Western Motors

A customer feature

Western Motors are the main Volkswagen, Audi and Mercedes-Benz dealership for Galway City, in the west of Ireland. Founded in 1962 by Mr Jim McCormack, Western Motors has remained in the family ever since. It is currently being run by James and Simon McCormack. We spoke to Paddy Killeen, Financial Controller, who was instrumental in their decision to upgrade their 43 user system to Autoline revision 8.

Time to upgrade

For over 35 years Western Motors was based on Tuam Road but they moved to their new state-of-the-art premises in 1999. They have since expanded, opening a new branch in Drogheda. Paddy said, "The site was operating different practices for the same business functions making it difficult to evaluate, therefore, it was proving difficult to put an improvement process in place. We had got to the stage where we had taken Autoline revision 7 to its limit and needed to look to the future. With revision 8 we wanted to gain improvements from utilising the extra reports available, particularly in the workshop area. With the increase in business we would take on with the addition of the second dealership, we wanted to ensure the two dealerships were operating on the same processes, off one server, allowing full integration between the two sites."

Integration

Western Motors had been operating with a standard customer database management system, E-Goodmanners, which was used for call logging and the storage of customer details, but there was no integration with the existing Autoline revision 7 system. Along with the necessary integration there was a need to reduce the amount of paperwork and avoid the duplication of data entry. Sales people had to manually input sales data from a customer repeatedly to cover warranty and vehicle ordering forms, which was extremely time consuming. Paddy comments, "Now with revision 8, when the paperwork reaches the vehicle administrator, it's already 80% complete. Details about the vehicle being sold, the trade in (if any) and the financial details of the transaction, are already on the system. The controller then accepts the deal from the Showroom module into the Vehicle administration module and from here the transaction is processed through the accounting system. This process is considerably quicker and more efficient than the previous system."

Report Generator/Adhoc enquires system

Western Motors make full use of the Report Generator tools within Autoline, almost on a daily basis. It provides the ability to drill-down on information such as vehicle stock, parts stock, accounts etc. With revision 8, the report generator is more user friendly than revision 7. Paddy explains, "Report Generator is extremely useful, for example, if you are writing a report, the data extraction facility allows you to copy and paste data from the system directly into Word or Excel. The drill-down function to investigate separate details of transactions is also proving very useful."

Manufacturer integration

"The Manufacturer system integration available with the Autoline system was another reason we upgraded with ADP and we are always looking to increase the benefits from these interfaces. With revision 8, franchise data and price lists from MDL (Motor Distributors Limited) can be automatically uploaded, in revision 7 this had to be done manually."

Go live

"We timed the go-live dates of the two branches so that they were carefully planned and executed, ensuring the go-live was as seamless as possible," Paddy commented. When asked if he had any advice for other dealerships considering the Autoline system or an upgrade, Paddy stated, "It is very important that management are enthusiastic about change, to make it a success. Classroom training is also vital for all staff to ensure that you're getting the most from your IT Investment."