Like clockwork
Imagine a company having car fleet management as its core business. A company that has issued 1.4 million lease cars in 30 countries. How many risks does this company want to take with its global lease management? Indeed, none. This is why LeasePlan has opted for TD/OMS as their object management system since 1998. And can now still say: "It's easier to leaseplan".
LeasePlan controls its lease management worldwide using a self-developed package in 26 different national versions. Changes are made to this package nearly on a daily basis. These mostly involve implementing extra functionality or fixing errors. Larger changes are brought into production a few times per year. After careful testing, the new or modified version of the software is transferred to the production environments in Ireland's Data Centre using TD/OMS. The Business Information Management (BIM) corporate department is responsible for the selection of such tools. It includes the Strategy and Architecture department, where Bert Verhoeve is leading this particular field of interest.

Professional, proven package
Bert Verhoeve was the one that started looking for a new solution for this distribution process a few years ago. LeasePlan Netherlands was using a self-developed object management system at the time. However, a lot of time and effort went into perfecting and updating the system. Verhoeve: "We were actually reinventing the wheel, even though a professional, proven package was available that featured all the required functionality and was all in all also cheaper."
The selection procedure was short and practical. The new solution had to meet two important requirements. First of all, the system had to be able to distribute bundles of iSeries objects to the various environments easily and consistently. From the development, via the test, to the acceptation and the production environments. Secondly, the new solution had to support Obsydian, then called Synon/2. Verhoeve: "I have seen and tested the solution by Remain, then called Object Management System of OMS. I concluded that it fully met the LeasePlan requirements and this at a reasonable cost. It was a strong, to-the-point tool and the choice was therefore easily made."

Part of the 'basic equipment'
Practice showed that this practical approach was the right one. We were so satisfied with OMS, meanwhile launched as TD/OMS, that it was soon made part of the 'basic equipment' for new LeasePlan branches. "The fact that we immediately had opted for a corporate contract also played a part in this", Verhoeve continues. "Consequently, we could provide the entire group with this solution in a very simple and reasonably priced way."
Verhoeve sees plenty of benefits after the change-over to TD/OMS: "If you are familiar with the application's structure and know how you want to set up the procedure from development to production, defining applications in TD/OMS only takes a few hours. We would really spend days doing this with our own tool, and then still... Now we can also quickly see the dependences between the various objects and therefore the places where distribution might encounter problems. This allows us to prevent errors in the production environment. Moreover, this solution makes distribution so easy that it can be done by an administrator rather than by a specialist. And finally, if something should go wrong after all, it can be reversed to its former state by simply pushing a button."

Growing importance
When LeasePlan later also started developing group applications, and started distributing to other branches and other countries, an efficient object management system became even more essential. "Meanwhile, TD/OMS has been applied to nearly all our iSeries systems", says Verhoeve. "In addition to the reception and distribution modules, we also use impact analysis and sometimes the 4GL module for CA/PLEX. Eventually we may also take on the Java module, but currently, 75% of what we do is native iSeries."
Also Remain itself is paid a compliment by Verhoeve. Verhoeve: "Choosing TD/OMS happened partly because of the positive impression we got from Remain's staff. An impression they have put into practice. Of course, there are still a few items that could be improved. For instance, it would be nice if Remain would also give on-site support in other countries. But we don't actually have serious complaints. We are perfectly satisfied with their sober approach and great expertise."

LeasePlan Corporation
LeasePlan Corporation N.V. consists of a growing international network of companies engaged in fleet and vehicle management, mainly through operational leasing. LeasePlan give clients the option to outsource their fleet and day-to-day management of vehicles. LeasePlan takes care of maintenance, vehicle replacement, insurance and reporting. LeasePlans innovative approach enables customers to optimise their fleet to the benefit of their business.

Recently LeasePlan Corporation N.V. launched an internet savings bank in the Netherlands. This new savings bank will operate under the name LeasePlan Bank and will offer savings products to retail and business customers in the Netherlands. LeasePlan Bank customers can choose from an internet savings account and fixed term deposit accounts with various periods of maturity. This initiative follows LeasePlan’s strategy to broaden the basis of funding of LeasePlan’s main business activity: vehicle leasing and fleet management. LeasePlan has held a banking license since 1993 and is subject to supervision by the Dutch Central Bank.

LeasePlan employs approximately 6.200 people worldwide. The shares in LeasePlan are held by Volkswagen Bank GmbH (50%) and Fleet Investments BV (50%). LeasePlan is headquartered in Almere, the Netherlands.