Business Objects Provides Leading European Vehicle Maintenance Network with Customer Service Extranet
SAN JOSE, Calif.--June 2, 2003--Extranet Improves Partner Franchise Loyalty through Co-branding and Gives Customers More Visibility into Their Vehicle Fleet Maintenance
Business Objects , the world's leading provider of business intelligence (BI) solutions, today announced that Vulco, a subsidiary of Goodyear and Dunlop and a leading vehicle maintenance and tire specialist network, has chosen the Business Objects BI platform and Business Objects Professional Services to design and deploy VulcoNet, a customer service extranet. Based on WebIntelligence(R), the web-based query, reporting, and analysis solution from Business Objects, the extranet helps franchise maintenance and tire specialists access and analyze vital customer and supply chain information via the Vulco network. In turn, vehicle fleet customers have real-time access to structured information: more than ten dashboards supply daily statistics on vehicle lifetimes and maintenance operations, tire changes, and offer in-depth analysis by brand, region, transport type, and other criteria.
Vulco supplies a full range of services in the car and truck tire sector including tires, oil change, shocks, brakes, and batteries. Car rental and trucking companies who outsource their vehicle maintenance to the network of franchises can access the extranet for information pertaining to their vehicle fleet maintenance. For instance, a trucking company with a fleet maintained in different regions and by difference franchises of the Vulco network now has real-time information on the status of maintenance, wherever their different vehicles are repaired. This information helps customers reduce global fleet costs.
"We have created a customer service extranet of our entire co-branded quick servicing and tire centers for our customers to access," said Joerg Uellendahl, CEO, Vulco France. "Business Objects offers a business intelligence solution that not only links our customers and the franchises who service them, but improves Vulco's enterprise performance management at the same time."
For Vulco employees, VulcoNet enables information exchange between different departments at headquarters (purchasing, sales administration, domestic accounts, network development, marketing, training, and IT). For both network and home office users, it offers real-time access to new tariffs, schedules, directories, communication and training tools, and the monitoring of vehicle fleet maintenance -- improving operational efficiencies and reducing costs.
Business Objects Professional Services consultants managed the project, assisting Vulco in consolidating individual data exchange operations internally and designing the extranet and going live. Business Objects Professional Services analyzed the enterprise operations and conducted an extensive audit, helping Vulco to get a comprehensive view of its enterprise performance management and then to reallocate IT resources in a more dynamic environment, both with franchises and customers.
"Business Objects pioneered the extranet market more than 5 years ago, with our first version of WebIntelligence," said Dave Kellogg, senior group vice president of worldwide marketing at Business Objects. "With more than 1,000 extranet customers today, we are the clear choice for any company that wants to use business intelligence to share information with their customers, partners, or suppliers. We look forward to working with Vulco as they continue to use business intelligence to improve their franchise and customer relationships."
About Vulco
A subsidiary of Goodyear and Dunlop, the Vulco network was officially inaugurated in June 1996. In just 6 years, Vulco has become a key player in the quick vehicle maintenance and transportation markets and is France's leading specialist in tires and road connection for private and professional users. It is one of the leading tire specialists with 300 independent and affiliated Vulco centers in France.
Vulco has leading edge vehicle technology, ranging from passenger cars to heavy trucks, agricultural machinery and civil engineering plant. This across-the-board expertise in tires and road connection (geometry, shock absorbers, braking), has been diversified into new services such as oil change and exhaust pipe replacement. For each professional category,
Vulco has developed a tailored service portfolio including while-you-wait car maintenance, specialized centers for four-wheel drive vehicles, tuning, and corporate fleet management.
About Business Objects
Business Objects is the world's leading provider of enterprise business intelligence (BI) solutions. Business Objects enables organizations to track, understand, and manage enterprise performance. The company's solutions leverage the information that is stored in an array of corporate databases, enterprise resource planning (ERP), and customer relationship management (CRM) systems.
Popular uses of BI include management dashboards and scorecards, enterprise performance management applications, customer intelligence applications, enterprise reporting, financial reporting, and both customer and partner extranets. These solutions enable companies to gain visibility into their business, acquire and retain profitable customers, reduce costs, optimize the supply chain, increase productivity and improve financial performance.
Business Objects provides the industry's most integrated business intelligence suite, called BusinessObjects Enterprise 6. This suite includes the industry's best web query, reporting, and analysis; the most advanced and complete suite of analytic applications; and the best connectivity to packaged applications.
Business Objects has more than 17,500 customers in over 80 countries. The company's stock is publicly traded under the ticker symbols NASDAQ:BOBJ and Euronext Paris (Euroclear code 12074). It is included in the SBF 120 and IT CAC 50 French stock market indexes. Business Objects can be reached at 408-953-6000 and www.businessobjects.com.
BusinessObjects is a trademark and WebIntelligence is a registered trademark of Business Objects S.A. in the United States and/or other countries. Other company and product names may be trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated.