Feb/Mar 2008

Neva software systems

Our impression

m.logistics has been given a preview of a fleet management and vehicle tracking software suite from Neva Software Systems which is unveiled this month. It integrates dynamic planning with tracking and fleet management, and incorporates not just analysis of activities, but also in-depth performance reporting. Ease of integration with other enterprise applications is another core feature.

The aim is to provide comprehensive operational and management information for logistics and distribution businesses incorporating live, dynamic data.

 

Neva can be used for a host of transport business tasks including job planning, fleet management, live vehicle tracking and invoicing. It includes business intelligence tools to help measure and analyse performance levels, all of which can be presented via a traffic-light dashboard-style home screen. The idea is to help managers to focus closely on those aspects of their operation that have the most impact on costs, profits and quality of service, and to do it in real time.

There are four key components: Neva Integrator, Neva JD, Neva Vehicle Database and Neva Navigation. The system is modular, which enhances the appeal not just for smaller companies, but also for those with existing legacy systems that have less functionality than Neva.

Neva JD is the route planning and optimisation module that brings customer, vehicle, driver and tracking data together. It incorporates, customer and job information (including the load size and weight), accounting data on sales and purchase orders, and driver and vehicle information.

The planning is configurable and can accommodate factors such as customer preferences for delivery times. Neva incorporates as standard a single-user licence for Experian's QuickAddress product, which allows accurate automatic completion of address details even where there is limited knowledge of the collection or delivery point.

The driver data includes not just compliance with working time and driver's hours rule, but also driver's rate of pay. Put those together with trip logs, and Neva can automatically generate reports on cost and profitability for each driver in the same way it does for each vehicle.

Neva Integrator is the middleware that links job planning with execution via vehicle tracking data, and also integrates multiple solution elements and legacy systems into Neva JD. Existing planning or fleet management systems can be integrated into Neva, so managers can add that data to the business intelligence reports.

Neva VDB is the customisable vehicle database, which includes GPS-derived mileages for greater accuracy, and capture of electronic data on fuel issued to each vehicle, which is then correlated with the GPS-calculated mileage for the vehicle, eradicating the odometer transcription errors which can render fuel economy figures worthless.

The application is said to accept tracking data from any tracking system already deployed, including Neva's own. The system provides enhanced functionality - for example, using the vehicle icon on the map to display additional information such as destination and requested delivery time. An application for this might be to highlight at a glance opportunities for back-loading that are otherwise difficult or impossible to identity.

Options include Neva Compact, an application for handheld computers that captures signatures at the point of delivery. The data is then transmitted in real time to the Web server. Customers can track their own deliveries, and the delivery company itself can raise invoices immediately after delivery without waiting for the vehicle to return to the depot.

All the Neva modules are interlinked, so that data can be shared among them. For example, data from digital and analogue tachographs can be read into Neva and then used in driver scheduling and management reports. There are dynamic records of tachograph data, vehicle positions, fuel economy, vehicle downtime, service history and so on. All the records are updated in real time, so managers know they have the latest data.

There are no up-front costs. Instead, there is a simple cost structure per vehicle per day, which depends on the level of data supplied. The solution is scaleable, so can grow with the business. Neva can be deployed within the user-company's in-house IT environment as a licensed application or offered as a hosted service on secure servers.

Our verdict