| The $60m dealership, located on Nicklin way, Caloundra, has implemented the DMS software, which runs the sales, parts and servicing, administration and marketing functions in a bid to boost the franchise’s productivity and profitability, as well as customer service.
Coastline BMW, which incorporates BMW vehicles, BMW motor cycles and MINI, is now fully operational on the new system after three months of intensive change management work that saw no down time for the business.According to Coastline BMW general manager Tristan Kurz, the changeover to the new system involved minimal risk as the software had already been endorsed by BMW, with extensive interface work carried out prior to the system being made available to the dealerships.
“The interface between the UNITS™ system and BMW had been through rigorous development work in order for it to be suitable to be nominated as a BMW-endorsed product.
We knew that it would meet our needs and would also perform to the requirements set by BMW,” Mr Kurz said.
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Tristan Kurz
General Manager
- Coastline BMW |
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“We needed to change to a more technologically-current system, one which could provide a high level of productivity among the staff and lead to a much better experience for our customers at the sales and servicing levels. Ultimately, we were looking for a system that would provide us with a better ability to be able to drill down and analyse the business, leading to a greater efficiencies, better customer service and higher profit.”
“We chose the UNITS™ system as it is the latest in new generation, Windows-based technology, so it was up-to-the-minute in terms of its technical capability, as well as being simple to use, and had the flexibility to meet our needs now and in the future.”
Mr Kurz said UNITS™ is already making inroads into staff productivity and efficiencies, which are impacting positively on Coastline’s customers.
“We had been operating on a system that was not as advanced as everything else in the business and was starting to slow us down and impede productivity,” Mr Kurz said. “Already we are seeing immense benefits in the administration department where productivity and job satisfaction levels are so much higher, yet the stress levels are so much lower.”
“For the customer, we are also seeing greater efficiencies, particularly in the servicing experience, such as with the use of BMW’s electronic vehicle keys and how they interface with our system. These keys record important vehicle information such as chassis number, current kilometres and information about what servicing is required on the vehicle, what we call ‘condition-based servicing’, where the vehicle itself is doing the analysis of its servicing needs,” he explained.
“Instead of servicing being done within a pre-determined timeframe or after a set number of kilometres, it is done when the vehicle actually needs it – such things as replacing brake linings, oil changes etc. This information is transferred via the customer’s key back to the system, and the software is critical in this process. With the UNITS™ system, we are now much more efficient when servicing, as we can minimise the time the customer is required to spend in the dealership.”
“Also, we have staff here from 17 to 87 years of age, and they all needed to be able to use the system, so it had to be simple, and the UNITS™ system is very user-friendly.”
Ken Fife, chief executive officer of Auto-IT said, “The successful software installation at Coastline BMW follows more than 12 months of work behind the scenes between Auto-IT and BMW’s IT department to develop the necessary technical interfaces between our Windows-based system and BMW’s technological and business requirements. The result is BMW’s endorsement of Auto-IT’s UNITS™ software as one of its preferred dealer management systems, opening up the opportunity for potential take-up by other BMW dealers Australia-wide.”
Sue Jochheim, IT Operations and Dealer Systems Manager from BMW Group Australia said, “We are very pleased to have Auto-IT on-board and to be able to endorse its UNITS™ dealer management system software. It is not only state-of-the-art technology, but Auto-IT has been very responsive in meeting the changing needs of our business and in working with us to find solutions that meet the requirements of both the BMW Group and our dealers.”
“The interfaces to some of our products that come out of Germany, particularly in the service and parts area, are critical – without those interfaces built into the software the dealers would not be able to use it and that doesn’t happen without a lot of work from the DMS supplier,” she said.
Mr Kurz said the implementation of the new system, which he expected would take 12 months, in fact took only three, with the dealership now 95 percent operational on all aspects of the software. “The process was a lot faster than we expected; the fact that key staff from Auto-IT stayed on over the implementation phase got us there.”
The UNITS™ DMS system is now being implemented at BMW dealers Westco Motors in Cairns and McGuigan BMW in Port Macquarie.
UNITS™ software is specifically designed to meet the needs of automotive dealerships.
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For further media information or interviews contact:
Julie Stephens, Stephens Public Relations
Tel: 03 9391 4603 0413 119 673
julies@stephenspr.com.au
Ken Fife, Chief Executive Officer, Auto-IT Pty Ltd
Tel: 03 9349 3062
kenfife@auto-it.com.au
18 June 2008
