Co-maker’s new bosses reveal their fleet mobility plan

Written by Brian Rogerson
Tuesday, 19 July 2011

Co-maker, The Netherlands-based automotive leasing, finance and rental software provider, is seeking to expand – and as it does so it intends to revolutionize the way its market sectors operate.

It recently created a structure of dual managing directors. Carlos Hagenaars has a company focus on development and innovation of Co-maker’s commercial activities in The Netherlands, while Eric van Keimpema has responsibility for the company’s international commercial activities. Co-maker is a division of Total Specific Solutions with a total revenue of €160m and some 15% of revenues are generated from the financial sector.

Van Keimpema told Asset Finance International that Co-maker has 15 customers globally. “We are the market leader in The Netherlands, “he stressed, “and together with our partnership with SAP are looking to grow our international presence in the operating and finance leasing, wholesale finance and consumer finance sectors.”

Co-maker is looking at the bigger picture. Mobility Management is the hot topic at present as rising fuel costs and ever more challenging road usage impacts on company car fleets.

Mobility system architecture
“We are developing an innovative mobility system architecture,” he said, “which would include not only the provision of a company car, but also appropriate rail travel, holiday transport and occasional discretionary up-market vehicle availability for employees.”

Hagenaars confirmed that Co-maker is working towards providing company car drivers with an increased range of self-service facilities anticipating the more demanding end customer. The lease companies’ customer profile is rapidly changing due to technology trends like mobile devices and social media. Co-maker aims to provide an innovative solution platform for lease companies to anticipate and quickly respond to these trends.

“For example,” he said, “if a driver has an accident we can provide the ability for him or her to take a site photograph with a mobile device, fill in an accident report the same way – and send both directly to the leasing company virtually instantly followed by transparent feedback and aftercare, online or mobile.”

“We are anticipating lessors’ needs for the future,” Van Keimpema explained. “The global requirements of leasing companies are such that they need to integrate back-office processes across borders by using shared service centres, whilst at the same time retaining the customer-facing functions in each country. The front-end system needs to function with local capabilities and to anticipate local demands and trends with the back-office remaining tied to the leasing company’s core structure.”

Exact
Van Keimpema has a proven track record in international entrepreneurship. In the early 1990s he formed Cadena, a Polish IT company selling Tulip personal computers and the ERP (enterprise resource planning) software of Exact. Later on he founded Exact’s office in Singapore.

In 2000 he returned to The Netherlands as marketing director of Exact Holding. Afterwards he was responsible for the worldwide expansion of Exact.

Co-maker was originally formed in 1991 by Ron van Bijsterveld and in 2007 became part of the Total Specific Solutions Group with the specific focus on international automotive leasing, finance and rental markets.

Co-maker intends to run its automotive finance “vision” out at the start of 2012 with an update of the company’s LeaseCTRL software. Implementation will be with two clients initially and then Van Keimpema predicts “potentially huge growth”.

Supportive partner
He pays credit to Co-maker’s use of the SAP platform which he insists is “proven and of great importance to our customers”. “SAP is a very supportive partner,” he added, “and comes with a big footprint in the automotive, banking and other large industry sectors.”

“I predict a move towards leasing companies co-operating together with their technology and services. Those that do co-operate will find that they will grow faster,” he said.

He added: “It is a fact that around 80% of any process is just a commodity. Lessors should use a standard system specifically designed for back offices and concentrate their efforts on innovation with customer-facing technology. It will serve to standardize their back-office processes to create scale efficiencies whilst using flexible front-office systems to increase time to market of new products.”

Van Keimpema believes that when leasing companies unite their processes in one standard platform across the industry “everyone will be better off”. The alternative, he insists, is “a huge spaghetti which is costly to run and a nightmare to maintain”.

The post recessionary marketplace, he forecasts, will bring revolutionary change to the way leasing companies view their technology. Co-maker, under its new management, aims to lead the way.