Despite only three weeks remaining in 2021, this year’s M&A activity still is going strong with the newest development coming on the vendor front.

On Monday, 360Converge, a provider of communication workflow automation in automotive, announced the acquisition of Valuinsight, an inventory analysis platform that can enable automated equity mining for inventory acquisition.

The company said the addition of Valuinsight inventory management features to the existing 360Converge communication platform will increase dealerships’ texting and emailing capabilities, while decreasing the labor needed to effectively monetize the store’s existing customer base.

By combining deep vehicle inventory analytics with the 360Converge’s communication platform, the company explained its dealership clients can receive the benefit of pinpoint accurate information on which vehicles are moving from their lot and — perhaps more importantly — which vehicles are not.

By leveraging this information, 360Converge’s SalesDrive solution can target customers coming in for service with text to engage customers at the highest point of conversion during their service visit. The company said the result is an increase in vehicles being purchased directly from the service drive.

According to 360Converge, dealerships using this automation technology are already seeing a 20-23% increase of customer engagement and are purchasing 10 to 20 vehicles directly from their own service drive.

In addition, when paired with 360Converge’s communication tools, the company said dealers will have more opportunities to sell warranties beyond the transaction, turn more inventory, and deliver the right message at the right time to each customer.

“This acquisition marries two of the most important elements needed for automotive sales success today, inventory acquisition and messaging, to give consumers the exact information they are looking for when they’re ready to buy,” said Todd Smith, chief executive officer of 360Converge.

“Dealerships are wasting human capital by targeting everyone with an equity/buyback message. Dealerships using our SalesDrive application will only be talking with interested customers while also building a deeper connection with their existing customers,” Smith continued in a news release.

The company went on to mention that the acquisition advances 360Converge’s growth strategy in the market by expanding its capabilities in the multi-billion-dollar data acquisition arena.

“Data acquisition continues to be a hot spot across automotive and other industries as today’s digital consumer demands more personalized experiences and faster access to information,” 360Converge said.

In addition to the benefits to 360Converge’s existing customers, the company added that the acquisition strengthens its data modeling and builds additional revenue streams, while greatly expanding the company’s personalization at scale communication capabilities.

Scott Dreisbach, Valuinsight’s owner before the acquisition, offered his perspectives on the announcement.

“I am very pleased to announce the acquisition of the Valuinsight suite of products by the great team of talented people at 360Converge,” Dreisbach said. “Our core products will continue help dealership operations across the country to increase their bottom line.

“Precision inventory management has been my lifelong passion and will continue to live on coupled with the great team of 360Converge,” he went on to say.

For more information about 360Converge, visit www.360converge.com.