Le Groupe Bell-Horizon, a well-known charter and school transporter from Trois-Rivières, in Québec, today unveils the results of a project started at the beginning of 2016, to experiment CIS Group’s beta version of the new Mecano application, which handles everything that relates to the management of repair shops and vehicle maintenance. The company just finished testing the software, in close collaboration with the developer, and reports a fully conclusive success: today, Mecano is in complete live operation.

With a business relation of thirty years between the two enterprises, it was natural that Bell-Horizon be approached for the beta test, considering its familiarity since all these years with the previous fleet management product offered by CIS. Its people can still remember the very beginnings when the software was running on the Unix operating system –  and then the migration to Windows. Later, the Synergy programming language was replaced by the fifth-generation Windev language. Over the years, the course of evolution followed many steps, but this time, with the new Mecano, change extends even to the fundamental structure, which is entirely reviewed.

The long-known pull-down menus are replaced by a screen whose “tiles” direct the user and offer the intuitive type of navigation that is prevalent nowadays. From a screen presenting the vehicle as the starting element, the shortest logical path leads to all the operations that may be required for that vehicle: control of planned maintenance and other interventions by the mechanic, monitoring of fuel use, etc. Formal search requests are replaced by direct access to information right from the vehicle file.

A second basic screen, similarly simplified, synthesizes everything that concerns the parts: procurement, warranty periods, tire management, etc. The last screen, “Data”, facilitates historical data consultation, report production, and data export to external applications.

“The development of Mecano has also been the occasion for us to invest in many new functionalities, points out Daniel Bouchard, project manager at CIS Group – and from decades of direct customer support, no doubt the CIS team had the good knowledge to predict which ones would be the most profitable and appreciated.

Installation in the fall was followed by training the administrators of the application, who then collaborated with the project managers of Bell-Horizon and CIS Group to configure the software and adjust it to the transporter’s business processes. In January, finally, came the training of the other users, twenty-two in all, representing mechanics, coachbuilders, stockkeepers, cleaners, and managers. The operation started the following month, and right from the first day the feedback from users has been very positive.

With this successful new step, the Coach 2 Suite of applications is now complete – proposing the modules Charter, Circuit (school transport), Mecano, and finally Pay. For good measure, new projected additions are already being announced, with development well on its way – to take advantage of mobile devices, for physical inventories as an example, another being electronic inspection charts. Work is also being done on communication tools for electronic transmission of warranty claims.

About Le Groupe Bell-Horizon

Le Groupe Bell-Horizon has been active in the passenger transportation business for more than 40 years, first in school transportation then in charter transportation from 1984 on. The company now possesses more than 120 vehicles, with as many as 62 luxury coaches. With a central head office in Trois-Rivières, the motor carrier also has more than ten locations and depots in the Bois-Francs, Estrie, Beauce, Montreal Island, Mauricie, Montérégie, Quebec City and Centre-du-Québec regions. They offer their customers quality transport anywhere in North America.