The original was launched 21 years ago and a redeveloped version is today used to process almost 20,000 company car, van and truck service, maintenance and repair (SMR) job sheets every day from fleets totalling 4.9 million vehicles working with over 8,500 suppliers.
James Thurtle, vice president – UK and international product management at epyx, explained: “Today’s platform has been continually enriched over two decades with value added features and is in most ways unrecognisable from the 1link Service Network of 2003. However, the core infrastructure and architecture that it is built on is reaching its limitations, and during the last couple of years, we have been working on a far-reaching revision.
“What we have done with the ‘New Evolution’ version of the platform is introduce a new cloud-based, event-driven architecture, bringing higher levels of stability, scalability and capacity. There’s a new underlying dataset that has allowed us to deliver a series of innovations, including a refreshed user interface, a new job sheet journey and a new driver booking process, with work continuing on new rules management and new incident management capabilities.
“We are not changing things for the sake of changing them, and much of the new platform will remain familiar to existing users. Instead, this is about bringing about enhancements that just wouldn’t have been possible using our existing technology, as well as creating the ability to deliver faster and more radical changes in the future, to continue to meet the needs of our customers.
“It is not an easy task and has been likened internally to fixing a plane while flying 30,000 feet in the air. It’s a question of keeping SMR processing of our finance, leasing and warranty customers fully operational while making these major changes. That’s why we are being considered in our approach, ensuring that our customers continue to receive a high quality of service.”
This new version of 1link Service Network is currently being piloted by a small core of fleets and their suppliers, including Pendragon Vehicle Management (PVM).
Paul Hickinbottom, head of operations at PVM, said: “The new platform has been positively received by our team. For example, the enhanced layout and ability to view work history data alongside each claim has helped to tighten the time taken for processing, as well as improving the decision turnaround experienced by our fleet customers and participating garages, who have also provided positive comments.
“This is an introductory phase and any feedback and we have provided has been taken on board by epyx. Their team has been proactive and efficient in resolving queries and open to developing certain areas to further improve efficiencies. Overall, our experience has been almost seamless so far and we look forward to further planned developments for the platform made possible by the new architecture.”
James Thurtle added: “The intention is to roll out this version of 1link Service Network across more of our users over the course of the year as we resolve any issues with the new technology. This is, we believe, the most widely used specialist platform in the fleet sector, so stability is crucial. We’re pleased to say that it has proven very solid so far while feedback from initial users has been overwhelmingly positive.”
