The Challenge
PARS, Inc. provides automotive relocation services for commercial fleets, fleet management companies, and individuals throughout the contiguous 48 states, Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and Canada. Its mission is to provide its customers with high-quality, comprehensive, nationwide vehicle relocation services at competitive prices and with exemplary customer service.
Critical to fulfilling its mission is the ability to provide responsive and accurate order management and tracking of vehicle movements. Transparency into the logistics management process is paramount.
Although PARS had a proprietary web portal in place for customer quote requests and order management, the company’s rapid growth pushed the system beyond its limitations. The system also failed to provide real-time insight into the movement of vehicles from dispatch through delivery—limiting PARS’ ability to set the standard in response times.
Furthermore, PARS’ external-facing customer web portal lacked speed and agility and required optimization.
As client demands and logistics became increasingly complicated, more sophisticated and feature-rich tools were required.
The Solution
To assist in the evaluation of an alternate solution, PARS invited EastBanc Technologies to review its current software and suggest a new approach that would efficiently support the company’s business process and give it full control of its data.
EastBanc Technologies proposed a solution based on Microsoft Dynamics® xRM Online as the platform-of-choice for PARS’ internal order management system, with a Microsoft Azure cloud-based portal for external users such as customers and contractors.
Drawing on our expertise of integrating complex systems, we leveraged xRM’s powerful set of tools, apps, and platforms to incorporate disparate data sources from across PARS’ operations to drive optimization of BI, sales opportunities, and other key customer relationship matters in a secure environment. The integration of sales operational activities from the CRM with a NetSuite accounting system led to prompter sales order information transfer and improved the overall data quality within the accounting system. In addition, customers can now view payment status from the portal—a feature previously not available.
With the robust and comprehensive xRM infrastructure agreed upon, we set about focusing on the business process implementation and workspace dashboards for each specific business role so that we could provide PARS with real-time visibility and reporting across its vehicle transport operations.
Results
With EastBanc Technologies’ help, PARS has upped its game.
With our help, PARS can now monitor, map, and track vehicle and fleet movements in real-time with unparalleled accuracy. The benefits to date include:
Unrivaled accuracy and efficiency—“We’re focused on the customer experience and extended relationship management,” said Erik Rasmussen, Director of Outside Operations for PARS. “As part of that we remain dedicated to our core building blocks, especially customer service. Our investment in technology ensures that our team and our customers receive accurate real-time information about the delivery and handling of their vehicles. They can now act on and optimize their efficiency in fleet operations.”
Real-time, dashboard-based visibility—Customer service specialists and regional offices now have real-time, dashboard insight into each stage of the order process. The system also provides vital insight into the customer experience by collecting feedback from the pickup and delivery parties via an integrated survey feature.
Greater efficiencies, less errors—“Being able to display our orders on a map and logically link orders that may be delivering or picking up in nearby locations has delivered greater efficiency. What’s more, the verification capabilities in the system have made it possible to confirm vehicle VINs and vehicle addresses at time of order placement, quickly and accurately,” said Rasmussen.
Enhanced customer insights—The new custom-designed portal provides transparent and reliable access to status updates. No more second guessing where vehicles are located or waiting for reports to load, customers instantly get the data they need and access to their PARSW representative—all in one place.
“Customers have also been very complimentary of their experience with the new customer portal,“ Rasmussen said, “It’s a quantum leap forward in terms of the user interface, navigation ease, and functionality. For example, customers can view a headshot and contact information of their customer service representative—everyone likes to associate a face with a name! Another popular feature is dashboard mapping which allows customers to view the current stored location of their vehicles direct from the portal and easily place out of storage orders.”
Time savings—The system’s data retrieval capabilities result in additional time savings, too. “We can now save all our order information, including vehicle records and contacts. This means big savings for repeat customers because it eliminates the need to recreate vehicle records or pick-up/delivery contacts over and over again,” notes Rasmussen.
Future-proof—The solution easily expands into other business areas without the need to develop additional applications. Anticipated enhancements to the system include additional BI features, integration with PARS’ accounting system, and a mobile application for drivers and PARS customers.
“Working together with EastBanc Technologies, we know that PARS will remain at the leading edge of the technology curve and well ahead of our competition in the transportation space,” says Rasmussen.
To learn how EastBanc Technologies’ experts can help your organization thrive, contact:
Jill DaSilva| Director of Sales Operations | jdasilva@eastbanctech.com
