Ichinen Holdings Co. Ltd, a Japan-based automotive leasing company, has selected the Miles leasing and fleet management solution from Belgium-based software specialist, Sofico, to manage its fleet of more than 120,000 vehicles on behalf of corporate customers throughout the country.

Publicly-quoted Ichinen Holdings was founded in 1930 and is headquartered in Osaka. Ichinen provides automotive leasing, fleet management and contract maintenance as well as fuel sales services in Japan. It has a fleet of more than 61,000 leased vehicles with a similar number on fleet management.

In 2012, the company instigated a tender process to find a new fleet management software system supplier and eventually selected Sofico’s Miles system. Implementation of the new system began in the final quarter of 2013.

To compete for the contract, a team of Sofico experts from Japan, Australia, and Europe led by Shane Curran, General Manager of Sofico Services Japan, assessed more than 2,000 individual requirements from Ichinen.

“When we first met Ichinen, they were moving toward issuing an RFP for the replacement of their system. The existing system was more than 20 years’ old and had outlived its useful life. At the same time, it had served them very well and Ichinen were keen to ensure that their next step was a positive one,” Curran said. “When we began discussions with them, Ichinen had already listed 2,000 distinct requirements for their new system. On top of that, they felt that there should be additional functionality available as they didn't want to be forced into a system that restricted their ability to differentiate themselves from their competitors. They also wanted to minimize the disruption to their existing business, and all of this had to be delivered within budget, of course.”

The Sofico team established that more than 90 percent of the Ichinen requirements could either be met with standard Miles functionality or through configuration. The team also made recommendations for new functionality and innovations, based on the company’s global experience of the auto-leasing industry.