DealerTech Categories

Automotive Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Sales Enablement

Dealers predominantly use Automotive Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Sales Enablement suites to manage dealership contact information, schedule appointments with prospects, organize tasks and daily work plans for the sales staff, and communicate with leads and customers. They also contain Internet Lead Management (ILM) and Showroom Management capabilities. Automotive CRM’s require OEM certifications to process manufacturer leads and other data points. Some CRMs are OEM endorsed and subsidized.

Dealership Engagement

Dealership Engagement solutions represent a new breed of front-end applications making use of advanced computing power and big data. These solutions tend to run on Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning engines enabling dealers to micro-target customers with dynamic content and vehicle offerings. Through predictive and propensity modeling, dealers can focus on the right prospects with the right vehicle offerings at the right time for a higher conversion at lower customer acquisition costs. This DealerTech category includes equity and data mining tools, sales intelligence and automation applications, as well as sales retention systems.

Vehicle Inventory Management

Vehicle Inventory Management solutions can handle new or used vehicles and offer a suite of features and capabilities. They allow dealers to stock the right inventory and to price the inventory correctly based on historical dealer data and/or local market data as well as the desired profit targets. Additionally, Vehicle Inventory Management systems offer appraisal features, e.g. for customer trade-ins, and streamline the vehicle merchandising/syndication/listing process on the dealer’s preferred channels (e.g. dealer website, lead providers). Some solutions may even offer auction features.

Vehicle History Reports

Dealers and dealer customers are using Vehicle History Reports to evaluate a used vehicle’s true shape and condition. Providers for Vehicle History Reports aggregate information from many data sources to check on a vehicle’s odometer reading, vehicle use, lemon history, open loan/lien status, past sale records, scrap and junk/salvage yard records, damage records and accident history, auction announcements, and service and maintenance records besides many more. Besides dealers, there are also other stakeholders like insurance companies that use Vehicle History Reports and data.

Vehicle Data Aggregation

Dealers require in-depth vehicle data for various use cases. For example, VIN-specific data, including lease rates and residuals or OEM incentives and rebates, are used to provide accurate pricing and appraisal/trade-in information for a particular make, model, and trim-level. In addition, the vehicle data can be used by dealers to enrich its inventory listings with detailed vehicle descriptions, which becomes more important as the car-buying journey is shifting online.

Digital Vehicle Merchandising

Digital Vehicle Merchandising solutions are necessary to build out the dealership’s digital showroom. Some may look at these applications as the connecting link between a dealer’s digital advertising and digital retailing activities. Digital Vehicle Merchandising solutions aim to enrich the inventory presentation on a dealer’s website and Vehicle Detail Pages (VDP) or other sales channels through picture galleries, stock photos and computer-generated imagery (CGI), 360-degree picture technology for a vehicle’s interior and exterior, and even Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) applications.

Wholesale Auction and Trade

As a retail business model, dealerships heavily rely on the right inventory sourcing strategy. Dealers can turn to Wholesale Auction and Trade platforms to offload slow-moving vehicles and stock high-opportunity vehicles that are not available locally. While traditional wholesale companies run infrastructure-heavy auctions in regional markets, new solution providers use mobile technology with robust digital vehicle merchandising capabilities and extensive vehicle data to move the auction online. Wholesale Auction and Trade providers can also handle the vehicle inspection, financing or payment options and contract processing, and transport and delivery.

Desking

Dealership Desking applications go beyond simple vehicle quoting. Desking tools allow dealers to calculate a vast amount of payment combinations to then present prospects with the best retail and lease options. Hence, Desking providers need strong calculation engines as they process millions of data points from consumers, dealers, OEMs, lenders, and municipalities. Additionally, Desking is a central part of a dealer’s Digital Retailing strategy ensuring penny-perfect payments are matching for both the online and in-store presentation.

Buy-Here Pay-Here (BHPH)/Lease-Here Pay-Here (LHPH)

Buy-Here Pay-Here (BHPH) and Lease-Here Pay-Here applications are primarily used by independent dealers. Solutions in this DelerTech category allow dealers to offer financing and extend credit to consumers that may not otherwise qualify for offerings from traditional banks and lenders. BHPH/LHPH tools integrate with the DMS’ general ledger and track consumer payments, deposits, and collections.

Rental/Loaner and Fleet

Rental/Loaner and Fleet solutions are management and tracking tools for dealerships, dealer groups, Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), and rental car companies to improve their fleet utilization. With these systems, business users can manage workflows related to rental/loaner contracts and (OEM) forms, customer check-in and checkout, payment and cost recovery (esp. fuel and toll), and basic vehicle usage and milage caps among other things. The boundaries to adjacent categories like New Mobility solutions or Connected Car and Telematics solutions are fluid.

Connected Car and Telematics

Connected Car and Telematics solutions become more relevant as Internet-of-Things (IOT) technology, and a New Mobility industry emerge. Solution providers work closely with Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), but also with progressive dealers and dealer groups on developing alternative revenue streams. Use cases may refer to GPS vehicle and driver tracking through OBD2 devices or car-embedded technology, asset condition management, remote vehicle diagnostics, and predictive maintenance. The boundaries to adjacent categories like New Mobility solutions or Rental/Loaner and Fleet Solutions are fluid.

Mobile Car Care

Fixed Operations is the only existing dealership profit center that is expected to be growing in volume and margin over the next ten years in comparison to the declining contribution from dealership vehicle sales (New and Used) and F&I. Mobile Car Care solutions including mobile mechanics, maintenance and reconditioning can offer a creative outlet to regain some of the lost revenue from independent repair shops, and strengthen the dealership’s customer relationship with lifted customer experience.

Parts Ecommerce and Wholesale

Franchised dealers turn to Parts Ecommerce and Wholesale platforms incl. Parts Locator for various reasons. In its core, these marketplaces and portals bring buyers and sellers of Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) and Aftermarket parts together. Verified by parts number or Electronic Parts Catalogs (EPC), dealers can sell (or buy) replacement parts for collision repairs, mechanical repairs and vehicle maintenance, or sell directly to end-consumers, or trade parts dealer-to-dealer (D2D).

Electronic Parts Catalog (EPC)

Electronic Parts Catalogs (EPC) give dealers access to detailed parts information and illustrations to identify Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) parts numbers (or Aftermarket) that are needed for vehicle-specific maintenance and repair jobs. EPC systems allow dealers to reduce the time to look up parts, reduce ordering errors, and lower parts inventory on hand. Also, EPC systems are a building block for Parts Ecommerce and Wholesale.

Service Management

With dealership variable operations under margin pressure, dealers are turning to Fixed Ops and Service to rebalance their profit pool. Comprehensive Service Management Suites offer end-to-end solutions to increase the shop load, lift the revenue per Repair Order (RO), and drive revenue from Additional Service Recommendations (ASR) and Declined Service opportunities. Automotive dealers can improve the customer Service experience through the following modules: (online) Service scheduling and Service check-in, self-service kiosk (integration) and Service lane write-up, mobile technician and (video) Multi-Point Inspection (MPI), Service marketing, and Service engagement and communication.

Shop Management

Shop Management tools are driving dealership efficiency and output in Fixed Operations and adjacent businesses like collision centers, body shops, and car washes. Automotive car and truck dealers can use Shop Management tools to better manage labor and parts, Repair Orders (RO) and the RO dispatching process, the dealer’s quick lube lane, the body shop and collision center workflow, the estimating and diagnostics process, as well as car wash operations. For simplicity, this DealerTech category includes Collision Estimating Systems (CES), and Service Menu Pricing (SMP).

Tire Management

Tire Management tools allow dealers to reverse the customer defect with regards to vehicle tire sales. Tire Management solutions offer tire and alignment diagnostics and sales software for service advisors and other dealership personnel to ease the upsell and augment the customer service experience, as well as manage tire inventory.

Reconditioning (Recon)

Reconditioning software is a workflow application that creates visibility in the dealer’s recon operation of used vehicles. Recon apps allow dealers to measure all necessary steps in the recon process, create accountability, and improve collaboration among the dealership stakeholders making inventory frontline or retail-ready faster.

Vehicle Key Systems and Asset Management

Vehicle Key Systems and Asset Management allow automotive dealership personnel to track vehicle keys in transit during customer test drives, Pre-Delivery Inspection (PDI), in Service, or elsewhere. Hence these solutions create transparency and accountability for dealers’ vehicle key usage resulting in lower costs associated with key replacements or the theft of inventory as a result of losing vehicle keys.

Dealership Document Management and Scanning (DDM)

With Dealership Document Management and Scanning Systems (DDM), dealers can digitize deal jackets in F&I, Repair Orders (ROs) and parts invoices in Fixed Ops, Accounts Payables and checks in Business Office and many other documents. As a consequence, dealers are able to improve compliance by storing sensitive information electronically, increase efficiency by spending less time searching for relevant documents (esp. during audits), and increase return on equity by converting paper storage space to revenue-generating space.

Automotive Call Management

Automotive Call Management applications promise to optimize one of the most critical dealership touchpoints – the telephone. With Automotive Call Management Applications, dealers can analyze phone traffic per location, marketing channel, and vanity number, or even agent. Dealers can measure caller sentiment and keywords – often in real-time, and record in-/outbound calls. Automotive Call Management apps integrate with the dealership CRM to log customer conversations or access notes and centralize functionality for operating the dealership’s Business Development Centers (BDC).

Dealership Conversational Applications

Personal communication with dealership prospects and customers is pivotal for building lasting relationships and maximizing the customer lifetime value. Dealership Conversational applications can be used by dealer staff in Sales, Service, or Business Development Center (BDC) to send and receive private messages via texting and instant messaging (IM), live chat, and personal video allowing for compliant dealer reach and communication.

Dealership Data Management and Collaboration

Dealership Data Management and Collaboration solutions facilitate data integration among DealerTech vendors and other stakeholders like Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM). With an average of 10-15 DealerTech vendors per dealership, dealer operators rely on secure, real-time, and bi-directional data exchange to run their DealerTech stack efficiently. Dealership Data Management and Collaboration providers offer extended services for data processing, data sharing, data collaboration, and system integration.

Dealer IT

Dealers heavily rely on DealerTech IT solutions to run and evolve their retail businesses. Dealers need both IT infrastructure and IT security solutions to respond to new operational and regulatory requirements. On the one hand, dealers adapt to cloud software applications and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) telephony without the need for onsite server equipment while embracing new-gen (wireless) network gear. On the other hand, dealerships are increasingly managing sensitive data assets that require protection amid growing cyber-/ransomeware attacks and stronger regulation like the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA).