The explosion of technology and the Internet have had a real impact on business, and the fleet industry has been an early adopter, said Rick Smith, president and CEO of GE Capital Fleet Services.

Smith made his comments at the third annual Fleet 2000 Business Conference, held Aug. 25-26, 1999, in Minneapolis.

Drawing its largest crowd yet, more than 300 fleet managers, suppliers, manufacturers, and GE Capital Fleet Services executives gathered for the conference. Attendees arrived from 26 states and two countries, representing 18 industries. Speakers, panel discussions, and a quality/productivity fair touched on key fleet issues, all of which focused heavily on technology.

"Three years ago, we established the Fleet 2000 Business Conference to help prepare our customers for technology in the new millennium," Smith said. "It's amazing how quickly technology has evolved and changed since then."

Following are highlights of the conference:

Technology and Today's Business

Chuck Martin, chairman and CEO of New Future Institute in North Hampton, NH, discussed the continuing explosion of e-business applications.

"A new value transformation has emerged, driven completely by the customer, and companies are challenged to work together to meet new customer demands," said Martin. "To do so, they need to start with net strategies, not just websites."

Martin outlined seven "cybertrends" that have emerged from evolving technology:

1. Cyber Economy Goes Main Street. New ways of buying and selling will create a new breed of online consumer who will expect faster delivery and easier transactions.

2. Wired Workforce. Intranets will put more information in employees' hands and create virtual work communities.

3. Open-Book Corporation. Boundaries between corporations and the outside world will be erased. Power will shift away from the providers of products and services direct to the recipients.

4. Products Become Commodities. New interactive dynamics will dramatically change how value is established for products.

5. Customer Becomes Data. New technologies for analyzing and predicting customer behavior in real time will require companies to organize differently in order to become "customer-centric."

6. Experience Communities. People will access instant global communications and be able to compile knowledge in real time.

7. "Real Time" to "All the Time." New means of networking will create a new generation of empowered and independent learners.

Manufacturer Trends

A panel moderated by Automotive Fleet Executive Editor Mike Antich and Associate Publisher Sherb Brown discussed manufacturer trends. Panelists from Ford, General Motors, DaimlerChrysler, and Mitsubishi participated. Discussion points and overriding messages included:

Vehicle trends. Car growth has been somewhat stagnant and retail and fleets will continue to see more growth on the truck side.

Global capacity. Manufacturers have put strategies in place for building global e-commerce to drive productivity.

Fleet allocation. Fleet allocation and order-to-delivery improvement have become top priorities and long-term strategies. This includes moving product lines and encouraging capacity sharing across plants to more effectively meet customer expectations.

Efficiency. Web-based systems will continue to improve internal systems and promote greater efficiency.

Finding Reality in Residuals

Offering a perspective on the used-vehicle market, Tom Kontos, director of Strategic Planning and Market Analysis for ADT Automotive, said that the used-car market remains solid for 1999 and the fleet market shows signs of improvement.

New-car quality has led to improved used-car quality, which helps residual sales.

For commercial fleets, prices for cars and trucks have come out of the doldrums with the average price reaching nearly $8,000 for an average intermediate car.

Certification programs are gaining greater receptivity and adding value to off-lease vehicles.

Other used-vehicle market trends include continuing dealer consolidation and growing Internet referrals for the retail market.

Legislation and Regulatory Issues

Mary Tavenner, executive director of the American Automotive Leasing Association, discussed the major legislative and regulatory issues affecting fleet management. Environmental issues and energy conservation, including the Clean Fuel Fleet Program and Energy Policy Act (EPACT) continue to be hot topics, with the strong possibility that the Department of Energy will expand the EPACT buying mandates to include commercial and municipal fleets.

For up-to-date information on clean fuel fleet legislation, visit www.epa.gov/omswww/cff.htm.

Meeting New Customer Demands

According to Bobby Cameron, principal analyst for Forrester Research in Cambridge, MA, the Internet will redefine how business operates.

"Early electronic commerce shows the traditional supplier-manufacturer-distribution-customer channel as backward," Cameron said. "Now, distribution channels are changing and collaborating to more effectively meet customer demands and serve the growing Internet economy."

Cameron added that the Internet economy is at the cusp of "hyper-growth" and predicts that by 2003, worldwide electronic commerce will reach $3.2 trillion.

Leveraging Technology

In demonstrations led by Ken Schneider, electronic commerce product manager at GE Capital Fleet Services, attending fleet managers got a taste of how technology will affect their day-to-day fleet management. Demonstrating GE Capital Fleet Services' newly launched web application, Your Office @ Fleet, Schneider showed customers how to specify, order, track, and report on vehicles from their own secure, virtual office on the GE Capital Fleet Services' website.

The latest ordering enhancements to Your Office @ Fleet include:

Driver order. Drivers make their vehicle selection .online, per the fleet's specifications.

Batch order. Customers can submit batch orders by simply sending an Excel spreadsheet to GE Capital Fleet Services. The information will be automatically downloaded into the system for the fleet.

Rapid order. Customers now have the option of ordering from just one screen rather than having to page through several screens to place an order.

GE Capital Fleet Services is already doing approximately $2 million in online transactions daily and expects it will triple in the next six months.

Turning Data into Intelligence

David Sherwood, vice president of product management for Micro Strategy Inc., outlined several ways fleet managers will be able to embrace technology in everyday fleet management, including interactive web reporting or "interactive information analysis."

Some innovative web applications to look forward to include:

Instant exception reports. Users can subscribe to online exception reports and receive instant notification when established parameters are violated.

Online auditing. Accounts payable can automatically audit bills online.

Automatic reminders. Drivers can receive automatic, timely notification (time for an oil change or license renewal, for example).

Vehicle Remarketing Trends

Tim Walker, vice president, product development at Autobytel.com Inc. in Irvine, CA, says the remarketers who will survive in the future fleet environment will be those who use the Internet to streamline operations.

"More than 2.5 million searches are tapped into our site per month," Walker said. "The message is clear. Customers want to buy. And they want access to information 24 hours a day, seven days a week."

Fleet managers can expect to see virtual auctions and certified pre-owned cyber stores continue to grow at a rapid pace. In fact, according to a study conducted by J.D. Power & Associates, in the year 2000, 60 percent of all vehicle transactions will be completed online.

"The most critical challenge is to think about your customers' needs and how you can help serve them," Walker concluded. "In the end, the winner will be the company who gets the customer and keeps them."

Many of the Fleet 2000 presentations can be seen on the Internet at www.gefleet.com.