the ARI Vendor Management team established an exclusive network of top vendors in each state.

The Results

When a customer needs work on a vehicle, the front-line technician will first attempt to place the vehicle with a high potential vendor that suits the vehicle and work required. One feature that ensures shop compatibility is the geo-based tool which provides a visual of a vendor’s operation. Given a satellite image of the shop, we can better qualify vendors by ensuring they have the capacity to service the vehicles we are sending to them.

The Technology

SAP HANA in-memory technology, SAP Xcelsius Dashboards, Infosol’s Info Burst Data Caching.

Metrics Matter

Still in its early stages, ARI’s preferred vendor network already includes 500 shops, with expected growth to reach 3,000 by the year’s end. The new dashboard for managing the network displays market segmentation ranging from one to 15 square miles.  Within those ranges, vendor performance and opportunity is calculated using total clients, total vehicles, vehicle makes and model years, as well as a breakdown of repair types (brakes, tires, oil & lube, etc.). Using this tool and approach to our high potential vendors, ARI is targeting to reduce maintenance costs by 20% in the first year of the program.

Disruptive Factor

ARI is able to visibly analyze a market down to the operating vehicles, maintenance spend and competing vendors. Correlating this information with geospatial dashboards provides ARI with a clear picture to better negotiate discounts on behalf of our clients and to communicate with our vendors about the opportunities that ARI provides to their immediate markets. 

Shining Moment

ARI has been named a CIO magazine CIO 100 Award winner for 2013 and as a finalist in the Tech Innovation of the Year category by the 2013 American Business Awards.  ARI has also received the IBIZ 2013 innovative dashboard award for its vendor management approach.

About ARI

ARI, part of the Holman Automotive Group, is a global vehicle fleet management organization that drives the best results for each of its clients’ unique and complex needs by employing the industry’s best fleet professionals, processes, and technology. A workforce numbering close to 2,500 collaborates across offices located throughout North America, Europe, the UK, and Hong Kong to manage more than 978,000 fleet vehicles in North America and Europe, and combined with its strategic partners, more than two million fleet vehicles globally. A leader in its industry, ARI has been recognized as one of the “100 Best Companies to Work For” by FORTUNE magazine. ARI is headquartered in Mount Laurel, New Jersey.