The face of automotive retail has been changing rapidly with ACES (Autonomous, Connected, Electric and Shared Mobility) trends disrupting the industry. This creates a huge impact on the way of doing business for the closest-to-customer entities in the auto sector, dealers! And, it is also making the dealers re-evaluate the value and output created by their Dealer Management Systems (DMS).
Like Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems , DMS, for Auto Dealers, has been taking care of all basic functions related to Sales, Aftersales, Finance, Marketing etc. However, changing customer preferences have created additional necessity to deploy transparencies in the dealer operations and it also demands to minimize the gap between the customer and dealerships.
Role of DMS Providers
There are many DMS software vendors who are attempting to address these changes and making their software as dynamic as possible. However, the automotive industry is being driven by not only automakers anymore and there are a lot of players in the entire ecosystem which are deciding the way ahead. DMS companies have to consider the increasing number of stakeholders and factors in their customer journeys.
Incidentally, they have to redesign their product management strategies to accommodate all the stakeholders; which ultimately means being an open, modular and futuristic Digital Retail Platform. So, today dealers digital systems are expected to address below factors:
Technical Implications
Since it has become essential for a DMS to connect and accommodate multiple external systems and data sources, it is quite necessary to consider its integration capabilities. Many DMS companies are on the way to make this happen through building a common service layer which generally comprises API Gateway and microservices cluster. This is an effective way of modernizing existing landscapes and a step towards becoming a modular platform of tomorrow.
These companies are also initiating to build customer and user centric applications to make their systems comprehensive for dealer operations. Main challenges which are faced by these companies are lack of skilled resources and accelerators. To develop and implement such an open and futuristic gateway is not only technically complex but also a time consuming project for product companies.
AutoFacets Service Layer
This is where Autofacets comes into the picture. Autofacets is working extensively with leading dealers and in turn with multiple DMS products in the market. Autofacets leverages its own Service layer which comprises necessary APIs, which easily communicate with all the popular external systems. This Service Layer also hosts a set of microservices required to drive Autofacets’ own applications which are helping dealers to run their Sales, Aftersales, Parts and Marketing operations effectively.
Autofacets is also a technology partner for DMS companies to run their product life cycles and provide development and migration support.
To conclude, every player in the automotive value chain is bound to adapt for rapidly changing industry traits. And, automotive retail software and DMS companies have a huge role in it.
Are you an Automotive software provider looking for a technology partner to co-create and co-innovate the best digital strategies for your automotive clients? Want to enhance your customer experience? Partner with us to drive the automotive digitization experiences to the next level! Let’s Connect info@autofacets.com or visit us www.autofacets.com
Valentijn (Thijs) Leentvaar
Valentijn (Thijs) Leentvaar is the Customer Success Director at AutoFacets. He is a recent addition to the core team and is a subject matter expert in Customer experience and Marketing Management. ‘Thijs’ as he is fondly called in the office, has a dynamic approach in some of the most crucial business challenges and that’s an outcome of his experience that spans over 25 years.