Greenhous Vauxhall and Autoline

Autoline is used extensively by Vauxhall dealers – ADP boasts a customer base of over 50% of the dealership network. On the eve of its centenary celebrations, Greenhous, a significant midlands-based group has been taking a phased approach install Autoline. We talked to Richard Marsland, Greenhous’ Head of Finance based at the Hanley site, during the final installation phase.

With the discontinuation of support for their outgoing dealer management system, leading Midlands-based Vauxhall dealer Greenhous Group sought a viable alternative which would offer marketing and networked connectivity advantages to all of its dealerships. The obvious choice, Autoline, also offered the opportunity to incorporate the latest GM/Vauxhall manufacturer interfaces to support the sales, service and parts functions and was less labour-intensive to use.

Greenhous Group decided on a two-year rollout of the system, instead of going live on all sites simultaneously. Staff turnover at Greenhous is very low and valuing staff loyalty, the group decided on the phased implementation programme commencing July 2007, to take into account the staff cultural element.

The project manager for the installation of the new system was Richard Marsland, who appointed an implementation team at each dealership. The teams each kicked off with a launch meeting, which covered both wins and pitfalls and also underlined the need for a strong commitment to training for the system to be exploited to its full potential.

Education, education, education – the Greenhous way
Many long-serving staff had been comfortable with the previous system – some happily embraced Autoline, others less so. Several groups of employees were identified for a range of courses, starting from basic PC to system-dedicated training. A customised approach was adopted: as well as enrolment on the usual Autoline courses at Hungerford, Telford and Cannock, Greenhous decided that some in-house training was necessary to further meet their needs.
“From the outset, we understood that to get a good return on investment, training was a critical factor in the rollout programme, regardless of staff IT experience.”

In complete control
Greenhous now has more control over its business than ever before. Orders are no longer processed manually, each one is authorised online via Autoline by the sales manager. Reporting is menu-driven - the company can tell by the minute how much labour/parts have been sold.

In addition, Autoline has made it possible for Greenhous to market the 
business more effectively than in the past. Due to improved quality of information, mailshots to potential and new customers are far more accurate.

Accuracy of data
A lot of preparatory work was carried out before going live with the system. “We felt that a critical success factor was ensuring that a complete data cleansing exercise was carried out,” adds Richard. “We are fortunate that our IT technical specialist, who supported the previous system, gave us a good insight into data cleansing – resulting in a very slick data conversion.”

Now in its final implementation stage, we asked Richard what exactly does the new system have to offer?

Is there anything that the group would have done differently?

“When we considered Autoline, we looked at ROI (Return on Investment), payback and costing factors. Although the system initially seemed expensive, further investigations into the system capability highlighted that it was a powerful tool and therefore very cost-effective. The system was also rolled out on time and within budget – which is obviously extremely important to any business.

Would we have done anything different? No. Our phased approach to implementation has been good for both company and staff and we’re using the same roll-out style for the system later this year at our Willenhall and Shrewsbury trucks dealerships. Most Greenhous staff have seen the transition from the previous to the current Autoline dealer management system as relatively seamless. In a nutshell, Autoline is delivering all that’s required. In some respects we’re not yet particularly sophisticated users, but we’re using the basics well… and we’re starting to grow our use of the system.

To conclude

Richard sums up the position, “Autoline has created an opportunity for us to refocus on how things are done in all departments, automating some of our processing and sharpening our performance, at a crucial time in the automotive retail market.”