is once again a member of the annual list, placing No. 79. For 16 straight years, the company has graced the InformationWeek 500 rankings, which highlights leading business technology innovators in the United States.
“It is a wonderful accomplishment to once again make the InformationWeek 500 list for this many consecutive years,” said Mike Krut, Ĵý senior vice president of information technology.
With a North America truck fleet of over 216,000, Ĵý needed a process to best serve transportation customers who and commercial trucks that are acquired from many leading global manufacturers.
Unlike cars, commercial truck specifications are much more complex: there are hundreds of options, ranging from in-cab comforts to highly detailed engine and axle combinations.
“We created a web-based vehicle configurator to standardize our internal listings of myriad specifications of how the trucks are made,” explained Krut. “Each OEM (original equipment manufacturer) has a different way of listing their product offerings. This configurator has added agility and improved the commitment to our customers.”
Paul Rosa, Ĵý senior vice president of procurement and fleet planning said: “The new vehicle configurator is a nimble and flexible solution. It allows our company to quickly load and release new product offerings to our customers. Complex updates are now made in hours, instead of days.”
This is InformationWeek’s 27th year identifying and honoring the nation's most innovative users of information technology. The InformationWeek Elite 100 research tracks the technology-based investments, strategies, and results of some of the best-known organizations in the country.
"Gone are the days IT could run as an entity unto itself,” said InformationWeek Editor Chris Murphy. “If IT isn't part of product development, or marketing, or customer service, your company risks falling behind in the era of digital business.”
By "Move Ahead" Staff
Ĵý has been named to the InformationWeek 500 list for the 12th consecutive time, ranking No. 114 this year.
A private company, Ĵý Truck Leasing earned the listing alongside Fortune 500 corporations.
“The InformationWeek 500 has recognized the most innovative users of business technology for 24-years, and this year’s innovations were particularly impressive,” stated Rob Preston, editor-in-chief.
“What the editors looked for are unconventional approaches – new technologies, new models, new ways of grabbing business opportunities and solving complex business problems with IT.”
Ĵý earned the award in part for use of technology to enhance its fuel management and safety practices for its subsidiary, .
As part of Ĵý Logistics’ , the company’s fleet of over 2,700 trucks serve as a crucial link in the supply chain for its customers, delivering and picking up medical supplies, automobile parts, food and other retail and manufacturing items.
Paul Ott, Ĵý Logistics senior vice president of finance, said: “the company’s onboard truck fleet technology toolset is a combination of commercially available hardware and software, along with proprietary advanced data mining and reporting programs.
“This combination turns raw data from the vehicle’s engine control module into information that is truly actionable by our fleet managers,” he added.
The toolset helps Ĵý to implement best practices in fuel consumption such as reducing idle time, regulating vehicle speed, promoting the use of cruise control, and reducing hard braking. The end result is hundreds of thousands of dollars in fuel savings.
On the safety and compliance end, the technology helped Ĵý complete the switch from paper logs to electronic driver logs (driver logs are required by the U.S. government). These electronic logs permit fleet managers to actively manage the hours Ĵý truck drivers spend on the road, to remain in compliance with hours-of-service regulations.
“This technology helps us better understand the driving habits of our drivers, which in turn provides us with the opportunity to jointly identify areas for improvement in regards to miles per gallon performance,” stated Terry Miller, executive vice president for Ĵý Logistics. “ This is just one more example of how our technology team helps drive business success.”
Bill Stobbart, Ĵý IT senior vice president added: “We in IT are proud of how technology has been used within the business, and continues to be used to provide superior customer service, profitably. The recognition over the years by InformationWeek, as well as from our business leaders, is greatly appreciated.”
By Alen Beljin
For the 11th consecutive yearĴý has earned a spot in the InformationWeek 500, placing 53rd, the company’s fifth top 100 appearance during the streak.
InformationWeek, according to a news release, “identifies and honors the nation’s most innovative users of information technology with its annual 500 listing, and also tracks the technology, strategies, investment and administrative practices of America’s best-known companies.”
A private company, routinely makes the list alongside a slew of well-known Fortune 500 corporations.
Bill Stobbart, Ĵý’s senior vice president of information technology, was on hand to accept the award Tuesday evening at the 500 Conference gala awards ceremony at the St. Regis Monarch Beach Resort in Dana Point, Calif.
“This year’s ranking placed special emphasis on those high-octane business technology innovators,” explained Rob Preston, editor-in-chief of InformationWeek. “Companies and their IT organizations need to innovate faster than ever before to stay a step or two ahead of their customers, partners and competitors.”
Moving faster is certainly the theme of the company’s submission.
In an effort to coordinate off-site administrative office operations in Mexico, India and the U.S., Ĵý introduced a vendor workflow process referred to as the case tracker. This technology was jointly developed by the company’s finance and IT departments, and a vendor, Genpact.
The case tracker IT structure allows Ĵý locations to create pre-assigned queues that record repeatable processes for several purposes: information compilation (e.g. customer and vendor e-mails, paper documents, dates/times of key phone calls), schedule widgets (e.g. work templates, order flow and important due dates) and real time reporting.
Over the course of a calendar year, the goal is to process in excess of 1.2 million transactions in this new manner. “The ultimate goal is to allow for seamless handoffs between Ĵý departments, centers and vendor companies,” Stobbart said.
“There is no way we could have achieved the workflow automation and control that we have today without the innovative approach we have taken,” said Sharad Gera, Ĵý’s director of financial operations. “We completed deployment to seven departments just this past year.”
The company’s chief technology officer since 1998, Stobbart stated: “This is just one example of where Ĵý’s IT staff is working hand-in-hand with the process owners to leverage technology to drive improvement. I am very pleased that Ĵý has again been recognized by InformationWeek as a top 100 IT innovator. Our IT associates globally do a fantastic job for our customers and employees and I’m really proud of their contributions.”
By Alen Beljin