Hino

J Harris Assemblers

Design & Development of an Online Vehicle Warranty & Claim Application Solution

Company

J Harris (Assemblers) have been importing, assembling and distributing Hino Trucks since 1967. This distribution of Hino Trucks is accomplished through a Dealer Network in Ireland and the United Kingdom.

Challenge

The Hino Harris warranty department wanted to streamline the process of managing vehicle warranty details and the claims made through their dealer network against these vehicles. The current paper based method was both cumbersome and inefficient leading to long delays and errors when it came to processing claims. The company knew that this was a critical business process that needed to be addressed as the problem would only become more pronounced as the volume of vehicle sales grew. Hino also faced a challenge in the transmission of these claims to Hino (Japan). This at the time was also done manually through a Hino (Japan) portal but was a tedious process taking many hours to complete. The decision was made to identify a specialist with the experience to design an online solution that could manage all vehicle registrations and enable dealers to register their claims using a systematic vetting and validation process.

Solution

ERS were identified as a developer with extensive experience in portal and extranet development and were invited to carry out a review of the warranty department and come up with a proposal to modernise the business process. ERS started with a detailed analysis of the current process functionality and developed a requirements specification for Hino. As there was no existing solution in place, a series of wire frames mock-ups were created and presented to management to enable them to envisage the final solution and reduce the amount of rework needed within the project. This enabled Hino to visualise the final solution and raise any functional queries before the project commenced.

The final solution comprised of a secure Internet Portal that is accessible by both Hino staff and the Hino dealer network both in Ireland and the UK. Dealers are now able to complete their claims online by selecting from the available pre-registered vehicles and indicating what parts have failed. The claim forms are highly sophisticated containing numerous rules and validation procedures including check purchase dates, mileage and previous claims history to ensure that the data being entered by the dealer is correct.

When a claim has been submitted, Hino staff are notified immediately and can begin the approval/rejection process. Once the process has been completed the dealer receives reimbursement of the monies due to them as part of their claim.

Results

Hino has now successfully deployed and gone live with their Warranty & Claims portal. The portal has met all the key objectives set out at the start and has streamlined a highly manual task into a sophisticated online business process. The solution has not only increased productivity but has reduced costs significantly within the warranty department. ERS continues to be an invaluable project management partner to Hino and is currently engaged in other custom work and supporting services.