The power of dealership management system (DMS) data integration was a key discussion topic at a recent round-table hosted by CDK Global in Dubai, specifically for the automotive dealerships in the Middle East region.
The event was attended by participants from CDK Global including Marcus Dacombe, Director Product Marketing International along with renowned dealerships from the Middle East region who shared their thoughts on data integration from a dealers perspective. The event was aimed at providing automotive retailers with technology and innovative solutions to maximise dealership productivity and profitability.
Commenting on the importance of the discussion, Peter Rodrigues, Director-Product Marketing Middle East at CDK Global said: “An important element of CDK’s strategy is to understand our customer’s business, combine it with our technology, and provide a seamless overall user experience.
Further commenting on the differences between the global and Middle East automotive market, Peter said: “The key difference is the trading model. In other countries, there is a segregation between an importer and retail functions whereas in the Middle East these elements are combined resulting in the management of larger inventories and geographies. .From interface and feature point of view, our DMS fits well for the importer market, mainly for bulk vehicle ordering and management.”We work closely with OEMs and dealerships to ensure our DMS integrates with OEM systems smoothly ensuring a seamless operations with these requirements in mind.
“Additionally, we also find the average size of operations here significantly larger than the global average. It is common to find 300+ bay workshops or a vehicle showroom with 30+ sales executives. Another interesting challenge is the fact that the Middle East attracts talent from across the globe and the need for solutions to be developed keeping in mind the multicultural background of employees working for any dealership.This offers our customers the flexibility to execute diverse ways to run operations easily” he added. “User management, user authorisation and admin user access have all been designed to help empower internal IT teams to deliver for effective DMS management.”
Commenting on the competition in the regional automotive sector Janne Kilpeläinen, General Manager for the Middle East at CDK Global, said: “The automotive industry continues to offer opportunities in new technology development as consumer expectations are changing radically. Additionally, rising number of tech-savvy people and use of social media have encouraged automobile dealers to establish an online presence.
“These changes within the auto retail ecosystem are forcing dealerships to change their model in a bid to survive the competition. At CDK Global, we understand the challenges dealers face on a day-to-day basis, and through our integrated dealer management platform we are helping them to enhance their customer experience and improve business processes,” he added.
The event concluded with a short discussion about consumer behaviour and understanding how it drives change and how critical that is for companies to evolve and remain competitive in today’s digital economy.
Commenting on the benefits of their signature integrated DMS system, Justin Ashton, Sales Director for the Middle East egion at CDK Global said: “Where Autoline Drive comes into play is, it controls the dealers sales pipeline through personalised communications by targeting customers at the right time. From a manufacturer’s perspective, it manages the evolving requirements of their brands and easily sends and receives critical data to a wide range of interfaces to manufacturer systems. It’s a good place to be in for both parties and ultimately the customer gets a consistent message from manufacturers and their local dealer that they trust.”