CDK wants to make consumer journeys from an automaker’s website to a local franchised dealership for car buying and servicing to be as smooth as possible.

And with a new initiative introduced at the J.D. Power Auto Forum in New York on Tuesday, CDK thinks it’s accomplished just that with the Automotive Commerce Collab.

CDK explained it’s using open and universal technology and application programming interfaces (APIs) to connect OEM and dealer software better.

The company said the initiative unifies and translates consumer information, payment calculations, real-time vehicle inventory status and sales documentation from an OEM website through to a dealership’s workflow — regardless of the software dealers use to operate their businesses.

Creating a cohesive consumer journey remains top of mind for dealers, as 84% recognize the increased need to focus on the customer experience, according to a recent study by CDK.

At least one automaker is upbeat about what this collaboration can accomplish. Angela Zepeda is chief marketing officer at Hyundai Motor America.

“As the world’s third largest automaker, Hyundai is relentlessly focused on building deeper connections and creating cohesive experiences with the people who buy and own our vehicles,” Zepeda said in a news release from CDK.

“Through our partnership with CDK and by leveraging their open and universal technology — as well as their deep knowledge of how dealers operate — we can provide Hyundai buyers and owners the experience they demand and deserve,” she continued.

As an open and universal initiative, CDK reiterated the Automotive Commerce Collab is compatible with any combination of OEM and dealer software platforms. But the company pointed out it can deliver additional and deeper levels of brand integration when paired at the dealer level with the CDK Dealership Xperience.

“The journey from an OEM website to a dealer’s showroom has always been clunky — with competing systems creating duplicate records of a consumer that forced data reentry, confusion over vehicle inventory status, and mismatched payment calculations. This broken experience ultimately impacts the reputation of both OEMs and dealerships, eroding trust and transparency,” CDK president and chief executive officer Brian MacDonald said in the news release.

“Unlike new entrants to the industry who are still learning how to connect OEMs, dealers and consumers, CDK is well established at the heart of the automotive ecosystem and has decades of experience helping all parties achieve higher levels of satisfaction through hundreds of thousands of integrations,” MacDonald continued. “We continue to focus on disrupting our industry from the inside by using our expertise and creating deeper integrations that create a less painful and more collaborative future.

“The Automotive Commerce Collab is a game changer for everyone,” he went on to say.

For more information on the Automotive Commerce Collab initiative, visit https://www2.cdkglobal.com/commerce-collab.