University of Colorado Case Study

In 1992, a state bill was passed requiring all state agencies to turn over ownership and control of vehicles under one ton to state fleet management. In 1999, the university had chosen AssetWorks fleet management software because of its strong user interface design, ability to integrate with Oracle’s Peoplesoft, ability to interface with state fleet management, and its thorough Y2K preparedness. Transportation Services had just merged two systems —billing and scheduling—into one system and the efficiency gains and reporting functionality had greatly improved operations. In 2005, a bill was passed where the university was given the opportunity to avoid state management of its fleet by proving to the State of Colorado that running its own fleet was more cost effective.

Bryan Flansburg, Director of Transportation Services at the University of Colorado at Boulder, used reports made possible by FleetFocus to testify and answer the state’s hard questions. “We had accurate, up to the minute, highly detailed data from using FleetFocus and we were able to run customised reports that absolutely proved our point,” stated Flansburg. “We demonstrated that we would save $93,000 a year by opting out of state management.” During this process, the school’s Board of Regents posed a similar question, asking if the university should privatise the management of its fleet. Once again, Flansburg relied on FleetFocus reporting functionality to maintain management of its fleet by proving that privatization would cost more and do less.

“A private company wanted to take over just the motor pool,” said Flansburg. “Our data enabled us to clearly calculate that we’d save $340,000 by not giving it to that corporation.” The university utilises the FleetFocus motor pool functionality for both traditional and nontraditional operations, including the dispatching of all the university’s transit buses. The school also uses this market-leading feature as a tool to pay its bus drivers for the hours that they have worked.

The University of Colorado at Boulder has been able to thrive and consistently establish that it saves millions of dollars by managing its own fleet in conjunction with AssetWorks software. The following is just a partial list of the FleetFocus features that benefit Transportation Services the most:

• Ad Hoc Reporting – The flexible, customisable reporting features in FleetFocus enable departments to generate powerful reports. These can then be formatted for easy export to spreadsheets, databases, and other applications.
• Import Capabilities – The university’s fixed shuttle service requires over 200 motor pool trip tickets each week. This process takes approximately 10 minutes. Without the import capabilities it would take over 10 hours to hand input each reservation. The school also uses the import capabilities to conveniently mass print trip tickets each day.
• Uniform Input and Output – Prior to FleetFocus, the University of Colorado at Boulder used a homegrown system filled with hodgepodge entries that generated problematic data. FleetFocus standardises all data input and output to eliminate discrepancies.
• Integrated Preventative Maintenance Verification – FleetFocus work orders incorporate predictive/preventive maintenance data, including multi-level maintenance on single assets and inspections. All of this seamlessly integrates with all aspects of the software system to better track PM throughout an entire lifecycle.
• Product Support – FleetFocus customers have access to an extraordinary amount of product support both from AssetWorks and the community of users. User conferences, regional training sessions, and readily available telephone support all contribute to client success.