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| Case Study |
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Patni helps a large Vehicle Leasing Solution
Provider leverage cutting edge technology
for a successful commercial product |
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Patni's contribution in developing a well designed, web-based asset tracking system has
tremendously helped improve customer service and cut costs for the customers of a large
Vehicle Leasing Solution provider.
The Client
The client is an industry
leader with one of the
largest, most diverse
fleets - more than
125,000 units -
delivering customerfocused
services
centered on renting,
leasing, selling and
remarketing trailers. The
client operates an
extensive network of
more than 100 branches
in Canada, the United
States and Mexico.
The Challenge
The client conceived a trailer management system that would allow fleets to
pinpoint trailer locations. This system would not only help the client to
provide value added services to its customers, but also improve asset
utilization and operational flexibility.
Not to limit its offering of asset tracking for units leased/rented, the client
was looking at a solution, which would allow customers owning units to track
their assets as well. They looked towards an offshore partner who could
provide them with valuable expertise in this area.
Patni, with its vast experience in web-based applications, partnered the
client on this challenge to design and develop a suitable solution with the
following objectives:
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Allow the ever growing, client customers, to locate trailers
anywhere in North America, including Mexico and Canada |
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Provide location information including street address, city, state,
zip and country |
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Display roadmaps with zoom levels - ranging from street level to
national level |
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Provide daily notifications of trailer location at factory pre-set
time and a customer initiated location request |
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Export data for further analysis |
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Allow owners to locate carriers/private fleets that carried
sensitive or high value loads. |
The Solution
The developed Asset Tracking System uses a dual satellite technology for sending and
receiving information for trailer locations anywhere in North America. The system includes
a transceiver and battery pack, which are mounted together on the nose of the trailer.
Patni designed and delivered the complete functionality of the Asset Tracking System in
five modules, through the much-acclaimed onsite-offshore model of delivery. The five
modules are:
Inventory Management - Enables the client Customer Support team to maintain inventory
of devices. It has features of tracking the complete history of devices, which undergoes
various phases of acceptance/inspection/rejection.
Device Setup - Web-based module wherein the Customer Support team sets up the device
required before the end users can actually start tracking their trailers.
Application Website This web-based interface includes the following features:
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Customers can send a request for information on the location of the trailer,
including street address, city, state, zip and country |
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Customers can track the trailer movement for the last 30 days |
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Data can be exported for further analysis. Roadmaps can be displayed with zoom
levels ranging from street level to national level.
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Customer Asset A web-based interface, in
which details of the customer-owned asset
can be viewed, added and/or modified.
Billing - Consolidates the billing data from
the application database and feeds it to the
central Billing System. The Billing team can
also terminate services or hold any particular service from
billing in that particular billing cycle.
Patni is now handling the maintenance of the Asset Tracking
System and also executing enhancements for providing
additional features to the application.
The Technology
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J2EE on STRUTS framework
using JSP, Servlets, HTML,
JavaScript and XML |
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Oracle 8i |
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IE 5.5(Windows 2000),
IE 6.0(Windows 2000) |
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Windows 2000, Linux. |
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Achievements
The onsite-offshore model of design and delivery has been
spot-on with the commitments of on-time delivery and
first-time-right quality. Patni has thus helped the client
meet their customer commitments.
The Benefits
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Improved the client customer service throughout
North America; better control of assets allows
customers to better manage their operations |
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Tremendous reduction of costs through improved
utilization and productivity of assets |
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Well-designed web interface positions the client
above competition for similar functionality |
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Extended use of the Asset Tracking System across
the client's other businesses. |
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