Data Redefined - 3 Resetting the rules

Data redefined

Data is the premium lubricant optimising the forward momentum of automotive retail but unless it’s easily accessible, in a format that makes sense and can be actioned effectively, dealerships will be stuttering and stalling as though their tanks were fuelled with unrefined, dirty and cheap oil.

ViHUB acts as the state-of-the art oil refinery collating the wide range of information that flows in and out of multiple dealership, group, manufacturer and third-party sources and our newly launched dashboard – Insights – presents the information so it can be easily actioned. In our third article exploring how data can drive business further and faster, we explore how we extract intelligence in a way that helps employees make a difference.

Resetting the rules

As an industry automotive retail is awash with data and the good news is you don’t need to be a data scientist (or hire one) to overcome data overflow issues. Automation can do the heavy lifting empowering employees to turn insights into action that delivers results.

ViHUB Insights presents all the saliant information gathered from various sources along with the ability to access each vehicle for granular detail or drill down to specifics such as individual tasks or brand or group oversight without navigating out of our portal.

The dashboard has been designed to manage various issues dealerships encounter and automatically creates a ‘to do’ list.

Jobs highlighted to tackle include overage stock, problems with individual vehicles such as mileage or price discrepancies, description consistencies or lack of images and new stock which requires attention such as when a manufacturer is about to take payment but the vehicle has yet to be sold.

Large buttons are presented in a traffic light system – red, amber, green – so dealers can prioritise tasks.

The goal is a dashboard of green lights but it is likely the continual flow of vehicles in and out of stock will result in ongoing amber and reds for staff to manage. These buttons are arranged in a combination of filters reflecting typical problems such as ‘no images’, ‘wrong mileage’, etc.

New vehicles are flagged such as by interest owed or if a manufacturer is about to take the cost from dealer coffers so the vehicle can be sold before the money is taken.

Problems will be immediately obvious, such as, vehicles shown in tagged red boxes such as ‘new vehicles’ including where interest is accruing or ‘no images’ so the action is immediately identifiable.

A click produces a list of vehicles with that particular issue so action can be taken. If vehicles have more than one problem, for example, the price has not been amended for several days and there are images missing, all issues will be apparent when the vehicle is accessed from any of the red boxes the vehicle has appeared in.

For both new and used, dealers can impose their own rules, for example, the system would flag a new car with 150 miles on the clock; a used car with zero miles on the clock; or new cars without a finance code. Pricing flags include whether the price has been checked or updated in so many days whilst future developments include comparison to Auto Trader’s price ratings so it is immediately obvious if a car’s price tag is out of kilter with the market.

Other ‘boxes’ include ‘Allocations’ which refers to new and used pipeline stock and pre-reg vehicles or cars that have an ‘unallocated’ status.

Autofinity is redefining data – how it’s collated, how it’s presented and how it drives dealership action. Talk to us today about how we create one portal where all your systems come together and work in harmony.