Energy Australia case study

The Challenge...

Energy Australia supplies one-fifth of the Australian electricity market and serves a community of almost three million people. The organisation’s fleet management arm oversees a fleet of 2,500 vehicles and plant items, consisting of everything from sedans and trucks to drill rigs and trench diggers. The fleet forms part of the infrastructure behind the organisation’s electricity distribution, and is core to the design, construction and maintenance of major electricity systems, substations and wires above and below ground.

Energy Australia was formed as a result of the 1995 merger between Sydney Electricity and Hunter Valley-based Orion Energy. Prior to the merger, Sydney Electricity had retired an in-house developed mainframe fleet management system and moved to a LAN / WAN based system to rationalise its costs.

The Solution...

Chosen Solution: FigFleet (Figtree Fleet Management system)

After evaluating several packages to re-engineer the fleet services group’s business processes, the decision was made to implement Figtree Systems’ FigFleet solution. “FigFleet was definitely the most economic option and the most similar mainframe system we already had in place,” said Garry Walsh, Manager, Fleet Management, Logistics, Energy Australia. “The business intelligence and information management capabilities were a definite drawcard.” Users can access information on a particular vehicle’s history, determining factors such as who is using the fleet and how, and analyse vehicle running costs on a monthly basis.

FigFleet allows Energy Australia to track a vehicle from the point of order, right through to the day it is sold or returned to the lease company. FigFleet tracks the disposal history and records the proceeds that Energy Australia receives from the sale of the vehicle. For individual business units, the task of managing the fleet is improved and made more efficient using the FigFleet system.

“FigFleet is available to every business unit, providing access to fleet information and allowing the database to be used as a management tool,” said Mr Dennis Mather, Fleet Systems Administrator, Logistics, Energy Australia. “Managers, supervisors and administrative support people are able to use the tools to make decisions about their own fleet.”

FigFleet receives detailed electronic data files containing vehicle cost transactions from all of Energy Australia’s major service suppliers, including information such as tyre and fuel costs. This information is formulated into end of month billing reports for all vehicle expenses incurred including internal management costs that go to the vehicle users. FigFleet also maintains and tracks data on registration details, including registration renewal. Life-to-date histories of vehicle allocation details and vehicle allocation reports are also available from FigFleet.

Today...

“FigFleet has made great economies for us. We can access information such as fuel issues and kilometre details for each vehicle each month, to see how vehicles are being utilised. Previous data entry has been cut down extensively.” FigFleet has a module that links to Energy Australia’s external insurance company’s system. FigFleet is electronically updated on a monthly basis with vehicle claims details from Energy Australia’s insurance provider, ensuring the company has access to a claim’s status. FigFleet also provides a Fringe Benefits Tax reporting module that allows Energy Australia the option of accessing statutory or actual cost method to produce FBT returns.

“Working with an Australian software developer is an advantage, as we can be assured of having the best level of support at our fingertips,” said Mr Walsh. “Figtree has a lot of local customers, with whom we can swap fleet details and experiences.”

“Energy Australia’s FigFleet system has been in constant development since 1995,” said Mr Mather. “It’s been a very workable partnership, and Figtree has helped us to develop a very thorough and simple system to use. The data is there to extract and manipulate and we look forward to now extending FigFleet’s functionalities to better utilise that data as information tool.”