The Importance of Flexibility in Your Fleet Management Software

In a previous post we talked about using the customization available within your fleet management software to save time. More than a timesaver, however, the ability of your fleet management software solution to flex and adapt to your specific needs is a critical piece of your overall process.

Software used to be very “cookie-cutter.” Solutions out of the box were cut and dry: this is our software package and this is what it does. If it worked for you and your organization then you didn’t have a problem. However, if the software didn’t work for you, your organization, or your way of doing business then you had to either find another program or adapt your business practices so that they worked with the software.

As you can imagine, neither of these are an ideal solution. Finding another software application meant additional weeks of lost productivity while you met with vendors, tested solutions, and researched options. On the other hand, adapting your business methodologies simply to fit a piece of software meant changing tried and true business practices that may have been in use for years.

The solution to these problems is software flexibility. Flexible software is software written to accomplish as many goals and tasks as possible right out of the box. However, the software can then be customized in order to fit the client’s specific needs.

Functions can be enabled or disabled. Views can be turned on or off. Display can be adjusted to fit a particular corporate image. And, applications can be integrated to ensure that your fleet management software solution blends in with the rest of your operations rather than forcing those operations to adjust to the way the developer thinks you should do business.

This flexibility also allows the software to grow with your organization. If you don’t need a particular module right now but you might in the future, flexible software will have that function ready and waiting for you when you need it.

Software should work for you; not the other way around. Computer applications are no longer a one-size-fits-all solution. Rather, the solutions that each application presents should be customized to your particular environment.

With our particular solution, once you determine whether you need access at a single workstation or across your entire company, the various modules come to life. You are able to manage your entire fleet using those modules that have the biggest impact to your fleet operations. You may use all of them or only some of them but, in the end, you will have created a custom environment that is completely dedicated to the total management of your fleet of vehicles.

Don’t let yourself get boxed into a solution that doesn’t offer you the flexibility to manage your fleet your way. As a fleet manager, you’re an expert at what you do. There is no need to allow a software application to tell you how to do your job.