Today's Boardroom Issue 2

ISSUE 2 • WWW.TODAYSBOARDROOM.CO.UK

HUMAN Human RESOURCES
Resources
30 theCsuite
obile employees are key to
companies’ international
growth, either by acting
as the spearhead to setting up
operations in new countries, or by
helping transfer skills and innovation.
From supporting global business
expansion to growing a diverse and
inclusive workforce with global
competencies at all levels, talent
mobility has a crucial role to play.
63% of global mobility specialist
respondents to BGRS’ 2017 Talent
Mobility Trends Survey said employee
mobility was now high on their
organisation’s senior leadership agenda.
This might come as no surprise
considering the number of expatriate
and globally mobile employees is
set to surpass one million by 2021,
thanks largely to growth in new smaller
and medium-sized multinationals,
according to a study by market
research company Finnacord, a
division of Aon Inpoint, entitled
Global Multinationals and Corporate
Transferees: A Worldwide Review.
The success or failure of these
companies will largely rest on the
competitiveness and sustainability
of their talent mobility programmes,
so it pays for senior leadership
to lend their support.
As a starting point, we provide
an overview of who globally mobile
employees are these days, plus a step
by step guide to best strategies to
attract and retain a mobile workforce.
According to BGRS, international
assignments are seen as a significant
draw and are often considered a
pathway to career enhancement
for current employees.
For this reason, international
companies are now increasingly
aligning mobility to their talent agenda
in a bid to take a more strategic and
effective approach to attracting,
developing and retaining key talent.
There is also a gradual yet
noticeable shift in the demographic
profile of globally mobile employees.
The traditional profile of the white,
middle-aged, married male is still
very much in play, but it’s increasingly
making way for Millennials.
Soon to represent the largest
segment of the workforce,
Millennials come with a unique set
of expectations that will have a
bearing on attraction, engagement
and retention for companies. BGRS
reports that Millennials are often
drawn to opportunities that include
an international experience.
A small number of companies
included in BGRS’ 2016 report
highlighted the role of global mobility as
a strategic driver of their talent agenda.
They’re sending more Millennials
on international assignment to help
ensure a pipeline of future leaders
with global management experience.
This helps contain assignment
costs too. For example, premiums for
insurance-based products will generally
be lower for younger individuals, plus
it’s less likely that they will be taking
a family with them: another cost
containment aspect – from both an
overall programme perspective but
also because assignment failure is less
likely when a family isn’t being moved
to another country with the employee.
Companies that understand how
mobile employees can be a key asset
are fine-tuning their strategies to
coordinate activities and select the
most suitable approach. Here’s how:
Building the foundations:
n Your unique workforce: A good
starting point is carrying out
an analysis based on a detailed
employee population census.
This will allow companies to
assess where they are located,
their status and expectations,
and to integrate this information
into their overall strategy.
n The environment: Conducting
a geographic and industry
benchmark will shed light on
the employee benefits market,
identify best practice, and assess
how an individual company
performs against competitors.
n Flexibility: Based on previous
analysis, it is possible to identify
solutions based on a company’s
specific requirements by
selecting benefits to match the
needs of different groups of
employees in the same plan.
Global design:
n Governance: Define the balance
between flexibility and cost
control and central coordination
to enhance company operations.
n Measurement: Set up centralised
monitoring, measurement and
reporting systems to assess
effectiveness and return on
investment in mobility plans.
n Support and assistance: Assess
the need for centralised support
in managing different regulatory
systems, across countries or even
within the same country across
industry sectors or regions.
n Business Travel Accident (BTA)
cover: Globally mobile employees
are exposed to several risks when
travelling for their international
assignments. Therefore, medical
and travel insurance services like
emergency medical expenses
and transportation, repatriation,
loss of luggage - just to name
n
some - should be included in
their benefits package.
Pooling: Integrating the
organisation’s expatriate benefits
into a global portfolio will allow
for reduced costs and enhanced
profitability of benefits solutions.
Employee value proposition:
n A multinational plan will ensure
portability of coverage, thereby
eliminating any constraints
when relocating, and enhancing
protection of the employees who
may, for instance, be ensured access
to facilities and care not available
in their host or home country.
n Part of the return on costs
is based on the workforce’s
understanding of their benefits,
which can be measured based
on engagement and retention.
n Finally, it pays for organisations
to detail each employee’s benefits
in an individual statement, thus
providing competitive advantage
with clear messages to explain
to employees the value of
the benefits provided.
HUMAN Human RESOURCES
Resources
If you are interested in know more,
we invite you to read our special
newsletter on Global Mobility or to
contact us at marketing@geb.com
theCsuite 31
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Distribution
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Why global mobility
deserves a senior leadership focus
By Pasquale Gorrasi,
Director of International
Lines at Generali
Employee Benefits
M
The changing face of globally
mobile employees
Best global mobility
strategies step by step
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Contents
Financial Planning
4 Is your customer base rock-solid or built on shifting
sands?
John Nicholas, Coface
Information Technology
6 Defining the Digital CFO
Alice Allegrini, prevero UK
8 Support your Finance team’s love affair
Richard Sampson, Excel4apps
10 Printing money: ho w can procuring the right print
system enhance productivity and help firms to manage
costs?
Phil Jones, Brother UK
14 Accentuating the GDPR positives
Howard Frear, EASY Software
Fleet Management
18 WLTP will shake-up fleet operations
Gil Kelly, Venson Automotive Solutions
20 Data will be the key to navigating the coming disruption
in corporate fleet and travel
Paul Hollick, TMC
24 The rise of data use in fleet management
Stuart Thomas, the AA
Human Resources
27 What should be expected of a global HRIS and Payroll
system?
Nick Southcombe, Frontier Software
30 Why global mobility deserves a senior leadership focus
Pasquale Gorrasi, Generali Employee Benefits
32 Advertisers’ Index
theCsuite 3

Financial Planning
Is your customer base rock-solid
or built on shifting sands?
The high-profile failure of Carillion proves
that we underestimate trade risk at our
peril says Coface’s John Nicholas. He
assesses the strengths and weaknesses of
key markets and sectors, the risks posed
by ongoing political uncertainty and the
possibility of a stock market bubble
T
he UK construction giant’s dramatic collapse
was a stark reminder that no company is
immune from cash flow problems. The business
had just £29m in cash when it went into liquidation
in January and debts of more than £1.5bn.
Despite Carillion issuing three profit warnings in
five months, it is estimated that 30,000 UK suppliers
were left with outstanding invoices and the company’s
failure could trigger a domino effect of bad debt and
cash flow problems across the whole supply chain.
The episode has prompted calls for reform of payment
practices in the construction sector but it also points
to a wider business issue: are companies sufficiently
vigilant about bad debt risk in their sector, especially
where profit margins leave scant room for error?
Of course, informed decision-making requires essential
credit checks on individual customers but CFOs can also
find valuable clues by tracking the ebb and flow of risk in
relevant markets and business sectors. Here are some
of the key trends to be aware of over the coming year.
Country and sector risk assessments
Overall, the past 12 months have seen an increase
in trading activity, with Europe the clear economic
winner. On the other hand there are continued question
marks about the resilience of China and India, while
political risk continues to haunt the UK and US.
On the financial markets, there is a risk that the
exceptionally low volatility during 2017 will not
last. Record highs in stock market indices hint at
overconfidence and a developing bubble. A sudden
shock, such as the aggressive tightening of monetary
policy by the Fed could lead to a correction.
Globally, the pharmaceuticals industry is currently
the lowest-risk sector (in North America, throughout
Europe and Emerging Asia) and corporate insolvencies
are low. The construction sector currently represents
very high risk in Emerging Asia and the Middle East,
while the metals and textiles sectors are high risk
everywhere but Central and Eastern Europe.
Of course, the headlines don’t tell the whole story as
every market has its own distinctive risk profile which is
affected by unique economic, social and political factors.
The following country assessments use an eight-level ranking
from ‘very low’ to ‘extreme’ risk to reflect the probability of a
company default, taking into account macroeconomic, financial
and political data, as well as claims and underwriting data. In
ascending order of risk, these are: A1, A2, A3, A4, B, C, D and
E. The sector risk assessments assign one of four categories
of sector risks: low, medium, high and very high, depending
on factors like turnover, profitability and underwriting data.
Established markets
USA (A2)
Recent tax reforms, Mr Trump’s first major policy victory,
may encourage investment and growth is expected to remain
robust in 2018 while company insolvencies are expected
to be 4% lower. However, the exorbitant cost - estimated
at USD1.4 trillion over ten years - will add to the country’s
significant national debt. In addition, household consumption
is likely to slow because of an increase in the cost of credit.
Politically, the landscape is becoming increasingly
polarised. The President’s domestic difficulties,
typified by the recent budget impasse, could worsen
following mid-term elections later this year.
Mr Trump’s enthusiasm for protectionism has yet to
result in dramatic tariff hikes although it has put a strain on
US relations with its allies, reflected in the abandonment
of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the slow progress of
NAFTA renegotiations and Canada’s recent decision to file
a complaint with the WTO about restrictive practices by its
neighbour. In the worst case scenario, we have predicted
that the imposition of a 20% trade tariff (reciprocated by
other countries) could drive the US economy into recession.
Sector risks: Transport, chemicals and pharmaceuticals
are all rated low risk. High risk sectors are metals, retail and
textiles.
4 theCsuite

Financial Planning
Western Europe
Continental Europe has seen its economy surge ahead
with strong GDP growth within the Eurozone, moderate
inflation and favourable credit conditions (assessments
for Greece and the Netherlands have been upgraded
to B and A1 respectively). Corporate insolvencies are
expected to decline in France (A2), Germany (A1), Spain
(A2) and Italy (A3). However, companies in Germany
and France face increasing supply constraints.
In the UK (A3), manufacturing output may have improved
and inflation has dropped back slightly but domestic
consumption remains weak and retail sales fell over the
important Christmas period. Inevitably the resilience
of the construction sector is now also in question while
political uncertainty continues to affect confidence.
Political risk has diminished in the rest of the Eurozone
but it has not disappeared altogether. The slow progress
of coalition building in Germany, the Catalonia crisis
in Spain and an upcoming election in Italy are causes
for concern, as are the ongoing Brexit negotiations
and the upcoming talks about the EU budget.
Sector risks: The automotive sector is considered low
risk (except in the UK), as is the pharmaceutical industry
and information technology (ICT). High risk sectors in
this region are energy, metals paper and textiles.
Emerging markets
Central and Eastern Europe
The dynamic growth of 2017 is set to slow in 2018 due
to supply constraints: strong wage pressures and labour
shortages will limit the capacity of companies to increase
production. This could spell trouble for companies
which fail to pass on their increased production costs.
Within the region the Czech Republic is considered
lowest risk (A2); Poland, Slovakia and Hungary are
rated A3 while Romania and Bulgaria are A4.
Sector risks: The region’s automotive and pharmaceutical
sectors are rated low risk while construction and
transport sectors are considered high risk.
China (B)
China’s economic performance appears positive with
official growth figures of 6.9% in 2017 but this masks
major vulnerabilities. In particular increasing credit risk
as private debt continues to escalate and leaving many
medium-sized and smaller banks exposed. More restrictive
monetary policies aimed at reducing these risks, as well
as a cooling property sector should mean that growth
decelerates in 2018. Finally, overcapacity in some sectors
(cement, aluminium, chemicals, ship building, etc.) will add
to pressure on profits and limit private investment levels.
Sector risks: Pharmaceuticals and retail are
considered low risk. Construction is rated very high
risk while high risk sectors are automotive, chemicals,
energy, metals, paper, wood and textiles
India (A4)
2017 ended on a downbeat note with a slowdown in
activity partly caused by demonetisation measures.
However, GDP is expected to grow quicker in 2018,
supported by strong performance in the services sector
and the private sector should continue to benefit from
the impact the Modi government’s reforms. Borrowing
costs are high which has hindered companies’ willingness
to borrow money and invest although the Government
is increasing its own infrastructure investment.
Sector risks: Pharmaceuticals are the only
low risk sector. Textiles, metals, energy, retail,
construction and chemicals are high risk sectors,
Brazil (Upgraded to B)
After two years of sharp recession, the economy rebounded
in 2017, with agriculture, industry and services showing
an increase in activity. 2018 will see this gather pace,
driven by a stronger recovery of household consumption
and by exports. However, investments could be affected
by upcoming presidential elections (October 2018).
Sector risks: There are no low risk sectors although
ICT and retail were upgraded to medium risk in 2017.
High risk sectors are transport, textiles, metals, energy,
chemicals, construction, wood, and agrofood.
The uncertain fate of Carillion’s suppliers shows why
nobody can afford to be complacent about trade risk.
However, by staying attuned to fluctuations in key markets,
CFOs should be well-placed to mitigate their companies’
exposure and steer towards a more solid customer base.
Author information
John Nicholas is the Risk Underwriting Director at Coface
in the UK, part of the Coface Group, a global leader in credit
management solutions. Coface’s credit insurance, business
information and collection services enable companies to
protect themselves against the risk of financial default by
their domestic and overseas clients.
Coface’s 2018 Handbook of Country and Sector Risks
and quarterly assessments are available at http://
www.cofaceuk.com/Economic-studies. Its Country Risk
Conferences bring together economists, policy experts,
researchers and business leaders to review major economic
trends and the outlook for the world economy.
theCsuite 5

Information Technology
Defining the Digital CFO
From CPM systems to
business intelligence,
information technology is
reshaping the role of the
chief financial officer. But
what makes a CFO truly
‘digital’? Alice Allegrini
of prevero UK explains
T
he rapid evolution of
information technology has
been transforming what senior
financial executives do for more than
a decade, re-shaping their working
lives while fuelling demands for the
office of finance to add more value.
In an increasingly digital world,
IT has become so deeply integrated
with the finance function, one could
argue that they are no longer separate
items. Finance is IT, and vice versa.
But how well adapted are today’s
CFOs and FDs for the new digital
reality? It’s a question worth asking. If
integrated poorly, technology wastes
budget and effort, obscures visibility
of business risks, and makes the
company less nimble than competitors.
When integrated properly, IT
connects finance with other corporate
functions, improves transparency and
collaboration, and provides insights
that inform strategic decisions.
What makes a CFO digital?
The digital CFO needs to stay curious
and continually keep abreast of
the latest advances in finance and
related technologies like business
intelligence and artificial intelligence.
With IT strategy now a core
component of growth, any successful
office of finance is going to find
itself measured on how well it
applies technologies like automation,
predictive analytics, and data
visualisation. The expectation
that finance teams should identify
emerging business opportunities,
drive cost efficiencies, and raise
the red flag when a business risk
rears its head is only going to rise.
Using predictive analytics, for
example, an insurance website’s finance
team can forecast online sales results
by modelling probable outcomes with
real-time information, rather than
relying on historical data. That means
more accurate revenue predictions
based on today’s changing variables and
indicators of current demand, instead
of previous results or prior-year trends.
Digital means data-driven
Becoming a Digital CFO also means
becoming a data scientist. Finance
teams already have shedloads
of data at their fingertips. Now
they must apply their skills of due
diligence to selecting amongst the
growing tools and techniques for
collecting, storing, and analysing it.
The challenge is to transform
business data into actionable insights
that can help shape their organisation’s
response to emerging business models,
and a more digitally oriented economy.
A truly digital CFO will also assume the
leadership role in mapping the issues
that executives want technologies like
big data and analytics to address. They
then have to decide how to gather and
warehouse the data in a manner that
allows it to be used across multiple
applications, and shared across the
organisation as a single source of truth.
6 theCsuite

Information Technology
The benefits of going digital
Many CFOs are employing ERP and CPM
technology to automate core business
processes like the monthly close.
These and other powerful digital tools
can reduce close times and improve
finance’s ability to capture contextual
information that affect results.
Other benefits of going digital
include:
n Deeper insights. Digital tools such
as predictive analytics, dashboards
and AI can surface information
about how the business can improve
results or lower costs. Given the
rising demand for CFOs to become
proactive advisors to the business,
this is arguably the area where going
digital will have the greatest impact.
n Improved Planning, Budgeting and
Forecasting. In a shifting business
and geopolitical environment, plans
and forecasts can be obsolete as
soon as they’re approved. Digital
tools can provide the flexibility and
responsiveness needed to revise
and make course corrections as
soon as new information arises.
n Error-free data entry. Machines are
less error-prone than humans and
they don’t need sleep. Automation
and machine learning can reduce
error rates associated with
rules-based tasks, and reduce the
amount of manual work required.
n Data-driven Decision Making. With
access to real-time data, finance
teams can analyse patterns and
respond more quickly to changes
in the marketplace. Predictive
analytics and machine learning can
reveal new or unexpected drivers
affecting business performance.
Driving a new finance
skills agenda
Another area defining the digital CFO
is his or her ability to help actualise
company strategy based on data-driven
insights. Boards are already calling
on CFOs and FDs to get beyond the
role of chief bean counter and add
value as a strategic adviser, helping
to grow the organization. As that
expectation intensifies, CFOs will
need to demonstrate substantive
technological nous as they invest
in and utilise digital tools.
From a career development
standpoint, that means recruiting and
professional development priorities
that aim for more than accounting and
finance qualifications and experience.
Familiarity with the latest software
tools like corporate performance
management and business intelligence,
and an understanding of how data
can underpin business decisions,
must become job requirements
rather than nice-to-have’s.
As business becomes more digital,
CFOs can expect their role to do the
same. Understanding how IT can be
applied to make their organisations
more efficient and responsive to
market changes is becoming essential.
The tipping point for mass adoption
of digital finance tools and datadriven
decision making has arrived.
It’s time for today’s finance leaders
to take a hard look at their digital
capabilities and start charting the
digital course for their careers.
Author information
Alice Allegrini, Managing Director,
prevero UK
Alice Allegrini leads the prevero
UK operation. She has over 20
years’ experience with software
solutions for the Office of Finance
working in for both advisory
and software companies. Prior
to prevero, Alice was Head of
Sales and Marketing for Tagetik
UK, Account Manager at SAP
Italy and Project Leader at
BGP Management Consulting
with specialisation in designing
management account models and
cash flow planning models deployed
onto CPM and ERP solutions. In
1996 Alice graduated with honours
in Business Administration at Luigi
Bocconi University in Milan.
theCsuite 7

Information Technology
Support your Finance team’s love affair
How new technologies are enabling Finance teams to embrace and
legitimise their use of Microsoft Excel
By Richard Sampson,
Managing Director, Europe, Excel4apps
Accountants first love……
Pretty much everyone has some sort of relationship with
Microsoft Excel. It is found in just about every business from
the largest multi-national to the smallest one-man start-up.
With Microsoft citing 1.2bn users of its Office application 1 , all
of whom have access to Excel, it is arguably the only software
package on the planet that everyone has an opinion on. There
is genuine warmth and goodwill with actual appreciation
societies in most countries in the world, artists who use
Excel as their canvas and even an Excel world championship.
For many people, especially those working in Finance, it
remains a passion and a love, not to mention a necessity.
No matter how sophisticated other software and
Business Intelligence (BI) applications become based
on sheer volume of users and accountant affection,
Excel remains the top dog for analysis, reporting,
managing data and ultimately decision making.
Software loathed by IT!
In many organisations, that good-will however seemingly
stops at the door of IT. Gartner’s John Hagerty summed
up an IT department’s frustration at the Gartner
Business Intelligence Summit 2 : “… proliferation of
Excel for BI uses can be ‘threatening’ to IT departments
because they see it as a recipe for internal chaos…”
Excel is perceived as a breeding ground for bad
business practices, which in turn results in poor
data management practices. Any decisions made
on this basis can easily be flawed, introducing unnecessary
business risk via a spreadsheet.
Put simply, the issue is one of Data Governance. Finance, IT
and indeed the wider business have historically spent many
millions of pounds on enterprise-wide software packages,
ensuring that the business is run with a single data set that
represents faithfully how business has been conducted
– right from customer quotation, through procurement,
manufacturing and sale. This of course is universally known as
the ‘Single Version of the Truth’. In many larger organisations,
IT complete the cycle by taking the data into Data
Warehouses, to maintain core system performance. From the
Data Warehouse, corporate information can then be extracted.
So, why is there still the need for Excel?
If an organisation has invested in the combined might
of an ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system and
data warehouse, why is there the need for Excel? The
answer is to do fundamentally with reporting.
The simple answer is that businesses are forever changing
and whilst the most frequently run reports required for
statutory compliance can be catered for using standard
pre-built templates, there is a growing requirement to access
more and more data. At one end of the spectrum, these
ad-hoc reports provide answers and justification to simple
business questions that occur daily, but at the other end,
these reports support the business as it looks for an edge in
an increasingly competitive world. The Finance function has
become the guardians of this information, so have a growing
role in supporting the business with proactive decision making
preferred to just “reporting on the numbers”. What many
C-level executives fail to appreciate however, is that while
their need for information becomes broader and more time
sensitive, their teams’ ability to extract information and build
meaningful reports to answer their questions, is severely
hampered by internal processes and software complexity.
Indeed, the systems that were implemented to
simplify business process actually add to the problem.
When the business needs information in hours, and
the formalised process to request a report to be built
runs into weeks, the disconnect is severe. The solution
is more often than not our old ‘friend’ Excel.
Excels’ ‘bad practices’ for reporting
Data governance remains key in ensuring that data is
consistent and auditable. Unfortunately, poor data
management practices are commonplace where Excel is
used. While the new GDPR will drive controls around personal
information, many organisations still don’t manage their own
management information effectively. Good practices are
largely down to user awareness and training which is so often
neglected in organisations and needs better prioritisation.
8 theCsuite

Information Technology
Documentation rarely matches the efforts to create the
report or the numerous steps necessary in its creation.
Undocumented reports leave a business with dependency
on key individuals and unrepeatable, unreliable processes.
Where data is stored locally on a PC and subsequently
manipulated, it is quickly out-of-date and no longer
represents the ‘Single Version of Truth’ on the ERP system;
rather it represents its own mini version of the truth. Never
will the two versions align and spreadsheet calculation
errors can further compound matters. Questions asked of
this data will be at best a guess, and for auditors represents
a serious risk to the companies reporting integrity and
serious fines can result. A poor audit report makes everyone
look bad. With such scope for error, it is little wonder why
IT would consider implementing anything to replace Excel.
So, why the love affair?
Some IT teams have addressed the needs of the business
community by providing a super-flexible, dedicated report
writing team to service Finance teams to help stem the
tide. This is however a high-cost approach using skilled
IT professionals to fill the reporting gap which still has
a reasonable chance of falling short of the mark.
Removing Excel has proven to be a pipe-dream for IT. Its
availability on users’ desktops and usability make it the
logical choice again and again. It is simply the go-to tool for
so many people. Coupled with the fact that virtually every
other business software packages’ most used function
is the ‘Export-to-Excel’ button, it is little wonder that its
use abounds. Users can have all the data that they want in
Excel where ‘it just needs a little tweaking here and there…’.
For Finance, there is simply no better way of manipulating
data to give the business the information it needs.
Make love, not war – how you can embrace Excel?
Acceptance of something does not mean anarchy.
Excel must be part of the reporting landscape, so
how can we embrace its usage and maximise the
productivity and equally minimise the risk?
One approach companies have used is ‘sharing’
technology such as SharePoint that allows users to
share Excel reports to track changes and version control.
This of course goes some way to manage the inherent
risk posed by multiple spreadsheet versions.
Other BI vendors have adopted a co-existence strategy
so that Excel is seen as the end user front-end and
the data transformation engine extracts the data into
another Business Warehouse cube. The issue here is
that the data is only as ‘fresh’ as the last time the data
was extracted. And of course finance remain beholden
to IT to write and change dimensions of the cube. This
has proved a successful approach for many companies
but does not manage the Excel do-it-yourself culture.
Another approach is to bring your ERP system closer to
Excel. Simple plug-in applications now allow you to connect
the ERP directly to Excel. Easily refreshable templates can
be created that read your live ERP data in real-time and
allow for drill down to the source data, giving both finance
teams and IT a win-win scenario. The templates operate
using the ERP authorisation boundaries so Sarbanes-
Oxley compliance guidelines are preserved. The Single
Version of the Truth remains intact as well as being the
undisputed common reference point. In addition, even the
auditors are kept happy as they can explore the underlying
documents that support the summarised figures easily.
What’s the upside to loving Excel?
By embracing Excel, end-users are more easily able to
self-serve their reporting needs without the need for IT
assistance. With the time saved by eliminating the repetition
of data transformation and manipulation steps, users can
focus on analysing the data and feeding back key insights
to the business. This further enhances the value that a
progressive Finance department can deliver. They revert back
to being data analysts and away from being data preparers.
They transform from “Finance sweat-shops” working long
hours at every month end into genuine Business Partners.
IT can be sure that data transformations are repeatable
by using refreshable templates. With the by-product of
fewer ad-hoc requests for IT-built reports, resources can
now be better applied to the truly transformational projects
– where IT really add extra benefit to the business.
Given that Excel is going nowhere, businesses and CFO’s
especially do have opportunities to enhance its usage. Better
controls created by documented business processes, training,
or by leveraging new technologies will empower users to
get back to doing what they’re good at and delivering valueadd
information back into the business. Take the lead from
your Finance teams and fall in love with Excel again!
References
2. Quote from the http://searchbusinessanalytics.techtarget.
1. 1.2bn users of Microsoft Office https://www.windowscentral.com/there-arenow-12-billion-office-users-60-million-office-365-commercial-customers
com/news/2240018042/Gartner-BI-Summit-Wave-thewhite-flag-on-using-Excel-for-business-intelligence
Further information
Contact richard.sampson@excel4apps.com or connect at
https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardsampson/
theCsuite 9

Information Technology
Printing money: how can procuring the right print system
enhance productivity and help firms to manage costs?
Phil Jones MBE, managing
director at business
technology solutions
provider Brother UK,
discusses how replacing
legacy print systems with
a managed print service
can underpin productivity
in the workplace, and
help organisations
to manage costs
More than two thirds of business
leaders think employees
spend one or two hours per
week attending to faulty printers.
Meanwhile, a fifth of senior leaders
believe that solving printer problems
is one of the top things wasting
employee time (YouGov, 2017).
This suggests that Britain’s
workforce is wasting years’ worth of
productive, billable time each week,
struggling to get documents from
screen to paper. It’s another huge
piece in the UK’s productivity puzzle.
Recent ONS figures suggest that
the growth in UK workers’ productivity
over the past decade was the worst
since the 1820s and the current
level of output is only marginally
above pre- financial crisis levels.
Despite advancements in things like
broadband speeds and faster computer
processing power, there are still issues
that are slowing workers down.
Common printing issues, which can
amount to large losses in efficiency, are
easy to miss after wrongly becoming
part of the average working day. Plus,
old systems can generally be expensive
to run and costly to manage. By
overlooking the impact that replacing
a legacy print system could bring to a
firm, it could be undermining efforts
to boost workforce productivity
through other means, such as investing
in rewards and training staff.
So, what are the key ways in which
printers can be managed, as part of a
wider IT infrastructure, to help business
leaders achieve little gains that will help
them to reap the greater rewards of an
efficient and productive workforce –
and generally improve the bottom line?
Outsource your printer
maintenance through a
managed print service
Managed Print Services (MPS) are
printer leasing programmes offered
by solutions providers to help
organisations manage multi-function
printers. They can typically help
companies to reduce costs, while
improving efficiency and productivity.
A key benefit to MPS is how it can
help organisations to outsource the
monitoring of print systems. This helps
firms to keep on top of print repairs
before any downtime causes disruption,
and it can also help to manage costs too.
A sporadic approach to an
organisation’s print setup can lead
to inefficiencies in a number of
areas. First and foremost, there
are maintenance costs. Maintaining
individual devices one at a time is
costlier than having an automated,
cloud-based system for doing so.
MPS often connects all devices
to one monitoring system to ensure
just-in-time delivery of replacement
toners and repairs. This makes better
use of economies of scale by allowing
companies to bulk buy supplies at
a discount. It also reduces the cost
associated with stockpiling unused
10 theCsuite

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12 theCsuite

Information Technology
inventory. This also helps to enhance
efficiency by reducing the admin
time of ordering print consumables,
and it decreases the interruption
of a business’s operations.
Get print systems that solve
departmental pain points
Maximising printer up-time is important
for underpinning productivity, but
businesses also need to make sure
that each printer in an office solves
departmental pain points. The printing
needs of different departments
within an organisation will vary. For
example, the finance team may only
need to print in black and white for
invoices and data sheets, whereas the
marketing department may need full
colour for advertising design proofs.
After an initial assessment of an
organisation’s current and future needs,
the MPS provider should be able to
recommend a tailored programme for
these departments. This might also
include printing from mobile devices
or off-site, for example, or the need to
print special types of document sizes
and formats which you use regularly.
Printers that have a touchscreen
interface can also be customised
by programming time-saving task
shortcuts, making routine printing
or scanning easier for employees.
Consider leasing printers to
reduce capital expenditure
and improve cash flow
The cost of purchasing an entire fleet
of devices can be daunting, but MPS can
typically offer flexible payment options.
Pay-per-page print models with leased
hardware are perfect for companies
who recoil at the idea of a huge one-off
bill for hardware every five to ten years.
Plus, IT managers can enjoy real-time
usage dashboards and forecasting
tools for the businesses network of
devices. This leaves firms in a better
position to manage print budgets,
with long term visibility of expenses
reducing the likeliness of hidden costs.
Boosting productivity and
managing costs without MPS
MPS can help to relieve the headache
that print systems can create for a
firm. But it isn’t the only solution to
boosting productivity and managing
costs through print systems.
Mobile technology, including mobile
printers and scanners, can be critical
in helping businesses to close deals
in the field, rather than having to wait
for paperwork and contracts to be
coordinated centrally, and there are
also obvious efficiency benefits as
employees need to spend less time
on the road travelling back to HQ.
Most new printer models, be it
desktop or mobile, are more energyefficient,
faster to use and less costly
to run. Printers can draw a huge amount
of power when in use, but even in
standby mode some printers are using
a lot of electricity. The worst offenders
can cost you 0.12p per hour just to do
nothing. That might not sound like a
lot, but a printer like this in sleep mode
would cost £10.50 a year to do nothing.
Newer models can help to curb this cost.
A piece of the puzzle
New, tailored print systems won’t
single-handedly solve the UK’s
productivity puzzle. But, it’s clear to
see how new devices and MPS can
help workforces to waste less time
attending to common printer problems.
The hours saved can be invested into
serving clients, winning new business
and ultimately maximising output.
Further information
Brother UK is a business technology
solutions provider, which specialises
in providing secure, efficient and costeffective
print and scan solutions for
businesses across a range of sectors.
The company provides scalable
managed print services (MPS) for
organisations small and large. Brother
UK can help firms to identify how
much they’re printing and provide
a built-for-purpose service with a
payment plan to suit.
Find out how a Brother MPS
solution is helping one of the largest
independent pharmacy chains in
Europe to achieve 99% uptime for
printers; and to save £100,000 per
year at: www.brother.co.uk/businesssolutions/mps
theCsuite 13

Information Technology
Accentuating the
GDPR positives
GDPR has arrived and there
are some well-publicised
negative elements to the
regulation, but there are
also some positives to
highlight as well, says EASY
Software’s Howard Frear
G
DPR is most significant piece
of compliance regulation
in the UK since the Data
Protection Act of 1998 and one
that will impact the UK in multiple
ways, from digital consumer and
citizen, SME and large enterprise,
government and the Third Sector alike.
The problem is that the conversation
that has taken place around GDPR has
been, in the main, largely simplistic
and negative: ‘The fines are huge,’
‘No-one’s done any work on it - it will
be a disaster!’, ‘It’s all about punishing
me as a brand for the smallest data
breach’, are the recurrent themes.
The problem with all the negativity
is that it stops business professionals
engaging properly with the GDPR
issues. There is a penalty element
in GDPR of course – it was designed
to protect individual consumers
if organisations are found to be
non-compliant, and in essence the
regulation was drawn up to help.
Let’s get away from the negative
for a change, however, and look at the
positives of GDPR – what it can unlock
for brands if it is approached in the right
way, and with some thought as to how it
can actually be turned to an advantage.
Investing in your
relationship with your
customers and suppliers
A fundamental point to grasp with
GDPR is the double opt-in – it’s about
confirming with your customers exactly
what data they want held on them.
Therefore, it represents an opportunity
to engage with the market by reaching
out and opening a dialogue with your
customers. In so doing, firms can
provide reassurance, but also make
explicit what the relationship means
to them and what value they place on
it. Along the way, there is a once-in-alifetime
opportunity to find out why
your best customers keep buying – and
what would make them buy more.
Fully engage with suppliers
to open up opportunity
There is also a double opt-in for
the supply chain, as both brands
and their business partners have to
be clear about what data they hold
about each other, and why – which
offers the opportunity to open up
yet more opportunity. Is information
being exchanged in the right way?
How could that transfer be achieved
more efficiently? GDPR represents
a chance to meet everyone’s
commitments while also throwing light
on the shape of the relationship.
Review contracts to
find better deals
Best practice shows that poor contract
discipline wastes valuable business
opportunity. That’s useful as in one way
GDPR is all about contracts, because
it’s about relationships and obligations.
Firms need to take the opportunity to
go back and vet these commitments
with a fine tooth-comb: what clauses
could cause an organisation problems
with a regulator? Is everything in good
order when it comes to processing
and exchanging each other’s (and the
customer’s) data? What processes
need sharpening – such as workflows
that will help firms spot gaps and ways
to improve that will deliver increased
efficiency and/or help drive down cost.
Effective marketing automation
GDPR may be the best reason to
automate core functions you still
haven’t managed to address. After
all, organisations want to achieve
bulletproof processes and secure
ways of working that ensure data
is always as safe and trackable as
possible. GDPR work can provide
the spur to look into what tools and
processes could drive as much internal
automation as needed, perhaps
taking the shape of sharp, data-driven
ways of working with customers and
14 theCsuite

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PP17PA004

Information Technology
performing marketing and contact outreach. The result
of putting real science behind this activity is compliance
levels that will placate even the harshest regulator – and
customers delighted by tight, transparent communications.
Increase internal compliance knowledge
GDPR is not all about systems and technology, it’s as much
about how people inside an organisation treat customer
data and personal and corporate information. Its May
2018 introduction is a perfect opportunity to mount a
proper data hygiene education programme, looking to
verify and formally qualify designated data experts. The
aim: make the team not just competent about the new
disciplines expected of them, but exceptionally skilled
at them. Set the bar high, as that’s the way to ensure the
standard people settle on will be more than adequate.
Review system security – and
introduce ‘privacy by design’
GDPR is also a chance for managers to conduct a root-andbranch
look at how their organisations manage security. Our
recent national experience with ransomware and more and
more evidence of state actor probing of our utility networks
shows that GDPR is far from the only change factor at work
with protecting information; these are very challenging times
all round. Your systems may need bolstering and support via
best-of-breed security, anti-virus and password protection.
Replace outdated and possibly insecure systems
The WannaCry crisis showed that reliance on outdated
technology could be leaving an open door to negative
intrusions and data challenges. So address those
vulnerabilities as part of your GDPR initiatives via a
system-wide check on what software and hardware
is past its sell-by date, no longer supported by the
vendor, no longer functional and otherwise a drag on
your agility. Legacy IT needs to be checked to ensure it’s
still making a positive contribution to the business.
Discard data no longer used or fit for purpose
Storing anything you don’t need is a waste of money.
Worse, it could end up as a potential threat in the GDPR
universe with the new ‘right to be forgotten’ clause. Grasp
the nettle and scrutinise HR policies and procedures to
scour all the employee data that should no longer be on
the premises for a start. It’s also going to be a valuable
reason to bed down the archival and retrieval disciplines
that a modern business requires – namely fully legally
compliant processes that use resources efficiently, and
guarantee digital access to the information that counts.
Use the role of DPO to focus on strategic goals
GDPR has the new concept of the ‘Data Protection Officer’
(DPO). If you are an organisation processing large volumes of
personal data, or handling any of the special data categories
of data, or are a Public Sector body, this role will be a legal
requirement. This DPO business should not be viewed as a
burden, however. Instead, work with this individual or team
to position them as a strategic corporate and organisational
resource. DPOs should be envisaged internally as a strategic
risk assessment specialist, and need to have a voice on
all steering groups as the voice of data responsibility, to
help the C-suite keep on top of its obligations, and as a
spur to making data professionalism a brand asset.
Putting this together, the real way to understand GDPR
is as opportunity. Suppliers, customers and have to talk to
each other, and a full dialogue around it is the ideal way to
achieve full adherence to the law, on deadline and position
your organisation for a successful new era of data excellence.
Make data your differentiator
At the end of this year, we’ll witness the first
headlines of GDPR fines and data breaches that
will make DPA related penalties seem modest. No
organisation wants to be in that headline bracket.
Flip it around however and how about being
able to state that you are the safest organisation
in your market when it comes to data?
How valuable for a brand to be able to say that its
metrics for staff handling of customer information are
the best in the business? The surprising and optimistic
reality about the impact of GDPR is that there is real
competitive advantage out there for you in terms of
being a better supplier, supply chain leader and chosen
partner. Seize the opportunity – all it takes is serious
GDPR work and investment now that will pay off if you
approach GDPR as a way to learn, improve and thrive.
Author information
Howard Frear is Director of Sales & Marketing at EASY
SOFTWARE UK (www.easysoftware.co.uk)
Howard Frear has been at the forefront of major trends
in the software industry for close to 18 years. He joined
EASY SOFTWARE in 2001 and during that time he has
been instrumental in developing and overseeing a highly
successful strategic partnership with SAP, a relationship
that today accounts for more than 50% of EASY UK’s
software sales.
theCsuite 17

Fleet Management
WLTP will shake-up
fleet operations
By Gil Kelly, operations director,
Venson Automotive Solutions
B
usinesses and company car drivers are
facing potentially the biggest shake-up in
vehicle decision-making since the 2002
introduction of a benefit-in-kind tax system based
on vehicle carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.
Subsequently all motoring-related taxes have a CO2
base – Vehicle Excise Duty and capital allowances as
well as company car tax, which also triggers employer
Class 1A National Insurance contributions – and while
that is not going to change, the arrival of the Worldwide
harmonised Light vehicles Test Procedure (WLTP)
will have a “seismic” impact on fleet operations.
The UK government has said that it will introduce a
motoring tax system based on WLTP CO2 values in April
2020. Until then the current system remains in place.
During the current ‘transitional period’ vehicles tested to
WLTP protocols (see panel) then see the resulting figures
‘converted’ into a so-called NEDC-correlated value using
a European Commission-produced mathematical tool.
It had been anticipated by the motor industry that NEDCcorrelated
figures would be tax neutral, but the reality has
proved to be somewhat different. Figures from manufacturers
that have published information to date suggest an average
CO2 increase of around 10% on average or 10-15g/km.
Fuel economy is lower, but with it claimed to be more
reflective of ‘real-world’ driving fuel bills, taken at face
value, are unlikely to be much, if any different from today.
Meanwhile, based on 1,000 registered units from six
manufacturers Autovista Group, data providers to vehicle
manufacturers, leasing companies and other organisations,
has calculated increases in CO2 from NEDC to WLTP of
25% with a range of 4%-34% depending on vehicle.
Consequently, taken at face value, with benefitin-kind
tax rates already up in 2018/19 - along with
those for Vehicle Excise Duty – and further rises due
in 2019/20, the cost to businesses and company
car drivers could be a significant tax hike.
Vehicle manufacturers are already responding to the
changed world caused by WLTP by managing the negative
impact of CO2 emissions with a range of actions that include:
n The withdrawal of specific engines or
engine and option configurations
n The re-engineering of vehicles to improve emissions
and MPG causing the interruption of model production
n Simplification of complex ranges
Winners, or at least vehicles that will potentially suffer
the least under the transitional WLTP/NEDC-correlated
regime, are where manufacturers have a product cycle
in which they have been able to launch new models
and use innovative technologies, new aerodynamic
features and weight-reducing techniques to limit CO2
emission rises and fuel economy reductions. However,
where manufacturers have been forced to homologate
existing models to WLTP protocols a straightforward
conversion from NEDC can dramatically impact on both
CO2 emissions – and thus the tax burden – and MPG.
What is absolutely certain is that if vehicle CO2 figures
have not been influential in the compilation of company car
policies to date they are now critical with the arrival of WLTP.
The big unknown is what will happen with vehiclerelated
taxation from April 2020. Industry organisations in
conversation with government say it does not see WLTP as a
tax-raising development. As a result, there is some hope that
changes in the way vehicles are tested should not be seen
as a mechanism for raising more tax. Consequently, there
will have to be a wholesale re-evaluation of tax thresholds
– benefit-in-kind tax, Vehicle Excise Duty and capital
allowances – to avoid a hugely expensive wholesale tax hike.
That is leaving fleet decision-makers completely
in the dark and could potentially see:
n Fleets extending current vehicle replacement cycles until
the government confirms its taxation plans post-2020
n Employees due to change their company car opting
to take a cash alternative instead fearful of facing
a significant tax rise. That has the further effect of
employees moving into a largely unregulated ‘grey fleet’
18 theCsuite

Fleet Management
n
WLTP defined
The Worldwide harmonised Light vehicles Test Procedure
(WLTP) is the new more transparent protocol for
producing official carbon dioxide (CO2) emission and MPG
figures for cars and light vans.
Claimed to be more representative of ‘real-world’
driving than the outdated New European Driving Cycle
(NEDC) vehicle testing procedure, it has been billed as
“the world’s toughest-ever emissions standard”.
Consequently, the impact of WLTP testing in simple
terms is that published car and van CO2 figures will be
higher and MPG figures will be lower than under NEDC.
Experts have suggested that CO2 emissions on a carby-car
basis will increase by around 20% with MPG
reducing by a similar amount.
WLTP is being introduced in a series of phases:
n All new car and lighter van models (Class I up to
1305kgs) requiring type approval have been tested
under WLTP rules since September 2017
n All cars and lighter vans (Class I up to 1305kgs) must
be tested under WLTP rules from September 2018
n New types of heavier vans (N1 Class II 1305-1760kgs
and III above 1760kgs) must be tested under WLTP
rules from September 2018
n All heavier vans (N1 Class II 1305-1760kgs and III
above 1760kgs) must be tested under WLTP rules
from September 2019.
WLTP remains, like the NEDC system, a laboratorybased
test. As a result, the related Real Driving
Emissions (RDE) test has also been developed. RDE
does not measure CO2 emissions, but it does measure
emission levels of nitrogen oxides (NOx), and particle
numbers (PN) via a series of on-road tests in ‘real
driving’ conditions.
RDE is also being introduced in two phases with the
key dates being the implementation of RDE2 by January
2020 for all new models and by January 2021 for all
new vehicles. That’s because RDE2 is particularly
relevant to diesel cars as in April 2018 the 3% company
car tax diesel supplement increased to 4% and a new
Vehicle Excise Duty supplement applicable to all new
first registered diesel cars was introduced for those
models that failed to meet the standard. There are none
currently on sale.
environment, which adds its own complications to fleet
management notably from a duty of care perspective.
New employees to a business and entitled to a
company car as part of their remuneration package
opting for cash for similar reasons fearful that the
benefit-in-kind tax burden will be too great.
essential to analyse the exact impact of new CO2 values
on a car-by-car basis and potentially raise the limits – and
thus costs – or keep limits unchanged and use WLTP/NEDCcorrelated
figures as an opportunity to toughen the rules.
What does seem absolutely certain is that plug-in
hybrid and zero emission cars will be least affected by
the arrival of WLTP, while there have also been reports
that the reassessment of CO2 emissions will be greater
for petrol-powered vehicles than those powered by
diesel – although fleet decision-makers should look at
that on an individual car-by-car basis. Similarly, it does
not mean the end-of-the-road for diesel company cars,
despite the tax burden rising until RDE2 models arrive.
Nevertheless, the days of businesses having an alldiesel
policy are almost certainly over with a blended
approach incorporating zero emission electric, plug-in
hybrid, hybrid, petrol and diesel cars expected to be
widely adopted – with the latter powertrain remaining
the most efficient for high-mileage drivers.
What’s more, not only is CO2 data vital, but those ‘must have’
optional extras beloved of many company car drivers may
be confined to the dustbin come April 2020. That’s because,
from that date, for the first time, options will be included in
the CO2/MPG testing process. The impact will, again, be huge,
but manufacturers and the industry at large are still assessing
how to get to grips with that change…the basis for another
column and further fleet decision-maker headaches.
Further information
So what should fleet decision-makers do now?
n Keep company car drivers informed as to exactly what
is happening with the introduction of WLTP/RDE
n Regularly review company car and van choice
lists and keep firmly abreast of manufacturers’
data and new model introduction timetables.
Many fleets include a CO2 cap on their company car choice
lists – additionally individual car grade levels may also have
a CO2 limit – so review is critical as many company cars may
‘fall out’ of schemes due to emission increases. That could
result in a reduced vehicle choice for employees, but it is
Venson Automotive Solutions is a leading independent fleet
management specialist working with organisations across
all public, private, voluntary and emergency sectors. The
company offers a complete range of services to suit all its
customers’ needs, including: Fleet policy advice, funding,
vehicle acquisition and disposal, ‘green’ fleet adoption,
vehicle maintenance and servicing, vehicle rental, accident
management, duty of care, vehicle workshop management
and vehicle conversion services. For further information
telephone 08444 99 1402, email sales@venson.com go to
http://www.venson.com.
theCsuite 19

Fleet Management
Data will be the key to navigating the
coming disruption in corporate fleet and travel
By Paul Hollick, managing director at TMC
I
t has become almost impossible to avoid media
coverage of self-driving vehicles and the coming
revolution in transportation. Both KPMG and
PwC recently issued reports predicting radical changes
in mobility by 2030. And ReThinkX, a US think-tank,
forecasts that 90% of drivers will abandon car ownership
for ‘Mobility as a Service’ (MaaS) over the next 12 years.
While these outcomes are theoretically achievable, they are
only marginally relevant to the activity of managing business
mobility and logistics today. Every business leader needs to
keep one eye on the future, but his or her immediate job is to
make the best use of available tools, resources and thinking.
Whether autonomous vehicles will banish jams tomorrow,
or in 10, 20 or 50 years’ time is a moot point. Around 95% of
today’s business vehicles still feature conventional internal
combustion engines. Most run on diesel (which, incidentally,
hit its highest price at the pumps in three years in January
2018). They need drivers. Drivers need to be paid a salary and
reimbursed for fuel, mileage, accommodation and subsistence
expenses whilst on the road. Changes in companies’ transport
and travel processes will be evolutionary, not revolutionary.
Evolution can occur rapidly under the right
conditions, of course, and it’s happening now in business
travel and logistics. The catalyst is the explosive
growth in the availability of ‘mobility data’.
‘
“An organisation’s ability to learn, and
translate that learning into action
rapidly, is the ultimate competitive
advantage – Jack Welch”
’
’Miles are gold. Data is gold’
According to KPMG, 84% of executives agree that “data
is the fuel for the future [mobility] business model”.
That is because vehicle use is moving from ownership to
‘drivership’ – and ultimately to ‘ridership’ when or if cars
and trucks achieve full autonomy. Each transition will be
driven by better use of data, enabling more-productive
use of mobile assets (both vehicles and employees).
This trend is already evident in fleet management,
where telematics, ‘connected’ vehicles, mobile
payments and the ubiquity of smart phones are driving
exponential growth in the availability of information.
This gives companies huge potential visibility over
their Total Cost of Mobility (TCM). It was summed-up
by KPMG’s 2017 Global Automotive Executive Survey
report by the phrase, “Miles are gold. Data is gold.”
The specific reference was to the opportunity (and threat)
auto manufacturers face from the MaaS model where payby-the-mile
would replace private ownership. But it applies
equally to fleet and travel expense costs in the present
day, where companies can make substantial cost savings if
they can obtain consolidated mobility data to leverage.
360° view
The level of information now available is astonishingly
detailed. It used to be that a typical business journey left
almost no traces on the record aside from some receipts and
a line on an expense claim. Now, suppliers store information at
every point in the business travel chain – leasing companies,
fuel card and telematics providers, accident management
providers and in payroll data and expenses systems.
If companies can overlay this information on to
employee data – such as whether individuals are
home or office-based, or the details and reasons for
journeys – they obtain a single view of costs and a 360°
view of each employee’s business travel patterns.
From there, the consolidated information can be analysed
to make mobility recommendations for each individual
driver. These can be around who should or shouldn’t be
eligible for a company car; who could be in electric vehicles;
who could be car sharing, and where it could be more costeffective
to give someone a transportation allowance
rather than a conventional car or cash allowance (if for
example, they use the train for more than 80% of all trips).
20 theCsuite

FLEET MANAGEMENT
10 TOP
TIPS
1 THE DECIDING FACTORS
Choosing the right supplier involves much more than scanning
price lists. Ideally, choice should depend on a wide range of
factors such as value for money, quality, reliability and service.
How you weigh up the importance of the different factors will
obviously depend on business priorities, operational objectives
and overall business strategy.
...TO
CHOOSE
THE RIGHT
SUPPLIER
2 THREE APPROACHES TO PRICING
Buyer beware – typically there are three different approaches
to fleet management pricing: a monthly fleet management fee
– lump sum/per vehicle per month; SMR invoices – passed on at
cost with a % mark up; or SMR invoices – % discount on retail
price. Pricing should be clear, concise, and scalable with the
best interests of the customer at heart.
3
OPERATIONAL REQUIREMENTS
4
PART OF YOUR TEAM
Review your fleet services and operational requirements.
What’s working well, what could be improved and are there any
new requirements that need to be covered off? Seek input from
a range of stakeholders in the business to ensure everything is
captured. Agree ‘must haves’ as this helps understand which
suppliers need to be included in the procurement process.
A good fleet management supplier will be an integral part of
your fleet team, dealing with the day-to-day issues, identifying
risks and delivering recommendations to improve fleet
performance and alleviate unnecessary spend.
5
REGULAR REVIEWS
6
MANAGING DOWNTIME
Regularly review what you’re getting from your fleet
management supplier. If you decided to procure the cheapest
solution have the “paper savings” translated into tangible or
real savings? It’s important to look at value for money and to
continually monitor contract performance against key
performance indicators (KPIs).
Think carefully about service delivery. It is vital that vehicles
are working for the business and not standing idle – vehicle
downtime as a result of a failure to take action is a huge
business expense. How does your supplier define downtime,
how well do they manage it and how is it measured?
7
PREQUALIFICATION MEETINGS
8
LONG-TERM FLEXIBILITY
When tendering, remember it’s a ‘snapshot in time’ and over
time the supplier’s range of products and services may change.
It can be dangerous to base supplier selection solely on a
tender response with price the arbiter. Prequalification
meetings can help, allowing you to ‘get under the skin’ of the
supplier to find out if they are a good fit for your business.
With contracts typically lasting three-five years what is bought
today needs to be flexible for the future. A supplier who
demonstrates knowledge of the latest legislation, taxation and
marketplace developments will help ensure that decisions you
make today are also the right ones for your fleet longer term.
9
REASONABLE SLAs AND KPIs
10
AVOID ‘COOKIE-CUTTER’ APPROACH
Measure contract performance as it drives improvements.
There are two ways KPIs can achieve management power –
they help spot potential problems or opportunities and set
targets that will deliver strategic goals. While service-level
agreements (SLAs) and KPIs need to be ‘reasonable’ on both
sides they also need to have teeth and sanctions.
As every business is different, when sourcing a supplier beware
of the companies that apply a ‘cookie-cutter’ or ‘one-size fits all’
approach to your fleet management and funding needs. Instead
look for suppliers who will be ready to offer flexible solutions
tailored to your organisation and who make fleet management
their primary focus.
Venson Automotive Solutions Ltd
Get in Touch: 08444 99 1402 • sales@venson.com • www.venson.com

We’ll keep your fleet
working for you
From 24-hour breakdown cover to accident assistance,
mobile tyre fitting to telematics that help optimise vehicle
performance, we’ll keep your fleet on the road.
Talk to us today about Business Breakdown Cover
Call 0800 294 2994
Or visit theAA.com/business

Fleet Management
Case Study: Mitsubishi Electric Europe
B.V. aims for lower fleet costs
Mitsubishi Electric Europe B.V aims to reduce the cost of
operating its UK fleet of 270 company cars with the help
of consolidated data about mileage, fuel transactions and
the vehicles themselves.
Stephen Manley, Purchasing Manager for the
company’s UK branch said: “We are very confident
that we will achieve cost savings because we are
now capturing more accurate data from our drivers.
Historically, we were unable to get the degree of
reporting we needed around fuel and mileage from our
fuel card provider. The data we were obtaining required
a lot of internal resource from us to process mileage
claims.”
The company now uses a data capture, audit and
analysis solution.
Journey reports from drivers are electronically
audited, and any anomalies are followed up by a
customer service team via phone, text and email. The
audited mileage data, together with fuel transactions
and other data streams, creates a range of management
information reports as well as HMRC-compliant, payrollready
files for private fuel reimbursement. The drivers
have the option to use an integrated smart phone app to
track and log business journeys via GPS. They can also
log trip reports via a PC and other devices.
Mr Manley added: “In line with Mitsubishi Electric’s
environmental statement, monitoring CO2 emissions
is very important to our business. On the fleet side,
the data separates emissions from business mileage
from private-mileage CO2, allowing us to report
accurately and make sure we comply with our ISO 14001
accreditation.”
Cost savings
Consolidated mobility data opens up several routes to
cost reductions. Together with real-time audit controls,
the increased visibility reduces losses from over-claiming,
wasteful travel and non-compliance with policy restrictions.
It can also help identify subtle cost drivers such as creeping
increases in lease rentals and maintenance charges – even
where employees are filling their vehicles unnecessarily with
premium fuels or at expensive sites on the motorway network.
Further cost savings can be realised through reduced
administration overheads and by using the information
to steer fleet and mobility strategy and optimisation.
Entering a disruptive decade
Even without large-scale deployment of self-driving vehicles,
the next 10 years will certainly bring disruption to many
aspects of fleet and travel management. Multiple overlapping
factors will drive these changes – in technologies, energy,
demographics, cultural expectations and legislation.
For example, fuel will be a growing issue because electric
vehicles have begun to undermine the fundamentals of
the petroleum industry even while EV penetration is still
relatively insubstantial. In China, electric transmission is
already the obvious choice for buyers of ultra-mini and
super-compact cars; requiring no thought or calculation
vs. the merits of choosing a combustion car. Oil’s decline
is underway, presenting mobility-dependent businesses
with new opportunities but also threats, particularly to
diesel-reliant operations such as trucking and deliveries.
KPMG’s survey suggests the automotive industry
intends to address some of these uncertainties by adding
yet another drivetrain technology to the mix: hydrogen
fuel cells. So, on fuels alone, businesses could soon be
juggling the costs of conventional (petrol), immature
(EVs and hydrogen) and dying (diesel) drivetrains while
simultaneously adjusting to the demands of increasingly
mobile and location-independent working patterns.
Conclusion
Today’s challenge for strategic fleet managers is to truly
understand their business’s mobility costs and compile
actionable management information to identify further
cost savings, improve policy and reduce carbon. Without
knowing all the costs associated to business travel,
reviewing the vehicles being driven and collating all the
business trips, how can a strategy be set? Data collation is
an essential base in order to set a strategy on mobility.
The prize for employing the correct expertise in
bringing fleet and travel data streams to life will be
enhanced profitability arising from leveraging the
savings and productivity inherent in fully-fledged
Mobility as a Service across your business.
Further information
Paul Hollick is managing director of TMC
(www.themilesconsultancy.com) and chairman of the
Institute of Car Fleet Management. TMC is uniquely
positioned to meet the growing demand for solutions to
manage the total cost of mobility, with services including
mileage capture and audit, travel and fuel card, grey fleet
compliance solutions, expenses management, tax efficiency
consultancy and analytics. TMC’s clients range include Dell,
HP, Microsoft, Interserve, Vodafone, Lyreco and Arqiva. More
than 100,000 drivers use the company’s award-winning
systems across all EMEA markets, serviced by a UK based
customer service team and data management specialists.
theCsuite 23

Fleet Management
The rise of data use
in fleet management
Stuart Thomas, director of fleet and SME
services at the AA, identifies the rich data
insights that connected vehicle technology
can deliver to business decision-makers
A changing role
Connectivity is revolutionising the UK’s fleet sector.
Whether focused on company car drivers, LCVs, HGVs, the
grey fleet or a combination of them all, fleet managers are
well-placed to understand the individual requirements,
challenges and goals of their own business. However, the
traditional fleet manager role is changing. It is increasingly
important for those looking at transport to focus on the
journey rather than the mode of travel. Key metrics and
performance indicators are shifting from fleet size to
journey success rates, timings and total annual costs.
Big Data has already impacted on the UK fleet industry,
with relatively widespread adoption of first generation
connected car technology. The tracking of key location,
speed and mileage metrics is now much more practicable.
However, developments in this area and the expanding
remit of what connectivity can deliver are critical to the
next phase of design innovation for vehicles. For fleet
managers, it is necessary to understand what’s possible
to truly implement a successful connected car programme
that adds value while saving both time and money.
What is connected?
Connected car technology is an incredibly broad term and
covers extensive monitoring capabilities. While journey
planning and mileage capture are two of the more common,
elements such as geo-fencing and servicing integration
can provide some great added value to fleet managers who
use them effectively. The unexpected wins, including time
saved and trends identified, are often the element that
really convinces a fleet manager of the benefits of extending
a connected car programme. For example, being able to
pick up that a vehicle is travelling abroad and should have
different cover or that congestion zone fees could be reduced
by predicting future journeys based on previous data.
Going forward, connected car technology will become
even more crucial to fleets who are looking to employ the
prognostic capability of connectivity to predict when vehicles
may need servicing, schedule preventative maintenance and
prevent downtime. With increasing incidences of shared
mobility and the roll-out of autonomous add-ons in modern
fleet vehicles, managers will also need to be able to support
multiple drivers and an increasingly complex fleet mix.
Indeed, for fleet managers, the focus is shifting from driver
to vehicle. Data will be key to understanding how shared and
autonomous vehicles behave and interact with one another,
enabling detailed monitoring of vehicle health and location.
Duty of care
Of course, while the journey to autonomy is firmly underway,
there are still many legislative hurdles to overcome and, in
the meantime, driving to work is still the most dangerous
daily activity most people undertake. Despite the high risks
involved, more than one fifth of UK companies don’t have a
road safety policy in place to manage this vital aspect of work
health and safety across their fleet 1 . Indeed, company car
drivers are 49% more likely to be involved in an accident than
ordinary drivers, even when higher mileages are considered 2 .
The Operational Fleet Insight Report 3 , produced by the
AA with BT Fleet, revealed that 74% of fleets containing
100-plus vehicles are now using connected car technology
to identify poor driving habits such as speeding, harsh
acceleration, heavy braking and cornering. But only 33%
of fleet managers use the technology to reduce accident
rates and increase fleet-wide safety. A culture change
is needed in British businesses to ensure that more
organisations take advantage of the power of data to
identify employees that would benefit from support and
training to improve their efficiency and safety at the wheel.
While increased access to data is allowing fleet managers
to single out cost savings, its availability also increases
the liability and responsibility of fleet managers to
ensure both a vehicle’s health and an employee’s safety.
The mindset of the fleet manager will need to become
more data-driven to further reduce accidents, with
insights into driver behaviour and legislative compliance
24 theCsuite

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Fleet Management
as important to those managing modern fleets as
delivering cost savings and safety improvements.
A tool for compliance management
The use of data as a tool for compliance management with
environmental legislation is another trend we are seeing
emerge across the industry. Businesses are under increasing
pressure to futureproof their fleets to ensure they comply
with air quality targets. As well as London, Low Emission
Zones have been introduced in Brighton, Norwich, Nottingham
and Oxford, with Birmingham, Leeds, Derby and Southampton
all looking to follow suit by charging polluting vehicles.
In the short-term, it is vital for fleets with a presence in
London to make smarter decisions ahead of the introduction
of Ultra Low Emission Zones (ULEZ) next April, and to
maximise efficiency through the implementation of
connected car data. The ULEZ charge will penalise noncompliant
cars, vans and motorbikes with a £12.50 daily
charge, in addition to the Congestion Charge, and £100 for
lorries, buses and coaches, and is in 24-hourly operation.
Rigorous planning will be essential for businesses to ensure
that the appropriate vehicle, with the correct equipment,
goes to the right job and can travel compliantly through a
range of locations to avoid fines and penalties. The geofencing
and journey planning elements of connected car
technology can certainly help fleet managers to manage
this tricky issue and improve overall fleet performance.
Protecting the bottom line
Businesses which use connected car technology often
report significant savings in areas such as fuel and
insurance, while others praise the positive reduction in
risk and improved driving techniques fleet-wide. Indeed,
connected vehicle technology is proving invaluable for fleets
in keeping managers up-to-date with service and upgrade
requirements, improving efficiency and saving time.
Rather than having to go through the service history of
every vehicle on the fleet, managers can use connected
technology to automatically alert them to potential
problems. Equally, connectivity has a strong role to play
in terms of reducing fleet downtime, with its potential
to highlight faults before they even occur, keeping
fleets incident-free and on the road for longer.
The role of data is changing
The new EU data General Data Protection Regulation
(GDPR) protection rules came into force on 25th May
2018. The European Commission has ruled that data
generated in a vehicle is the property of the driver and no
one else. This clarification of ownership is going to add a
significant compliance burden to the fleet manager’s role.
Managers must keep an audit trail to show this active
consent as a statement or written form. This document should
state whether the data will be used for private or business
usage, and with whom it will be shared. Managers must be
clear with their drivers about why they are collecting vehicle
journey data. For example, is it to reduce accident rates across
your fleet? To improve efficiency? To cut costs? Or perhaps all
three. We recommend that this is information is laid out in a
connected car data usage policy which is shared with drivers.
These rules apply to all fleets which use connected car
technology, who risk fines of up to 20 million Euros for noncompliance.
Fleet operators and managers must provide
evidence that consent has been given by all employees to
collect data. Employers and managers have a responsibility
to ensure the requirement to collect driver data remains
relevant and should schedule in regular reviews of this
policy to this end. Emphasising benefits to drivers, such as
improvements in safety, are key to ensuring fleet-wide buy-in.
Disposal is also a key area, with fleet managers needing
to ensure vehicles are wiped of personally identifiable
data before being passed to another user or sold on.
Connecting the dots
When introducing connected car technology into your
business, objectives for success should be set from the
outset. Managers must ensure that their connected car
partner understands what level of insight is required,
and that they are able to provide easily actionable
take-outs and analysis that can be shared with drivers,
rather than pure data. These need to be shared in
easy-to-use outputs, such as a dashboard tool.
It is important not to become complacent with your tool
of choice. There must be a process to review and fine tune
requirements on an ongoing basis, as every fleet is different.
It is often the unexpected benefits granted by data that can
add the greatest value. Adopting a passive role towards the
data you receive, in failing to review it, will mean you won’t
get the most out of what the system has to offer. Even a
system which is working well should be regularly reviewed
as every fleet’s requirements are continually evolving.
References
1. TomTom Telematics, 2017
2. www.orsa.org.uk/facts-and-figures/crash-and-casualty-data
3. www.theaa.com/about-us/newsroom/aa-and-bt-fleet-solutions-secondoperational-fleet-insight-report
Further information
The AA attends more than 3.3 million breakdowns per
year – that’s equivalent to one every 9 seconds. Our vans
carry nearly 1800 parts, tools and consumables to help get
customers on their way – all backed up by exclusive Bosch
diagnostics technology. Our patrols fix 8 out of 10 vehicles
at the roadside and complete all roadside repairs in just
under half an hour, on average.
The AA’s award-winning business breakdown cover
is available throughout the UK and in Europe and our
commitment to customer service is well known. In May
2018, Which? re-awarded the AA ‘Recommended Provider’
status for breakdown cover, an accolade we have enjoyed for
many years.
26 theCsuite

Human Resources
What should be expected of a
global HRIS and Payroll system?
Nick Southcombe, CEO of
Frontier Software, discusses
the types of software
functions and service
offerings that should be
expected of a global HRIS
and Payroll system
W
herever organisations operate
in multiple countries, effective
leadership teams will always
want a view of their entire workforce.
At a simple level, workforce views
capture and report total head count
and its cost. However, as businesses
embrace the notion of the global village,
distributed teams and operations
in multiple time zones, leadership
requires a global view of talent to
facilitate workforce planning.
This includes an understanding
of both current competencies and
skill shortfalls that may impact
future strategies. A global view of
recruiting, learning & development,
career and succession planning
within truly multinational businesses
are also realities that must be
embraced and addressed.
Traditionally, such information has
been captured in disparate systems,
usually on a country-by-country basis.
theCsuite 27

INTEGRATED
Human Resources,
Payroll and Talent
Management
You choose your required modules
0845 370 3210
sales@frontiersoftware.com
www.frontiersoftware.com
OFFICES IN AUSTRALIA, INDIA, MALAYSIA, NEW ZEALAND, PHILIPPINES, SINGAPORE AND UNITED KINGDOM

Human Resources
When a global head office wanted
a consolidated view of their total
workforce, each geographical region
would produce their own reports;
oftentimes in different formats. At
Head Office the report data would then
be reconfigured and manually re-keyed
into a spreadsheet or other reporting
tool in order to derive the global view.
This time-consuming and error prone
process often diminished the value of
the data due to its lack of currency.
Such ‘shadow-system’ reporting
saw organisations applying changes
to the global consolidated reports
in arrears. At best the result was
partially effective as the data on which
decisions were based was not timely.
An emerging trend is the incidence of
regional and even single global payroll
teams to execute payroll for multiple
countries. For centralised teams such
as these, the use of dissimilar systems
for different geographies is confusing,
time-consuming and ineffective.
What type of software functions
and service offerings should
be expected of a global HRIS
and Payroll system?
A best practice global HRIS would
enable organisations to capture
all HR-related data into a single
database. It will offer multi-country,
multi-language and multi-currency
capabilities. It will have a powerful user
friendly report writer. It will capture
all financial data in the local currency
but be able to convert and report in any
currency the user desires. It will have
sophisticated workflow functionality
to support global business processes.
From a payroll perspective, it would
be rare to find a single payroll offering
that can service all required countries.
Although many vendors say they can
meet this requirement, they often
do so by bundling disparate payroll
solutions into their offering or by
partnering with local payroll providers.
Technically, this can be made to
work if the HRIS database has an
easy to use data import function,
often referred to as aggregator
functionality. However, some vendors
are developing a single payroll system
for an increasing number of multiple
countries out of a single database.
Finally, ensure you find out how a
vendor of a global offering supports
and services their solution. Is help desk
available 24 hours a day, anywhere
in the world? How do they maintain
statutory compliance? Do they
fly in implementation and training
support, or is it local, or on-line?
A true global HRIS and payroll
system is engineered as an accurate,
single source of truth, supporting
common business processes for
all countries and providing up to
the minute information.
Author information
Frontier Software is a leading
provider of integrated HR and payroll
software solutions to a wide variety of
organisations around the world. ichris
is an international comprehensive
human resource integrated solution
that allows users to maintain
extensive HR information, whilst
delivering an opportunity to create a
centralised, virtual HR office.
Where there is a requirement
for payroll, the ichris payroll
management module offers a flexible
and comprehensive approach to
payroll administration and ensures
that employees are paid accurately,
on time and in accordance with
legislation.
The flexibility of ichris allows for
an extensive array of additional,
integrated modules to further
extend HR functionality. This
includes recruitment, performance
management, health and safety,
learning and development, job
evaluation, time & attendance,
dashboards, employee and manager
self-service and claims/expenses.
theCsuite 29

Human Resources
Why global mobility
deserves a senior leadership focus
By Pasquale Gorrasi,
Director of International
Lines at Generali
Employee Benefits
Mobile employees are key to
companies’ international
growth, either by acting
as the spearhead to setting up
operations in new countries, or by
helping transfer skills and innovation.
From supporting global business
expansion to growing a diverse and
inclusive workforce with global
competencies at all levels, talent
mobility has a crucial role to play.
63% of global mobility specialist
respondents to BGRS’ 2017 Talent
Mobility Trends Survey said employee
mobility was now high on their
organisation’s senior leadership agenda.
This might come as no surprise
considering the number of expatriate
and globally mobile employees is
set to surpass one million by 2021,
thanks largely to growth in new smaller
and medium-sized multinationals,
according to a study by market
research company Finnacord, a
division of Aon Inpoint, entitled
Global Multinationals and Corporate
Transferees: A Worldwide Review.
The success or failure of these
companies will largely rest on the
competitiveness and sustainability
of their talent mobility programmes,
so it pays for senior leadership
to lend their support.
As a starting point, we provide
an overview of who globally mobile
employees are these days, plus a step
by step guide to best strategies to
attract and retain a mobile workforce.
The changing face of globally
mobile employees
According to BGRS, international
assignments are seen as a significant
draw and are often considered a
pathway to career enhancement
for current employees.
For this reason, international
companies are now increasingly
aligning mobility to their talent agenda
in a bid to take a more strategic and
effective approach to attracting,
developing and retaining key talent.
There is also a gradual yet
noticeable shift in the demographic
profile of globally mobile employees.
The traditional profile of the white,
middle-aged, married male is still
very much in play, but it’s increasingly
making way for Millennials.
Soon to represent the largest
segment of the workforce,
Millennials come with a unique set
of expectations that will have a
bearing on attraction, engagement
and retention for companies. BGRS
reports that Millennials are often
drawn to opportunities that include
an international experience.
A small number of companies
included in BGRS’ 2016 report
highlighted the role of global mobility as
a strategic driver of their talent agenda.
They’re sending more Millennials
on international assignment to help
ensure a pipeline of future leaders
with global management experience.
This helps contain assignment
costs too. For example, premiums for
insurance-based products will generally
be lower for younger individuals, plus
it’s less likely that they will be taking
a family with them: another cost
containment aspect – from both an
overall programme perspective but
also because assignment failure is less
likely when a family isn’t being moved
to another country with the employee.
30 theCsuite

Human Resources
Best global mobility
strategies step by step
Companies that understand how
mobile employees can be a key asset
are fine-tuning their strategies to
coordinate activities and select the
most suitable approach. Here’s how:
Building the foundations:
n Your unique workforce: A good
starting point is carrying out
an analysis based on a detailed
employee population census.
This will allow companies to
assess where they are located,
their status and expectations,
and to integrate this information
into their overall strategy.
n The environment: Conducting
a geographic and industry
benchmark will shed light on
the employee benefits market,
identify best practice, and assess
how an individual company
performs against competitors.
n Flexibility: Based on previous
analysis, it is possible to identify
solutions based on a company’s
specific requirements by
selecting benefits to match the
needs of different groups of
employees in the same plan.
Global design:
n Governance: Define the balance
between flexibility and cost
control and central coordination
to enhance company operations.
n Measurement: Set up centralised
monitoring, measurement and
reporting systems to assess
effectiveness and return on
investment in mobility plans.
n Support and assistance: Assess
the need for centralised support
in managing different regulatory
systems, across countries or even
within the same country across
industry sectors or regions.
n Business Travel Accident (BTA)
cover: Globally mobile employees
are exposed to several risks when
travelling for their international
assignments. Therefore, medical
and travel insurance services like
emergency medical expenses
and transportation, repatriation,
loss of luggage - just to name
n
some - should be included in
their benefits package.
Pooling: Integrating the
organisation’s expatriate benefits
into a global portfolio will allow
for reduced costs and enhanced
profitability of benefits solutions.
Employee value proposition:
n A multinational plan will ensure
portability of coverage, thereby
eliminating any constraints
when relocating, and enhancing
protection of the employees who
may, for instance, be ensured access
to facilities and care not available
in their host or home country.
n Part of the return on costs
is based on the workforce’s
understanding of their benefits,
which can be measured based
on engagement and retention.
n Finally, it pays for organisations
to detail each employee’s benefits
in an individual statement, thus
providing competitive advantage
with clear messages to explain
to employees the value of
the benefits provided.
Further information
If you are interested in know more,
we invite you to read our special
newsletter on Global Mobility or to
contact us at marketing@geb.com
theCsuite 31

Advertisers’ Index
AA 22
Brother UK 15
Cayos Travel 12
Coface 2
EASY SOFTWARE UK 12
Excel4apps 11
Frontier Software 28
Generali Employee Benefits
OBC
prevero UK
IFC
Priority Pass
16, IBC
TMC 25
Venson Automotive Solutions 21
32 theCsuite

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with a world-leading global network giving you access
to airport lounges just about anywhere.
You’ll always be welcome in a Priority Pass Lounge.
Whatever carrier or class, as a regular business traveler
or member of another airline program – it doesn’t matter.
Check yourself into Lounge Class. Membership starts
from as little as £62 a year.
TRANQUILITY • SERVICE • SPACE • COMFORT
• Complimentary drinks, refreshments and pre-flight
bites including alcohol in most lounges
• Space to work or relax in a place that feels like home
• Free Wi-Fi in most lounges
• The latest magazines and newspapers
• Conference rooms, showers, bed and spa facilities
in selected lounges
WITH YOUR EXCLUSIVE 10% DISCOUNT,
ENJOY MEMBERSHIP FROM ONLY £62
Join now to get your Digital Membership Card* via the Priority Pass app –
and enjoy instant access to Lounge Class on your very next trip
* Not all lounges are able to process visits using the Digital Membership Card so please check the lounge details on our website before you visit a lounge and carry your card with you once it’s arrived in the post.
Join online and enter the offer code CFO1709 at prioritypass.com
to get your exclusive 10% discount, or call +44 20 8865 3119
Brought to you by
Collinson is a global loyalty and benefits company. We use our expertise and products
to craft customer experiences which enable some of the world’s best known brands to
acquire, engage and retain the most demanding and choice-rich customers.
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Local Protection
Global Connection
Generali Employee Benefits
The world’s leading Network, serving multinational companies in over 100 countries.
A comprehensive range of employee benefits solutions, including Life,
Disability, Accident, Health & Wellbeing, Retirement & Savings, for both local
and expatriate employees.
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