Hitachi Capital Vehicle Solutions will be rolling out an online ‘dashboard’, giving fleets easy access to headline information and analysis from January 2010.

The software development is part of a three-year, £1m investment package for the FN50 company, which will also see Harvey Nash develop its online fleet services.

Harvey Nash will develop and implement a portfolio of vehicle finance and management solutions after already being involved in the implementation of Hitachi's customer finance portal with e-commerce capabilities.

The dashboard - called Capital View - will be tailored to an individual fleet's needs with all areas of compliance, accident data, vehicle performance and fuel use available from a graphical format on screen.

Speaking exclusively to Fleet News, the leasing company’s chief executive officer Simon Oliphant said fleet operators would require more help in the future.

“There are three big things on the fleet manager’s agenda at the moment,” explained Oliphant.

“Number one is cost, driven partly by economic conditions, number two is duty of care and number three is environment.

“What’s interesting is all three are intertwined.

"You can actually work on each one of those subjects and know they are going to have an effect on one another - if a fleet drives a safer, cleaner car, you actually see a cost reduction.

“From a strategic point of view I think it’s key we help the fleet manager pull those things together and deliver them as well.”

However, Oliphant recognises fleets have not got the time to wade through masses of data, which is where he expects the ‘dashboard’ to come into its own.

“We need to provide data at a high level, find out the areas they need to focus their attention on and then allow them to drill down into the detail to understand what’s sitting behind that and what action they need to take,” said Oliphant.

With this in mind, customers will be offered the bespoke, on-screen ‘dashboard’ to provide them with the headline information they require, while having the ability to click on any area for further insight.

“For example, if you’ve got an overdue MoT or some area of compliance that could be really serious to the company, it will be flagged up that you need to take action,” said Oliphant.

“The system will offer a wealth of information on all areas of compliance, as well as accident data, vehicle performance and fuel, but it will be shaped according to each fleet.

“However, what will be key is cost, environment and duty of care and building key performance indicators around those areas.”