Dominion Dealer Solutions’ inventory management and lot services division, Dealer Specialties, has recently been certified in General Motors’ new Dealer Vehicle Inventory Management program (DVIM) and is now eligible for iMR Turnkey reimbursement.
The GM DVIM program offers GM dealers both enhanced vehicle merchandising, improved sales leads and eliminates the need to acquire GM inventory data separately, according to Dominion Dealer.
“The GM DVIM program takes advantage of direct integration with Dealer Specialties to eliminate traditional DMS polling, enable inventory image enhancement and improve marketing content,” Dominion Dealer Solutions OEM partnerships director Ryan Kelly explained in a news release.
Dominion Dealer Specialties joins other vehicle inventory management providers eligible for iMR reimbursement under the GM DVIM program.
“This makes GM dealers more competitive and improves the consumer experience at GM shopping sites like Shop Click Drive, Certified Pre-owned and brand sites,” Kelly added.
Currently, Dominion's inventory management and lot services division also has an extensive syndication network on third-party online portals available to GM dealers via the DVIM program.
Dealers can select from the Dealer Specialties suite of three inventory management and merchandising solutions.
Solutions include the Inventory Management Solution, Lot Services (Photography) and Lot Services (Video).
The Inventory Management Solution features both automatic feed syndication and data collection. And the Lot Services solutions offer high-resolution photography for new and used vehicles, customized window labels and graphics, inventory videos for web or landing pages and in-depth video reporting.
For more information about Dominion's Dealer Specialties inventory management offerings, visit inventoryGM.com.
Insurance Auto Auctions recently launched Active Inventory Management, the company’s latest innovation designed to help buyers and sellers outsource their salvage inventory management process to IAA.
“IAA developed the Active Inventory Management solution to help our insurance customers streamline their salvage management process and generate better economic returns,” IAA chief executive officer and president John Kett said. “IAA is committed to providing the tools, resources and technology needed to deliver an unmatched customer experience. Active Inventory Management is the latest enhancement in this effort, and early adopters have already seen improved results in returns, cycle time and internal expense.”
Using IAA's CSAToday platform, the new solution can regularly monitor vehicles, identify issues and coordinate any resolutions through its dedicated customer service team.
CSAToday is the salvage industry's first mobile vehicle inventory management tool, boasts the company.
Additionally, Active Inventory Management currently offers a turnkey alternative that can boost APD process efficiency, according to IAA.
“As an industry leader in technology and innovation, IAA continues to develop new capabilities like Active Inventory Management that address and anticipate the needs of salvage buyers and sellers,” the company added.
RMS Automotive recently announced that it has partnered with vAuto to make the evaluation and acquisition of manufacturers’ premium off-lease and off-program vehicles a speedier process for dealers.
Open sale inventory listed on manufacturers’ digital sales platforms powered by RMS Automotive is now integrated into vAuto’s Stockwave tool.
The integration can save dealers time sourcing high-quality used vehicles and allows manufacturers to increase exposure of their inventory via Stockwave’s buyer base, according to RMS.
“Our partnership with vAuto is another example of how RMS Automotive leverages its connectivity to other Cox Automotive brands to drive more informed decision-making for our clients,” RMS president Nick Peluso said in a news release. “This initiative provides dealers unequalled access to pre-auction inventory and helps manufacturers accelerate transactions by channeling the right vehicles to the right dealers at the right time.”
BMW Financial Services is one of the first commercial consignors to incorporate their wholesale inventory into Stockwave.
Using customized search streams on BMWGroupDirect.com, dealers can view pre-auction inventory in addition to rank vehicle types by cost, availability and other factors.
“The collaboration with RMS Automotive is part of the Stockwave promise – that we make the task of acquiring wholesale inventory more efficient and profitable for dealers,” Randy Kobat, who is senior vice president of Inventory Software Solutions for Cox Automotive’s Retail Solutions Group, said in the release. “The first step, of course, is having all wholesale inventory in one place. Our partnership with RMS Automotive brings us another step closer to this important goal.”
Stockwave’s inventory stream totals nearly 300,000 auction vehicles. Additionally, the company said its team is currently working to integrate wholesale inventory from other OEM-related sources.
Dealer Marketing Services, the makers of ProMax Unlimited, recently released Recall Check, a new feature for the platform that tracks open recalls.
Recall Check was designed to monitor a dealer’s entire inventory for open recalls.
“Recall Check gives our dealer customers a foolproof way to track all pertinent recall information and use it to generate service business and protect their dealership from liability,” ProMax chief executive officer John Palmer said in a news release.
Recall Check is powered by the provider of automotive recall news and data Recall Masters, which draws on a comprehensive OEM database.
“As the automotive market evolves, Recall Masters is continually evolving our systems and database to provide the most valuable information possible to promote sound dealership business initiatives and consumer safety,” Recall Masters chief executive officer Christopher Miller said.
“The integration with ProMax’s Recall Check feature allows their customers to easily access unique recall data and information through the existing ProMax workflow. ProMax dealers can focus on efficiently managing recalls and attending to the needs of consumers through a familiar, proven platform. The partnership with ProMax is one more step in the right direction to ensure consumer safety and to mitigate the risk of automotive-related injuries.”
The new solution uses an automatic nightly process and checks for recalls anytime a trade is booked in or a vehicle is delivered.
“Recall Check is a tool that can be leveraged in a number of ways,” added ProMax chief operations officer Shane Born. “The automatic monitoring ensures that all recall information is available; dealers can craft different strategies based on their local laws and individual prerogatives. Savvy dealers can use Recall Check to better evaluate trades, book in inventory, or funnel customers to their service lane in some instances. There are also options to print recall disclosure forms on sold vehicles. It has everything a dealer needs. There are a lot of possibilities.”
Additionally, all recall information obtained by Recall Check is tracked across several reports dealerships can access at their leisure.
On Monday, Element Fleet Management Corp. announced several recent changes to its North American senior leadership team.
They include the retirement of Tom Keilty, who served the company for over 20 years, along with new and expanded leadership roles in operations, fleet partnership solutions and strategic consulting.
“These are skilled leaders who are focused on our customers and advancing the customer experience. This is an important time in Element’s journey and I am extremely pleased with each of these appointments,” Element North America president and chief executive officer Kristi Webb said in a news release.
“First, I want to thank Tom Keilty for his many contributions to our business. Tom has played an invaluable role in bringing together our operations teams, and providing his expertise, guidance and customer focus to the Element leadership team.”
Filling Keilty’s former senior vice president of operations role is Ken Johnson, who most recently led Element’s fleet partnership solution.
Johnson brings in-depth knowledge and understanding in the areas of Six Sigma, sales and the customer experience to the operations team, according to Element.
Chosen to take on Johnson’s former role as leader of fleet partnership solutions is Joe Cuccia.
Element said Cuccia has been vital to its operations and will bring his extensive operations knowledge and finance background to the company’s fleet management team.
Meanwhile, the fleet-management company named Mary Sticha senior vice president of operational excellence. She most recently served as senior vice president of integration.
As the company shifts from integration to innovation, Element said in her new role; Sticha will continue to assist customers and the company’s team by sharing her comprehensive understanding of fleet management.
Additionally, Tom Peterson, managing director of the Midwest region, will now lead Element’s strategic consulting team in conjunction with the responsibilities of his current role.
Element said Peterson’s sales and account leadership will strengthen the company's strategic consulting team.
In-car Internet service provider Autonet Mobile recently improved the inventory monitoring capabilities of Dealer Connect, its year-old connected car technology platform built to support fleet and dealership operations, the company announced on Monday.
Dealer Connect’s new updates allow dealership and fleet management to now view all of their connected vehicles on a single map, track mileage in real-time and see driver behaviors, which include acceleration and braking habits.
“One of the many facets that dealers and consumers love about Dealer Connect is vehicle monitoring,” Autonet Mobile chief executive officer Greg O’Neill said. “In addition to service and sales opportunities for dealers, car owners who subscribe to Autonet Mobile will find it much easier to keep their cars in good running condition and track how their vehicles are driven.”
A total of three new Autonet Mobile Lot Tracker reports containing current inventory information is now available. Additionally, “consumers who choose to subscribe to Autonet Mobile in the F&I booth can immediately benefit from enhanced monitoring of their connected vehicles,” the company said.
The connected car technology can deliver the current location, vehicle speeds and driver habits of all of their connected cars. For example, it can alert parents if any of their vehicles cross any preset geozones and curfews that can be set by owners.
Autonet Mobile collects data via an easy-to-install OBD-II device that uses a companion app available on Apple’s App Store and Google Play.
“It offers a simple interface to learn about vehicle issues and schedule service at participating dealerships,” the company said. “[An] automated service appointment feature also offers the potential for increased service retention by allowing dealers to send notifications for deals, service reminders and recalls.”
Autonet Mobile launched the Dealer Connect platform in April last year.
At the NADA Convention & Expo, Spireon introduced its latest connected car solution — Kahu — the first connected car solution specifically designed for dealerships, according to the California company.
Kahu is a smart add-on designed to provide dealers streamlined inventory and lot management that also offers car buyers location tracking and stolen vehicle recovery service.
Spireon has already piloted Kahu with about 20 different dealers.
The whole connected car experience is still fragmented, and dealers have often been left out of the equation says Jason Penkethman, Spireon’s chief product officer.
According to Penkethman, with more data information, dealers can provide a much better experience for consumers.
“When we think about the connected vehicle technology and the evolution I think the dealers have been cut out of that, to some degree," Penkethman said.
“The OEMs they all have their strategy and have come up with different products and services around connected car for consumers. And then there’s some consumer apps out there that can provide different levels of visibility into vehicles, but it’s sort of patchy in what it can do between different makes and models,” he said.
Once Kahu’s hardware is installed into a vehicle, dealers can go to the app on a mobile device flip through their list of vehicles, tap on it and know exactly where it is on the lot.
Kahu users can also create geo-fences around specific lots and know which lot a vehicle is on and when it has been moved.
The mobile app not only can it find a vehicle but it also can provide a vehicle’s battery life.
“I spoke to a dealer (in February), and he told me that if put somebody in a vehicle with a dead battery, it’s like suicide because they will never buy that vehicle — and not only that, but they look at that dealership as if they’ve got a problem; that they can’t manage their inventory. So it's a huge issue for them,” Penkethman said.
“It’s a big incentive just for the lot management.”
On average Kahu finds stolen vehicles within 26 minutes and, according to Penkethman, Spireon helps recover about three vehicles a day.
“The dealer has an opportunity to make a little bit of money on the sale through to the consumer and is able to articulate really well the value because they’ve been using this technology themselves,” said Penkethman.
“Having another product to be able to sell that adds value to the customer is really important.”
Customers can use Kahu to track the vehicle they purchase and also take advantage of Send proactive alerts such as an oil change or speeding notification.
Kahu has had selling rate at about 30 percent at dealerships piloting the app, according to to Spireon. It will generally be available in the second quarter of this year.
“It’s really about providing data back to the dealership on their vehicles for lot management and providing value to the consumer when they buy the vehicle and creating that link back to the dealership for loyalty and service management,” said Penkethman
Currently, the company has about 3.75 million devices out in the market that it's tracking for various fleets and consumers and dealers.
Spireon utilizes an extensive cloud infrastructure to be able to carry all that data.
“We have a very large dealer network, we are focused on dealerships and we have connections to about 14,000 dealers,” said Penkethman
Spireon recently introduced its latest connected car solution — Kahu — a smart add-on designed to provide dealers streamlined inventory and lot management that also offers car buyers modern location tracking and stolen vehicle recovery service.
Kahu is the first connected car solution specifically designed for dealerships, according to the company.
“New car dealer margins have been flat for several years, driving a need to create new revenue and profit opportunities,” said Spireon chief executive officer Kevin Weiss. “Connected cars are changing the industry, but dealers are receiving little value from this shift. Kahu changes that dynamic, giving dealers the tools they need before, during and after the sale to grow profits and benefit from the connected car revolution.”
Kahu will generally be available in the second quarter of 2017, a select group of early adopter customers already have it installed.
“Our partnership with Spireon has paid for itself tenfold,” said Spireon customer Jon Hansen, general sales manager of Burien Nissan. “Being able to offer a product that I find value in to our customers and making it a revenue generator for the dealership is really big for us. I would absolutely recommend Spireon to other dealerships.”
Kahu includes an aftermarket GPS device and mobile apps for dealers and their customers.
Spireon said the smart add-on is intended to help dealers to grow service retention with car buyers by providing accurate vehicle data for proactive maintenance reminders and increase service retention.
The solution allows consumers to track their vehicle as well as receive to smart alerts for speeding and low battery.
“Kahu is an attractive add-on that safeguards consumers while driving dealer profit,” said Spireon.
Rapid Recon plans to introduce its reconditioning management tool, Group Reporting, at the NADA Convention & Expo in New Orleans next week.
“Group Reporting is critical intelligence for GMs wanting to improve reconditioning operations and achieve a more profitable three-to-five-day reconditioning cycle that increases inventory turns,” Rapid Recon founder and chief executive officer Dennis McGinn said in a news release.
The reconditioning management tool compiles and indexes the monthly performance metrics of an auto group’s individual dealerships and delivers the information in a graphical dashboard format, according to Rapid Recon.
NADA attendees interested in Group Reporting can learn more by visiting Rapid Recon at booth number 5417.
“Groups using Rapid Recon in their stores can know precisely how their recon processes and people are performing against best practices, whether by store or by comparison to all stores and franchises operated by the group,” McGinn said.
On Wednesday, Alliance Inspection Management (AiM) announced that it released AiM Verify, a newly developed proprietary wholesale floor plan system that provides lenders custom vehicle inventory audits for their dealership networks throughout the U.S. and Canada.
“When developing the AiM Verify platform, we looked for ways that we could incorporate new technology to create a scalable model for wholesale vehicle floor plan audits,” AiM chief executive officer and president Jim Yates said in a news release.
AiM Verify provides customers accurate reporting of inventory in real-time.
Lenders are even able to view dealership inventory when an audit is underway.
“By deploying new hardware and software to our auditors, we can provide a significant leap forward over what’s currently available in the market and continue to support the entire wholesale floor plan audit industry as a trusted third-party,” said Yates.
The platform’s dashboards and reports are also easily customizable to suit the individual concerns of each customer.
Field staff at AiM now have Android tablets featuring AiM Verify Mobile.
The company also announced that it has hired Timothy Walker as its vice president of product development.
He is responsible for developing and monetizing the company's technology products and services.
“Tim brings an extensive automotive industry background as well as technology oriented product development experience,” said Yates. “AiM is continually looking for ways that we can better serve our current and prospective clients, and Tim’s experience will prove pivotal in accomplishing our long-term business goals.”
Walker’s experience within the automotive industry spans more than 25 years, his background includes finance, automotive sales operations and product development.
Previously, Walker has worked for brands such as Ford, Autobytel and Enterprise Rent-A-Car.
