U.S. FLEET SERVICES SEES COMSHARE MPC AS INTEGRAL PART OF ITS FUTURE DASHBOARD OF KEY BUSINESS INDICATORS

Largest provider of fleet fuel in the US chooses web-based Comshare MPC to handle its budgeting, forecasting, planning and reporting while leveraging its IT investment

“Comshare’s web-architecture, extensive data visualization and analysis capabilities, and compatibility with our Microsoft IT standards were key factors in our decision to adopt the MPC system,” says Howard Abrams, Senior Vice President, Finance, for U.S. Fleet Services. “We believe that the Comshare system will take us to the next level by using key indicators to drive the company to increased profitability and market share. Comshare gives us the ability to create, through our own intranet, a visual dashboard on users’ desktops that will help them focus on what is important to improve operations.”

The Challenge
Founded in 1997, and the largest provider of fleet fuel outsourcing services in the United States, U.S. Fleet Services has approximately 1,500 companies that benefit from the service. The company’s rapid growth from a single truck in Philadelphia, Penn. to a national fleet fueling leader is attributable to the economic advantages of mobile, on-site fueling versus fueling from on-site tanks or at truck stops and retail stations. U.S. Fleet Services’ early years were marked by high growth through acquisition. Although the company secured market share through acquisition, it was not without cost.

“The company really got a jump start back in 1998 when we completed a number of acquisitions,” says Abrams. “With each acquisition, however, we acquired more and more information, and we quickly outgrew our simple spreadsheet system. Anytime we had to make a change in the model, we would have to update every one of these spreadsheets that linked all branch offices together to create a consolidated file. As we grew and added new branches, the number of spreadsheets grew at the same rate. It was extremely tedious, prone to errors and made us a bit nervous about its accuracy.”

The Solution
U.S. Fleet Services’ CFO, Lesley Bachman, and Abrams were determined to find a better solution. They looked at Adaytum, Cognos, and Comshare, and although Abrams admits that all three had attractive features, in the end, Comshare was the best fit. “We were impressed with Comshare’s full functionality as a budgeting tool and were very impressed with its boardroom quality web reporting capabilities. Having that functionality coupled with its architecture, that is, its ability to use a Microsoft platform — relational and OLAP — made it the right fit for us,” confirms Abrams. “Adaytum could run on a Microsoft platform, but we still had issues with its reporting capabilities, and I believe Cognos uses a proprietary database. We wanted to go with technology that we felt was progressive. Comshare has leveraged that technology as we have with our own in-house systems that use Microsoft technologies. Our decision to go with Comshare leverages our IT expertise as well.”

Another deciding factor for U.S. Fleet Services was the rapport Abrams and his team felt with Comshare people. “We were very comfortable that local representatives and consultants from Comshare had the right chemistry to be able to work closely with us on our implementation,” Abrams attests. In the first phase of the implementation, Abrams and Bachman will use the new Comshare system on a day-to-day basis. “We will bring our controller, our database administrator and our IT folks into the loop,” says Abrams. In addition, district and regional managers will be able to pull financial information from the Comshare application. “As the system evolves, I envision our field operations managers using it to help with projections and other key metrics like truck utilization, drivers’ wages and the like. Comshare MPC will replace our existing financial reporting system and allow us to budget analytically by looking at past trends. We anticipate producing financial reports that our field users will get to through our intranet. They’ll be able to hop on the system, do some analysis and some production reporting on the fly. Ultimately, we’d like to share this information with everyone so they know how well their operation is performing at any given time.”

When asked what kind of metrics would be important to account for, Abrams responds, “Key metrics include gallons delivered per day and per truck as well as gross margin per gallon, per day. We do some forecasts that determine earnings before interest depreciation and amortization, for example. Managing that number is important because it’s a good indicator of building shareholder wealth.” According to Abrams, the executive team will also have this system available to them on their desktops, “They will be part of an enterprise-wide system that will share the same financial reporting information that is available to our field. Our executives will be able to monitor key metrics on the web on a day-to-day basis.”

The Benefits
Abrams sees the capabilities of the new Comshare system bringing great value to the field as the most immediate benefit. “Delivering information to our field users via the web is a much faster way to get them the information they need, with more detail available if they choose. And, the new system will provide the information in a very visual way, so that they don’t have to get caught up in the details. Today they receive faxed information they really can’t do much with. It’s not an interactive method of information delivery and it doesn’t allow users to get behind some of the numbers like the Comshare system will. And since they are remote users who travel a great deal, it’s nice to know that they can log on and get updated information in real time. The new system’s ability to automatically highlight exceptions for users will also allow us to focus our attention immediately on where it’s needed most.”

In addition, by removing the complexity of the budgeting process, Abrams wants to evolve from annual budgeting to a rolling forecast on a quarterly and even a monthly basis. “The business changes so rapidly that comparing actuals to budget numbers prepared over six months ago seems silly. With Comshare, we will be able to look at the numbers and reforecast in real time. That will be a first,” confirms Abrams.

About Comshare, Incorporated
Comshare, Incorporated is the leading provider of ebusiness software applications for management planning and control (MPC), which integrates planning, budgeting, forecasting, financial consolidation, management reporting and analysis. Comshare’s applications help companies implement, execute and track progress against their strategies, plans, budgets and performance metrics. In business since 1966, Comshare is one of the top independent software companies, with customers around the world, many of which are Fortune 500 and Financial Times Top 1000 companies. Comshare is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner for Business Intelligence, a Microsoft Data Warehousing Alliance Platinum Partner, an IBM Business Partner, an Oracle Business Alliance Partner, and a Hyperion Alliance Partner. For more information on Comshare, call 1-800-922-7979, send email to info@comshare.com or visit Comshare’s web site at www.comshare.com.

CONTACT:
Sandy Ellinger
Comshare Corporate Communications
734-769-6194

Comshare® is a registered trademark and Comshare MPC™ is a trademark of Comshare, Incorporated. All other trademarks are the property of their respective holders.