Fleet maintenance departments are short-changed when it comes to corporate computer power.

That’s the gist of a finding from maintenance software provider Arsenault Associates of Atco, N.J. According to the company, a study of its software support records shows that initial installation problems can often be traced to a computer previously used by another department or individual in the company.
"Providing the fleet maintenance department with a computer that may have been sitting on a shelf in an IT department for who knows how long, is a formula for failure. Most often these make-do computers still hold data, software and all of the operating problems of the previous users," said Charles Arsenault, president of company, which has been in the software business since 1979.
Arsenault said the finding is significant because up to a third of all efforts to computerize fleet maintenance management fail to attain full implementation. Many of those fleets return to manual systems, if any system at all, he said.
Arsenault said PC troubles are frequently traceable to attempts to update older computers by simply removing old programs and cleaning off hard drives, but not verifying that it has the memory and processor speed required by the software.
"Removing programs by simply erasing their files from the hard disk creates problems because it does not deal with the Windows Registry," said Arsenault.
If programs are removed but their registry entries are left intact, Windows will encounter problems -- trying to load files that no longer exist on the hard drive, for example.
"The best thing is a new computer, but if that isn't possible, make sure the computer you do have is properly configured and that it has enough RAM memory and processor speed to handle today's modern software and Internet technologies like online ASP services," Arsenault said.
"If you can't be sure of the hand-me-down computer, the next best thing is to 'rebuild' the machine. That means erasing the entire hard drive and starting over from ground zero by installing Windows operating system, then installing your fleet applications -- including the maintenance software," he said.
"Compared to what most companies spend on software for departments such as accounting or production, if you consider the very fast payback (6 months or less), large, long-term savings and high productivity that automating the fleet maintenance department produces, investing a few dollars in a new computer for the fleet maintenance department is a real bargain," said Arsenault.
Arsenault Associates markets Dossier32 fleet maintenance software and the 24/7 Fleet Online maintenance software service.