The Customer: Our customer is the national distributor in Greece of a well known brand in the automotive sector. They have a network of 130 independent dealerships. The dealerships sell cars and offer repair or other services; the importer provides training, support and inventory to the dealers and derives its revenue from sales of cars and spare parts to customers
What was the Business Challenge: Year after year the importer seeks to meet or exceed its sales targets set in collaboration with the global company, while at the same time they want to provide top quality services to the end customers through the dealership network. So they needed a solution to support radical improvements in efficiency and customer service and make information and strategic contacts available 24 hours a day—including weekends—to support sales. They also wanted to minimize administrative, process and handling costs.
In the past, the importer struggled to reconcile local records kept at Dealership level with the central records (orders, inventories, service histories). Dealers managing their own IT’s made selections of incompatible systems across the network. Communication of people and systems was extremely difficult and too expensive. At each service location the customers were treated in a different manner.
The Importer was trying to find a way to:
Create a unified image of all its dependent car dealerships throughout Greece. The customer should get the same type and quality of service in any dealership that he would visit.
Collect on-line marketing data from all the dependent dealerships, (history of customer, car visits to repair shops throughout the country, visits to dealerships with the purpose of buying a new /used car, full customer data available for marketing purposes like mass mailing, statistics on malfunctions for each model etc.)
Be able to control the prices set by dealers for spare parts. Provide them with the most current spare parts catalogue available, straight from the manufacturer.
Provide all dealers with common data concerning each car’s status, service history, pending service activities (preventive maintenance).
Provide all dealers – as a part of the same software suite - with a universal S/W which would suit their needs even in the areas of Accounting (General Ledger, customer statements etc.), their own inventory management etc. This S/W should be centrally installed, operated by the Importer IT & Marketing Personnel and accessible to all interested parties over the Internet.
Integrate the system – where needed – with the central system of the Importer, in order to be able to receive/transmit data whenever needed (on-line or overnight).
Our customer wanted all the software to be installed centrally on their own infrastructure and be operated by their IT & Marketing Staff. Also to be accessible from anywhere over the internet
How e-On Integration approached the challenges of the client:
EOn Integration proposed the deployment of its E-ON RIX Business Financials & CRM suite to deal with the day-to-day business of the dealers and the reporting needs of both the dealers and the Importer.
E-ON RIX is a fully vertical business integration tool that streamlines and automates processes and work flows. It can replace many applications, each of them doing a part of the processes required.
E-ON’s intervention resulted in the development of a business, financial and CRM suite, tailored for the importer and the dealerships to fully integrate, cover and serve each and every part of their processes.
The system was installed centrally at the importer’s premises and is 24X7 available anytime, anyplace by all users over the web with a common web browser. It simplifies and homogenizes all processes. It creates a true collaborative environment across all the dealership network and the importer. It improves the quality of provided services. All share common information.
Results: As a result of standardized, streamlined processes, forms and practices, the company has reduced the turnaround time to deliver and fulfill a car order from 11 days to 7 days.
Data redundancy and inconsistencies are a thing of the past. There is no way dealers can make sales outside E-ON RIX system. It is now easy to enforce a “first come, first served” policy when a particular car model is scarce and dealers are competing for those available in the warehouse. Regardless of where customers go to buy or service their car, they receive the same high quality of services.
Moreover, central management of the system is radically reducing costs. The dealers, who formerly depended on contract IT support for their local system environments, are now supported by the IT at the importer’s headquarters. This has resulted in an overall 69 percent reduction in dealers’ IT costs.
The ratio of IT costs to total sales across the extended enterprise is now just 0.21 percent, compared to averages of 1 percent for businesses in Greece.
E-ON RIX has helped the importer and the Dealers to see measurable results:
Reduced Inventory levels by 10% to 20% at Dealer stockrooms,
Reduced Car order fulfillment time from 11 workdays to 7 workdays,
Reduced Spare Part order fulfillment from 3 days to 1 day,
Eliminated false warranties,
Reduced claims not accepted by the Manufacturer by 90%.
Reduced total IT cost of ownership (TCO) for DMS by 60%.
Maximized efficiency in communication between the importer and the Sales and After Sales Service Network.
All Dealers have access through a single Web interface to all business activities of the enterprise.
Maintenance and Support costs of the Dealers’ Computer Applications are minimized, since e-On RIX is centralized and managed by experienced and shared resources of the importer’s IT Dept.
Volumes served:
Active Users >1.500
Dealerships 130
Car records >120.000
Spare parts records >140.000
