Sofico Services UK has held its inaugural customer forum, mapping out its long-term vision and ambition for the region.

Delegates were able to visit the nearby Morgan factory and experience a drive in the eponymous sports car and a Q&A session from Morgan CEO, Steve Morris

Dubbed ‘It’s Miles under the Bonnet’, the event underlined the importance of the UK market for the international supplier of automotive financing, leasing, fleet and mobility management software solutions.

The firm historically runs a bi-annual global customer forum at its Belgium head office to showcase its Miles mainstream software platform and future Road Map. With this event postponed to next year to coincide with Sofico’s 35th anniversary, there was the opportunity to hold a customer forum in the UK for the first time.

Hosted at Sofico Services UK’s Malvern, Worcestershire offices and a local hotel, the two-day event attracted an audience from major leasing companies, global OEM captive lessors and mobility specialists including an EV subscription business – all Sofico Services UK customers.

In a series of presentations, delegates were taken through the latest Road Map information for Sofico’s mainstream Miles software platform – now based on the latest cloud native architecture independent of application servers –  and its planned developments over the coming months and years.

Delegates were also able to meet with the Sofico UK team and discuss some of the latest developments in more depth.

The main topics centered around diversity, digitisation and data, and highlighted the need for hybrid software systems which were capable of providing micro-services and delivering the wide range of mobility offerings that many major leasing companies and manufacturers are looking to provide to customers.

The event also included a trip to the nearby Morgan factory, with a driving experience in the eponymous sports car and concluding with a Q&A session from Morgan CEO, Steve Morris.

Delegates also attended a presentation from Dr Harry Behrens, chief technical officer and founder at Blox.move, the mobility blockchain platform which began life in OEM Daimler but which is now, with seed capital funding, an independent venture.

Andy Page, UK regional sales and marketing at Sofico Services UK, said: “One of the main purposes of the event was in building a community within the mobility industry and bringing it together to exchange experiences and define the outlook of the future, as well as validating that our long-term vision and ambition is in line with their needs and ambitions.”

Page added that following Sofico’s opening of its UK office in 2018 – as part of the group’s ‘local office’ approach – the business has a growing number of UK fleet customers, including major leasing companies, both independent and captive, along with specialist mobility suppliers.

“Feedback was very positive regarding our inaugural event, and we will now look at the possibility of making it a more permanent feature,” he stated.