Episode 3: The making of Wise Advantage

 We take you behind the scenes of Wise Advantage, the new digital marketplace transforming how UK logistics businesses access trusted suppliers and cost-saving opportunities. Dan Richards sits down with Evie, Wise’s Commercial Operations Manager, and Trevor, Account Director, who were instrumental in building and launching the platform.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

This is what we can do, this is what you can do in order to reduce your premium. Does one find tool he's projected is going to save 16 grand next year? Well, is that something that can be added in?

SPEAKER_01 0:09

Well first just ask the questions on this podcast. The bit of it that I think has really been popular with the Wise Advanced service is the fact that our customers that have got secondary businesses can promote those on the platform.

SPEAKER_08 0:23

How we can get people to book in business reviews, how we can get people to see the to do more success stories around what we've done.

SPEAKER_00 0:30

You don't have to physically do anything, just have that initial conversation and let us take care of the rest. Remind me, Trevor, you remember this.

SPEAKER_01 0:37

How many supplaces we actually start with? What makes you think I only remember that?

SPEAKER_00 0:43

It's just a guarantee that we don't have to go through that big Pioma channel and you know the smaller companies who might only have 30, 40 vehicles and able to obtain the same deals as someone who's got 150 vehicles.

SPEAKER_08 0:55

It's their target audience all in one place. So it's so easy for them to just advertise gone. It's a quick one.

SPEAKER_01 1:01

I'm putting you on the spot here because I'm not asked this question, I'll prepp you for it, but welcome to Talking Wise, the podcast for logistics and self-employment. And for companies that want to grow compliantly without the wheels coming off.

SPEAKER_07 1:19

I'm your host, Chloe, and I'm joined by Dan, Deputy CEO at Wise. Dan, who's this podcast for?

SPEAKER_01 1:25

This podcast is for businesses that are potentially looking to grow in 2026, but maybe have got caught up in a few misconceptions along the way.

SPEAKER_07 1:33

And just a quick disclaimer: this is just our guidance, not legal or tax advice.

SPEAKER_01 1:37

So we're going to give you super practical tips that you can implement in your business immediately. And following the podcast, if you do have any questions, you can find out how to contact us in the description or in the comments. Ready? Let's go. Okay, so today's podcast introducing the guests that have joined us today. So on my left, starting with you, Eva.

SPEAKER_08 1:57

Hi, I'm Eve. Um, I'm the commercial operations manager here at WISE. Um my job entails a bit of everything. Really? It's a good job. Yeah, started up marketing, uh moved over to more project work, and now I do some like commercial operations reports. Um I got into WISE Advantage because Dan had a great idea and he thought who else to burden with it than me.

SPEAKER_01 2:22

Yeah, often a lot of the things that are burdened with people start with an idea that I had one day. Um so yeah, no, so you were yeah, it was me and you right at the start, weren't it? That kicked it off as a project. Um and actually, credit where it's due, uh, reading from a list that started in alphabetical order, you actually picked the name, didn't you?

SPEAKER_08 2:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:42

Uh so yeah, it was it was very inspired. So we said, let's put a list of good names for loyalty programs, and uh as as it does, advantage was top because it begins with A. Evie said Advantage, and I was like, actually, yeah, yeah, I like that. Sold. Uh so yeah, it didn't take us long. Uh first one. Two-minute conversation. Two minute conversation, yeah. That's that's how I like it. Two minute conversation. Good word of the dictionary. Yeah, exactly. That'll do. Tick. Uh happy days. Yeah. Uh so yeah. Check it with boots, and it was yeah, chatting that we could use it, and yeah, they don't have a trademark over at Pantage. Okay. Uh so there you go. Very good. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 3:17

Uh so Trevor. Thanks, Dan. So it's a bit like people who call their b their kids Aaron. You know, it's the first name, yeah, the baby. Yeah, yeah. Baby name book. Yeah, that'll do. Yeah, that'll do. Yeah, yeah. Uh so thanks, Dan. I'm Trevor Uban, I'm the counts director here at Wise. Um here coming up to year soon, ish. Okay. Believe it or not. Yeah. And uh worked externally for some time as well, so well used to business. Uh, a lot like E me, actually. I do a lot of things. And yeah, I got a call one day as well that said, uh Wise advantage. Yeah, well, you're about to know a lot more soon. And uh it's it's been uh it's been great, I have to say. We've enjoyed it so far. Good. What role do you actually play in the Was it Mancy store? So uh building uh partnerships, building relationships uh a lot with vendors and a lot of uh vendor validation um is because you know every vendor on the platform either is going through or has gone through a validation process, yeah, which can often mean uh a live trial with one of our clients or so on or more than one, um, and um trying to find the solution, you know, uh to get to the pain points really.

SPEAKER_01 4:28

No, good, good, yeah, love it. And you did a brilliant job, my friend. Oh there you go, throw that in there.

SPEAKER_00 4:34

Uh Joseph, last but not least. So hello, I'm Joseph. Um I started with WISE in January and I'm here as the client service manager. So my role is to work alongside Trevor and Evie, and it's really to add value to existing clients by adding partnerships and seeing what synergies can be um can go alongside each other there and really you know find businesses' savings through our partners, what we've got at the moment.

SPEAKER_01 5:01

Nice, yeah. And actually, your relationship with the company started with me as well, right? Because you it got screened by my uh great iPhone screening service.

SPEAKER_00 5:10

It did in it indeed, yeah. So um, if anyone wants to hit me up on how to get through it afterwards, let me know. That's no problem. That's cool, that's cool for war for a lot of people listening. Yeah, so that's one of our services, what we have um on the platform as well. How to get hold of Dan by Josie.

SPEAKER_01 5:30

Oh no, hopefully not. Um okay. Uh no, uh thanks everyone, and uh obviously a pleasure to have you all here. And uh yeah, thanks for um being part of the wise advantage journey so far. Uh so okay, so I guess moving on, and for the everyone listening today, just give them a bit more context on on Wise Advantage.

SPEAKER_02 5:48

Yeah, what I'd say really is that uh we built it because we're already doing it. You know, we have this network of account managers around the country, have a very personal relationship with the with the clients. And they were you know already providing kind of a de facto referral service and saying, you know, what's true, you know, do you know who the how does uh so and so get their tires, etc. etc. you know? Yeah. So um we were doing it without realizing it. So we built it to have a proper product and to put some you know structure on it, I think.

SPEAKER_01 6:12

Yeah. No, I I'd agree with that. Yeah, you're right. Yeah, it's a it's a good point that you make actually because you are right, the account managers are out there, and I think part of it's been educating them right on what suppliers are good to recommend and and not. So yeah, no, it's a good way of good way of summarising it. Uh Josie, would you add anything to that?

SPEAKER_00 6:30

I just think it's great because obviously with so many clients that are already using different partners, they're already validating some of these companies for us. And the beauty of it is a lot of our clients have secondary businesses, so it's also great to pass them business through different DSPs that might not be using them at the moment. So it's really good to be able to push it out there and grow sort of all the businesses together while keeping costs down for those companies too.

SPEAKER_01 6:52

Yeah, for sure, yeah. No, that makes uh that makes good sense. And I think we'll come back to in a minute around how we help these sort of secondary businesses. Uh so I think actually I was chatting about this uh this morning, and I think I always sort of encapsulate wise advantage as uh quite an old school way of actually saving people money, which is almost leveraging the group buying nature of what we've got as well, you know. You're always more powerful. There's actually a conversation we had about one of our biggest customers last week, Trevor, where we had this feeling, which is right in some way in some respects, where there's a little bit of us that's like we're telling people that have been running logistics businesses for a long time about their costs. But actually, when you when you explain it in its most simplistic form, what you gotta ask yourself is do you think you get a better deal as one company or as 200 companies? And I guess that's what we're trying to leverage, right?

SPEAKER_02 7:41

Yeah, we have the luxury as well of not having it to deliver a lot of persons every day, you know, like all our clients. We introduce you have been able to sit back, look at the market, come up with solutions and go, you guys, rather than yeah, but I have a lot of persons deliver. We don't have that pressure that our clients have.

SPEAKER_01 7:55

Yeah, it's cool. You did have that pressure once upon a time.

SPEAKER_02 7:57

For most of my life. You've been freed. Yeah, I could the term now is uh when you leave logistics and go to tech, apparently. The term now is you go to Saudi League.

SPEAKER_01 8:06

Ah, okay. Okay, all right, yeah. So you were sat. Well, I don't know, I was taking a bit of offence to that to the moment, said you okay, fair enough.

SPEAKER_00 8:13

Okay. Just jumping on the back of what Trevor was saying there as well, it's really important because the logistics companies they just don't have time to be looking at every single invoice going to market where without sounding silly, we do, you know, and that's what that's what we're here to do is support them.

SPEAKER_01 8:28

Yeah, of course, yeah. No, they're definitely great. Okay, so moving on a little bit and sort of going back again, I guess, and just talking about the sort of making of the of the platform. Uh and Evie, I guess back over back over to you here. And actually I don't remember this, so this isn't a loading question, but how long did it take us from start to finish to sort of go from idea to life?

SPEAKER_07 8:51

I think about two months.

SPEAKER_01 8:52

About two months. That's quite that's pretty quick, isn't it? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, we had some bumps. We had some bumps along the way. Um but uh but we got there, didn't we? Yeah, okay. And remind me, Trevor, you remember this. How many supplies did we actually start with? What makes you think I remember that? Don't know. Uh oh, how many supplies? I think maybe 12, 15? Yeah. And then we had did you go you went back through that and validated some of those ones that we had picked from the start? And that's ongoing, you know, as well.

SPEAKER_02 9:21

And like our clients are part of that. Yeah. So we're all you know, we're keen to hear back feedback all the time, obviously, because that validation process would be ongoing. But yeah, it's also we went back and had a look.

SPEAKER_01 9:31

Okay, that's good. Okay. And yeah, obviously, we had some challenges with building the actual platform right, and like I said, we're gonna come on to later sort of what the evolution for the for the platform is. So okay, so yeah, quick turnaround, two months um from one fateful day uh where we had an idea to to launch and it's again. A lot of things start that way. Uh so I'm really proud of uh let's not talk about my feelings towards it yet. But it's like the old Obama meme again. I'm putting the medal on myself. I'm really proud of all this advanced CG. Well done, darling. Give yourself a pat on the back. Um okay, all right. So look, bringing it back to the listeners, because obviously a lot of the listeners for this will be logistics companies and you know, our our clients that potentially listen to this. As this almost opinion, but what do you think the biggest benefit to our customers is, Trevor, and what we're what we're doing here?

SPEAKER_02 10:24

I think it's you know, because we're putting together solutions, again, I know we spoke about it before, but it's not just the vendors don't just provide a service and that we've gone to the meeting, oh give us a few quid off there, because we've got all these clients, you know. It's it's more than that. And we'll get into it later on in a couple of the with one or two of the vendors in particular. Um, but it's that it's a solution that's going to save them money. Yeah. Um in in and that that is the bottom line.

SPEAKER_01 10:47

Okay. All right. Joe, does have anything that you'd add to add to that?

SPEAKER_00 10:50

No, I would say Trevor's nailed it there. I think it's just a guarantee that they don't have to go through that big procurement channel and you know the smaller companies who might only have 30, 40 vehicles are able to obtain the same deals as someone who's got 150 vehicles, and it's just that peace of mind to know that we're buying better together, really.

SPEAKER_01 11:08

Yeah, of course, yeah. Do you think this is a loaded question? But do you think our knowledge of our customers helps us with that sort of procurement process, I guess? Because we're not in the day-to-day, we're not living and breathing it every single day, but obviously we do hear the common problems and issues that our customers have. So again, it's a loaded question, but that that helps us right in that selection process.

SPEAKER_02 11:32

Yeah, and there is that you know, we have we are bridging that gap because there are quite a few people in-house here who are who have spent a lifetime in logistics and are now in tech, you know, and that that's key, providing the solution for people who really understand uh the requirement.

SPEAKER_01 11:47

Yeah, of course, yeah. I mean, I've done six years, that's what feels like a lot of time. Does that count? Uh it is actually, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:52

Yeah, but it's like dog years in logistics.

SPEAKER_01 11:56

Yeah, but I'm doing it in the Saudi League, so it doesn't really matter. I was doing it in the side Premier League, of course not. No, okay. Um, all right, so we um we sort of mentioned this a little bit earlier, but I think we should really spend some time just talking about you know what this means uh for everyone listening. But I think the bit of it that I think that has really been popular with the Wise Advantage service is the fact that our customers that have got secondary businesses can promote those on the platform. Why, uh Joseph, would do you think that's important to the Wise Advantage offering?

SPEAKER_00 12:28

Because I think firstly, they've got a secondary business because they've seen the issues what they're facing themselves, and if they're sat there running a logistics company going, Oh my gosh, I'm sending a vehicle in every day to a body shop and they're seeing the prices what they're paying the body shop and know they can do it cheaper, then they're gonna be saving themselves money straight away. And they're identifying another issue what every other DSP could have. You know, it's the same from anything from body shops through to tires, every DSP has the same issues, and there's a lot of pain points that we're picking up on what some DSPs didn't even know they had. So I think it's quite important there really to be able to promote our current vendors that are the DSPs um and add their sort of secondary businesses on and really sort of grow them at the same time as we're growing the wise advantage platform.

SPEAKER_01 13:15

Yeah, I mean a lot of a lot of feedback, and I know that the uh the SARS team have benefited from this, but it seems to be quite a big draw for us at the moment that promoting your your second business.

SPEAKER_02 13:24

Yeah, well it's our pleasure to do so for our clients. Yeah, obviously. Our clients are entrepreneurs, they've set up one business, they're gonna want to set up another one, you know. And uh it's just we're in a glorious position to be able to promote them to our network, yeah. Which is it's you know, it's great, it's really good.

SPEAKER_01 13:39

I agree actually, it isn't actually a nice feeling to be able to help them with their sort of secondary businesses. So, yeah, I agree with that. And then, you know, either how easy is it for them to add their second businesses to the parking lot?

SPEAKER_08 13:51

Oh, it's so easy, they can literally just ask their account manager, uh fill out a form online. It's so it's so easy to do, and they should really take advantage of it if they if they have.

SPEAKER_01 14:00

Hard the pun.

SPEAKER_08 14:01

Hard on the pun.

SPEAKER_01 14:04

I mean, as as easy as we made it, I mean it still was like pulling teeth to get some of them to fill a for me. Uh but yeah, yeah, yeah. They know who they are. Uh but yeah, we get there in the end, yeah.

SPEAKER_08 14:15

Yeah, and I think the good thing about it as well is it's their target audience all in one place.

unknown 14:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_08 14:20

At body shop, so it's so easy for them to just appetise gone. It's a quick win.

SPEAKER_01 14:25

It is, yeah. I mean, I made a grand statement a couple of times, which is based on absolutely zero facts. Um but I'm I'm going for it. Again. Uh yeah. Uh I'm going for this is the biggest closed user group of logistics companies in the UK. Okay. What do you think? Yeah. It's a statement, isn't it? Why not? Why not? Yeah, until it's until it's been disproved, it's fact. Yeah, I thought you mentioned I made a grand.

SPEAKER_03 14:51

Because I thought you were just gonna say I made a grand. Oh good for you. And how did you deal with that?

SPEAKER_00 14:56

How did you do that now?

SPEAKER_01 14:57

Yeah, um all advanced. It's a grand statement, isn't it? Yeah. And I think our job is to back that statement up with lots of good examples.

SPEAKER_02 15:06

As you know, I talk about rewards and discount programs all day long, if you let me. Okay, I mean you know how powerful they are. Of course. There's no reason why this can't grow.

SPEAKER_01 15:14

No, you are right. You are right. And I think we've got some really nice enhancements to the platform feeding in loyalty and all that as well, haven't we? So, okay. All right, so I think you know that brings us nicely on to just talking about some of the early wins that we've seen uh in terms of wise advantage and where some of the customers have have um have benefited. So, Trevor, sort of a guess over to you. I know that we've had a a couple of wins with one supplier in particular. Can you just talk a bit about that process and what we've been through?

SPEAKER_02 15:42

Yeah, so it's a um uh diesel card um comparison uh service uh called uh care fuel, I called Arthur, really good guy. And um, you know, of course anyone can get a good switcher deal, you know, anything in the morning can go, you want to switch you know my fuel and you get a good price to start off with. But Arthur provides a service whereby he continuously monitor that going forward. Yeah, you know, and you know, part of the validation process we keep talking about, but we he's gone to a number of clients. Um went to one client and looks at what they paid um over the past few months for for diesel, identifies where the price has gone above the plates plus there was a there was agreed, or identifies where there's a mini charged that wasn't agreed, or whatever hidden cost was there, and he just goes, No, this is this is not happening anymore, guys. And going forward, here's what we're gonna save. And that has been, you know, in some cases tens of thousands projected savings for clients going forward, just simply because um he's gonna monitor what's been charged um uh on a monthly basis going forward.

SPEAKER_01 16:44

I bet fuel car companies love Arthur, don't they? Because just cutting their margins right down. I am not going to express an opinion. Yeah, we don't want to create any fuel card company enemies, I guess. I don't want to create any enemies at all.

SPEAKER_02 16:58

But just providing a great uh a really good service there.

SPEAKER_01 17:01

What's the biggest saving that we've had from that particular thing so far?

SPEAKER_02 17:04

Uh so there was there's one client who he's projected he's going to save 16 grand next year. Okay, wow. And uh that's just on on one of their contracts. Uh-huh. Because you know, they had other contracts in different uh carriers. Yeah. This is just on on one contract or the other loan.

SPEAKER_01 17:20

Okay, all right, that's great. And then Joseph, I know you've been obviously early days for your wars, but you've been on the road meeting some of our customers. Is there any other sort of good news, positive traction that we've had from from people?

SPEAKER_00 17:31

Yeah, no, absolutely. Um, so it's it's actually really good to go in somewhere and be welcomed. You know, a lot of the time you go somewhere and it's you know, how long did it take to get here? Yeah, well, you better get back on the road. Yeah. Um, but it's actually quite nice to go in and get a get a coffee and get a cup of tea when you go into these places. And what's nice is people are you know looking at everything and saying, you know, what can you do here? And people are really open to the savings, people are open to absolutely everything from their insurance through to through to the fuel, like um Trevor mentioned, you know, through to every part of their costs. If they can save, they're really, really keen. So, in terms of early traction, it's great because we're getting hammered with invoices, which is good in one way because it you know keeps me very, very busy. Um, but at the same time, it's one of those where you can tell people have a need for it, you can tell people really, really want to save. Yeah, and where they can save, it's great because we've got you know we've got so much to benchmark against now. You know, we're not just going in completely blind.

SPEAKER_02 18:29

Yeah, nah, that's a good point. I only ever knew that when someone says how long does it take to get to here, but I actually mean is it's time for you to toddle off now?

SPEAKER_03 18:36

Yeah, absolutely. Well, maybe that's one of those cultural differences. Either that or either that or are you staying long? Either are yeah. All right, take a long time. I'll be today.

SPEAKER_01 18:54

Yeah, there you go. Um we've touched on uh Carefield quite a bit there, and you mentioned insurance. Um, but from your perspective, you you two chaps, is there any other categories that you think are going to be big wins for us in times of suppliers?

SPEAKER_00 19:09

Uh do you want to Yeah, no, absolutely. Um vehicles and you know, vehicle hire, vehicle purchasing is massive. You know, as we know, you can't get a parcel without being in the back of a van. So everyone is constantly you know purchasing vehicles. We're also seeing a lot when it comes to um bumps and collisions, you know, which feeds into insurance, which feeds into you know the bigger picture. So everything really around that van from its tyres through to its um you know, through to its door, through to every part of it, seems to be just massive, massive wins for us. Yeah. So we've partnered up with a couple of different companies that provide vehicle purchasing, vehicle leasing. Um so we've got some quite some quite attractive offers there, and it's just that sort of bigger buying power as well. That's what I would say a bit of the big wins.

SPEAKER_01 19:59

Yeah, course, yeah. Uh anything to add, Trevor?

SPEAKER_02 20:02

Uh we might uh we discuss the insurance this little bit.

SPEAKER_01 20:05

Yeah, I think I think we we've been chatting about this, right? And we're we're using a bit of obviously our course uh this sort of you know the onboarding and that side of things, leveraging that, aren't we, for the insurance stuff?

SPEAKER_02 20:15

Well just to get into it like when we say that we're looking for solutions, just get into the weeds a bit a little bit about what we actually mean, you know. So when we sit down with you know people like HRIB and we say, look, we've got all this tech, we've got all these integrations, you know, what can we do with that? Yeah, right. So they they come back to us and say, Okay, so the the automated DVLA, you know, look up the automated right-to-work checks. Yeah, um, you know, they tell us that that'll put them in a very strong position going to the wholesale market. But this is the level of compliance from um you know from a main contractor, and that puts them in a strong position to go looking for for prices. Yeah. So uh we have the the you know the automated DVLA check for points, endorsements, you know, which which which reruns, and the automated right to work check is a big one, you know, as well. And and you know, HRIB are are very clear on this one that they believe this is going to be a big one, as if the consequences of not having the right to work were not severe enough. And I know we have a whole other podcast about this, yeah. But you know, he they're they're saying that you know he cast doubt on whether the drivers are insured or not, and didn't have the right to work. Really? Yeah, he said, well, it's one thing not only should not be in the vehicle, it shouldn't be in the country. He says some insurers will take that view. Really? Okay, okay. But now we have the computer says no or computer says no scenario yes scenario with the automated right to work checks. Yeah. So when when we can present that level of compliance on our clients' behalf, yeah, uh it put it makes um his life that bit, you know, his hand that bit stronger going to the wholesale market. That's what I mean about a solution, you know, getting into whatever and complains about the price of insurance. We're going to our clients now saying, This is what we can do, this is what you can do in order to reduce your premium. Yeah. Make HRE HRIB's job easier and you know, come back with a better player.

SPEAKER_01 21:56

Yeah, because um I know when we um I was about to uh HRAB about it. One of the attractions of working with us was that point you made around the DVLA checks. And obviously, if a driver's got X amount of points, they're not insured to drive the vehicle, but the main contractor might not necessarily know that driver's got those points because the driver isn't forced coming and reporting them. So it does make sense how that that visibility of the points would benefit the insurance, right?

SPEAKER_02 22:25

For sure. And this is an exclusive arrangement we have with them. And it takes a bit of setting up, obviously. And we we had this in place and all the moving parts now are there. So you know it's there. Hopefully, we're going to see some some get some good traction with this over the next 12 months.

SPEAKER_00 22:40

Can I jump on the back as well and ask how does it benefit our DSPs? So, for instance, if they come on board, the start-up, they've got all of these drivers with one board and we see the points. Is that a regular check what's getting done to go back to the DSPs to say you've had six points added, you've had three, or is that something that can be added in? Well, first of all, ask the questions on this podcast, don't we?

SPEAKER_01 23:05

Uh but no, you're um you're absolutely spot on to turn guests for a second. Um, what a lot of our clients will do is they will check the drivers on the way in, yeah, but they won't check them going forward. Um, and again, let's not bleed too much into our right-to-work conversation. Um, but uh some people get a lot of comfort from the day one checks without realizing the consequences of the ongoing checks. And obviously the WISE platform has the Xpiry hub, um, but its use uh and how frequently people actually update those documents varies massively across our customers. So on day one, they've got a really good idea of whether that person's got points on their license, whether they've got the right to work or not. But by day 365, how much of that information is still accurate? Uh, and you rely on a lot of the time on self-declaration. Uh, and not many drivers are going to be forthcoming and saying, I'm banned from driving, um, because you know, this is their livelihood. Uh, but it's also the DSP's livelihood. And you know, I've spoken to a lot of main contractors that's seen their insurance premiums double or triple through bad claim management. Uh, so it turns quite quickly from the driver's livelihood to the main contractor's livelihood because things like insurance costs eating CMRG massively and mean that you can't run a sustainable business. So I think um really, really important for them to leverage the technology alongside the savings. But the two are hand in hand, do you know what I mean? Without using the bad French here, it's the old bad in, bad out, and you know what the the poor French would be there. Um, but you know, if you're not giving your suppliers good information and keeping them up to date, then you are gonna get poorer pricing. It's the fuel example as well, right? You do a good deal on day one, you let it festa, and before you know it, you're paying a fortune because you've not stayed on top of it and maintained it.

SPEAKER_02 24:53

Yeah, you know, we are looking at doing uh, you know, some pretty clever things. I would like to think so, around uh around how we're reducing uh premiums, especially around you know, first occupational loss and making that as as easy as possible. Because you know, insurers will look at doing things like waiving excess and that if the if it's done in a certain time period. We're looking at doing some clever things whereby we'll make that very, very easy, you know, to happen. And these are all things that are in, there's a lot of things coming fleet-wise-wise, in the next 12 months, you know, and these are all things that are going to be in the process at the moment that will be yeah, will be released.

SPEAKER_01 25:27

You don't say good things for fleet too, like Salmon Keys is knocking around uh and he might burst through the door and be like, You talking about fleet?

SPEAKER_00 25:34

I should forget about that as well. That sounded really good, fleet-wise. That could be a new name there.

SPEAKER_01 25:39

Oh, that's how you come up with the next name, Fleet's not anyone notice the eye.

SPEAKER_03 25:44

I just dropped it in the middle of it. We just dropped it.

SPEAKER_01 25:49

Far down the alphabet for us. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, we need something in the eyes. Yeah. Okay. Uh so anyway, let's not try and think of it. Automotive-wise. There you go. That was quite quick, wasn't it? Actually, uh back to the alphabet. Yeah, yeah. So automotive, yeah, go for that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, okay, no, so I think um the supply side of it clearly, in terms of priorities, actually, for Wise at Manchester, and we're going to come a little bit onto uh what we're doing from a tech perspective, Evie, in a second, in terms of the platform. But do you think that's our big target over this little period is the supplier sort of side of things, or do you think now it's time to start getting a bit deeper into the clients? Or is it or is it both?

SPEAKER_02 26:28

Well, it's both, you know, and that's why you know Joseph's come on board as well as you know, as client service manager for that for that exact reason. So it's it'll be it'll be moving along on both fronts, really.

SPEAKER_01 26:38

What would you say, Trevor, your aspiration in terms of suppliers is? And I'm putting you on the spot here because I'm not asked this question, I'll prepped you for it, but do you have a supplier aspiration like in terms of what you'd what you'd like to see from the suppliers that we've got? Do I have a supplier aspiration? Yeah, like a number of suppliers, or is it quantity over quality, or or or what is it sorry, the other way around quality over quantity.

SPEAKER_02 27:04

Yeah. No, I I I do have uh an end-to-end solution in my head that I am that I am working on. Okay. You know, that that will lead to that will lead to going to say a lot of words that I I won't say out loud. But it's going to involve lots of different functionality. It's going to involve introducing vendors to each other, saying, hey, you know, you two guys really should integrate with the through us or together and so on, and to make a really good experience around uh damage detection, around um uh reducing uh insurance premiums, and that'll be you know an end-to-end solution there that that's that's that's gonna be really good.

SPEAKER_01 27:43

Yeah, okay. That's a good point. Yeah. Joseph, are you gonna you're fairly new to the business, you know, from almost a blank slight looking in, you know, what what things do you do you think you can get from the program?

SPEAKER_00 27:55

Well, I think it's just good to be able to go in and do a full audit. You know, go into a company, do a full audit of all of their finances and be able to really go back and say, overall, we're able to save you X amount of money. This is step A, B, C, and really just lay down a plan for them going forward to be able to execute all of those savings and you know, in turn, us to be able to execute those savings for them.

SPEAKER_01 28:19

Yeah, cool. Sure. Well, I'm I'm gonna I'm gonna say something now because I was gonna ask the question, but I thought I don't want someone to actually say the wrong answer here. Um, because there's not really a right or a wrong guess, but the bit of it actually, which all of our clients should understand, is that we're doing this for free, right? Oh that. I'm not. Is that not a grandfield on that? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Get a grand beach after that for sure, yeah. Yeah, so that's the that's the crazy bit about this. You know, it's what we're offering here in terms of service, you just a bolt onto the generic sort of why service, right? So this is you know, fill your boots, contact us, and you know, we're gonna help you save some money. Why wouldn't you do it?

SPEAKER_00 28:57

Yeah, that's a managed service, I suppose, as well. You know, that's the beauty. You know, you don't have to physically do anything, just have that initial conversation and let us take care of the rest. And if if that doesn't sell to itself, or will. True. I do have a different aspiration I'd like to talk about.

SPEAKER_02 29:12

Go on then. Yeah, okay. So I did hope you want to show if you have one. At the moment, um I want a client to be a fully advantaged. Oh, you said this, yeah. Yeah, yeah. I I want someone, I want the first one to be to to run their business on advantage vendors.

SPEAKER_01 29:29

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 29:30

I'm really keen to get someone to do that and show show what's possible. And the the first one's going to get a really you know dedicated managed service. Because obviously now that I've said it out loud, otherwise you fail.

SPEAKER_06 29:42

You go and sit in their office and get too much.

SPEAKER_02 29:46

But but that's you know, yeah, we'd love to we'd love to get there.

SPEAKER_01 29:49

No, that's a great aspiration, actually. Yeah, someone using all the supplies. Yeah, no, I like that. Yeah. Well, that's your task, mate. Can you make it happen?

SPEAKER_00 29:58

If they were called advantage logistics, that would work as well, wouldn't it? It would. Have a search for the Navy.

SPEAKER_01 30:03

Yeah, I don't think we've got an advantage logistics. Okay, so obviously the better deals, long-term vision, integrating the technology, all those things, tick, tick, tick. Eevee I know we've made some enhancements recently to the platform. Um yeah, but yeah, tell them tell us more. I'll do the questions like asking on the screen to right.

SPEAKER_00 30:24

Yeah, that was a statement. That was a great. Yeah, yeah. So Dan, we've made some changes to the platform. Tell us more. Uh Eva?

SPEAKER_08 30:32

So um I think the platform has really developed since we had the original idea. So it was meant to be kind of this self-service system, and now it's kind of turned into, like you say, like a managed service. So we're kind of switching it around from just having like what is on offer, but more to like how we can get people to book in business reviews, how we can get people to see the differences, to do more success stories around what we've done, um, try and kind of push them to to get the review and get all the the actual benefits from it.

SPEAKER_01 31:08

And we've also integrated the loyalty programme, yeah. And I know that Trevor's been doing a lot of research on loyalty programs, haven't you, Trevor? Do you want to give us a little factoid? Can I? Yeah, yeah, sure. You're why not we're here. Might as well. Okay. I know you've been absolutely desperate to share these.

SPEAKER_02 31:22

Yes, I have, honestly. So you think you're at the cutting edge, all right? And it turns out that the first one that I could find did this started with a feather in ink, all right? You know, in 1840 something, okay. Can't believe you did loyalty programs back then, mate. The cooperative dividend, shortened to Divi, yeah, was the first recorded national in rewards or discounts programme. When was it from? Uh 1844. Oh, okay. Yeah, do live maths. Yeah. Yeah, a long, long time ago. And then obviously progress actually, what used to happen there was that you just you'd get a number and you reported a ledger that you'd spend X amount of money, all right? And then they progressed that on to giving copper tokens. Basically the crypto of the day.

SPEAKER_03 32:08

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 32:08

All right for it. Move along, 1955, Green Shield stamps. Okay. Now this is personal, and I'm gonna get emotional. My mother, God rest her, used to collect Green Shield stamps and put them in a book. Yeah. All right. And then you put them in a book and you'd fill your book, literally, or a number of books, and you bring them to a place called a redemption center to redeem the the the gifts or whatever it was that you got. All right. Now, here's the thing. For 88 books, all right, you could get a colour TV or a speed boat?

SPEAKER_01 32:41

A speed boat. A speed boat.

unknown 32:43

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 32:49

Yeah, good point. Yes, and it was a speed boat. Yeah. How are you here today?

SPEAKER_02 32:53

Well, yeah, apparently number 22. Yeah, exactly. So then it moved on. That actually turned into the Argos catalogue. Okay. And back then, 50s and 60s, that cat the Greenfield stamps catalogue was the second most read book in the UK after the Bible. Wow. Second only to God. You don't even write when. Yeah, of course, yeah. 1995, Tesco. Yeah, cool, of course, club card. Yeah, they use something called um uh electronic data to track uh shoppers' uh preferences. Wow. So they've known since 95 that I like baked beans. Right? Yeah. Good looks of them. Yeah, of course, yeah. 2025? Wise advantage.

SPEAKER_01 33:39

I like that. Do you still like black beans? Yeah? Yeah. Black beans are alright, yeah. And we know now where bulls are got all their speed boats from, right? Okay, yeah. So bringing the loyalty side into the platform as well, and you know, the stuff that we've done there is going to be a big enhancement, right?

SPEAKER_08 33:58

Yeah, so our account managers always ask the clients, you know, where you are with the loyalty program, and they would never really know. So now they can log on to Wise Advantage and see it, they can see exactly what they want to do, and they can easily just get more points and great.

SPEAKER_01 34:10

And I know that we are um bringing loads more features into the platform, aren't we, this year? So we'll leave that for the audience.

SPEAKER_02 34:16

Um can we just say that it looks amazing?

SPEAKER_01 34:19

It does look amazing, yeah. It does look good, doesn't it? The platform does, yeah. Um like I said earlier, I am I am proud of it. Uh we've done a good job of the stuff. Yeah, I did say we. I mean, even when even we always say we. There's not a lot of doing on my side, uh, to be fair. Uh, but I still like to say we make so you feel better. Okay, right. So I think we're we're getting to the end there. So yeah, thanks everyone for um joining today. I know we've got quite a big series of Wise Advantage sort of podcasts coming up, so we're bringing some other suppliers in to dig a bit deeper into the specific issues that they solve and the savings that they've got. Um, but anyone listening today that does want to talk about coming onto the platform or one of the particular suppliers, and obviously they can reach out to any other team here, and we're going to put the contact details in the description. So reach out to us if you're interested in promoting your business or you're a supplier and you're interested in promoting your services to our customers, then reach out and we'll get you on. But if not, uh see you next time. Thank you. Thank you.