Volkswagen Pon Financial Services NL has begun the first phase of switching the fleet contracts side of its business, some 75,000 vehicles in total, onto the Miles platform from global software provider, Sofico, following the successful completion of its retail finance project.
Volkswagen Pon Financial Services NL (VWPFS) is a joint venture between Volkswagen Financial Services and Pon Holdings BV in the Netherlands, and currently manages around 48,000 active retail finance contracts, for both private customers and SMEs, and around 75,000 fleet car contracts, including 5,000 trucks and buses.
The business has now completed the successful migration of all its retail contracts to Miles, the hybrid contract management system for fleet and retail users from Sofico, in a project that first went live in November 2015.
The roll-out of Miles was planned in a series of steps, beginning with VWFPS’s third party, white label proposition, Autocash, and then moving on to its captive finance companies.
As a result of the successful completion of that project, three systems have been replaced by one, with one customer view, and Miles now manages the front, mid and back offices for VWPFS.
This has brought in process efficiencies, improved productivity and reduced errors and duplication for users, along with better authorization and approval times for customers. At the same time, there has been an improvement in customer satisfaction scores and an enhancement to the overall customer experience.
During recent months, VWPFS has introduced an array of different B2C finance products for customers, including a new insurance product, not just for VW but across all the brands in its portfolio, including Audi, SEAT, Skoda and Porsche, and their dealers, plus Autocash.
At the same time, a ‘straight-through’ process has been implemented for VWFPS’ Gazelle bicycle business, allowing customers to order and finance a Gazelle bicycle 100% online via straight-through processing. https://www.gazelle.nl/priveplan
Marc Overgoor, Director of Operations at VWFPS, said: “Amongst a number of benefits, Miles has given us the freedom and flexibility to offer a wider range of amalgamated financial products for our customers.
“With the parallel implementation in the third quarter of last year of our new Competence Center Retail & Fleet, which brings business, process and IT knowledge together in one place, we can manage changes in configuration, workflows and products from the business by ourselves,” he said.
“We now plan to use this expertise we have gained through the retail project and extend that to implementing Miles on the fleet contracts side of our business,” he added.
The initial project definition phase of the fleet project began earlier this year with a series of staff workshops to help identify the requirements of users, and the essential areas to include to derive the most benefit from the new system.
This process, which is still ongoing, has included team leaders, key users and the seven-man team in the Competence Centre Retail & Fleet.
Amongst issues they have considered have been products, pricing, workflow, interfaces and communications, to ensure that all vital areas are included where the Miles system can add the greatest value.
Going forward, Miles will also be utilised in the management of a new range of mobility products in line with market developments in the Netherlands, which are increasingly seeing the provision of a portfolio of transport solutions and not just lease cars.
The fleet project is expected to be completed by the autumn of 2018, by which time all 75,000 VWPFS fleet contracts will have been migrated over to Miles.
Ghent-based Sofico, which provides software and consultancy to the automotive finance, leasing, fleet and mobility industry, first launched Miles more than 11 years ago and the platform now manages more than 1.5m vehicles in 20 countries around the world.
Gémar Hompes, Sofico Managing Director, said: “We are delighted with the success that VWPFS has seen with the implementation of Miles on the retail finance side of its business.
“The next logical step is to translate the experience and expertise gained to the larger, fleet side of the business and to introduce some of the productivity and efficiency gains across the fleet that have been experienced in the retail business.
“We believe Miles offers a unique hybrid solution in managing a mixed retail/fleet portfolio, and as such it perfectly meets the needs of VWPFS and its customers,” he added.
