Auto-Mate® – Providing Decades of Dealer Management System (DMS) Excellence

Auto-Mate’s pedigree and chain of ownership can ultimately be traced to a Fortune Global 500 company, namely NTT Data. Ranked the 31st in Fortune Global 500, NTT is the largest telecommunications company in Asia, and the second-largest in the world in terms of revenue.

South African ownership is an important factor in Dealer Management System (DMS) consideration:  our system remains first and foremost aligned to local CRM requirements.

The development teams use feedback from our customers and market best practice to ensure optimum efficiency, effectiveness and profitability across all modules.

Auto-Mate has a full software lifecycle team that includes:

• Business analysis,
• Software development,
• Quality Assurance testing,
• Customer Support; and
• Technical teams (split into Facilities Bureau and technical).

This gives us a major advantage over other DMS providers in South Africa as we are able to adapt to local conditions and ensure flexibility for our customers changing needs.

Auto-Mate Invests in New Dealer Management System (DMS) - Evolve

Auto-Mate has recently invested heavily in an all-new Dealer Management System, Evolve, to bring best practice to South Africa and assist the market in managing ever increasing demands for Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and overall efficiency at dealership level.

The minimum level of end customer service has risen over the last few years as customers become more and more critical of each Rand spent on buying and maintaining their vehicles.

With global recession and tight economic factors, the private and commercial consumer is demanding that each interaction be better than the last.

A CRM system has become the tool to ensure that the dealership can track and measure these interactions and ensure a standard level of service across group companies and franchise. For that matter Manufacturers are also insisting that dealerships update their systems to achieve higher levels of customer satisfaction.

Customer Relationship Managment tools can do very little without clean customer information and this is the core function of the new Auto-Mate system: a single, unified customer record from where all interactions across all departments are captured. This enables customer data analysis which can then be turned into marketing actions.

From there the full customer lifecycle can be tracked to evaluate whether certain marketing activities are working (lead and lead source management) and bringing in revenues.

Simply driving marketing activities can double a dealerships profit within 12 months through selling 2 extra cars a month and an hour of extra service workshop time per day.

Auto-Mate has a long history of being extremely strong in the accounting side which is continued in the new Evolve Dealer Management System.

Many of the fundamentals that have brought the business so far in the last 30 plus years have been continued in the new DMS. It is essential that the new system picks up where Auto-Mate®  V3X (Windows GUI) left off and ensure enhancement of the dealerships practices without having to fundamentally alter them (unless of course change means significant improvement).

Auto-Mate’s South African DMS presence

Over 600 South African motor dealerships rely on Auto-Mate’s management information system as an integral part of their business. This represents over 9000 individual users making use of the system on a daily basis. Customers range from small dealerships to large multi-site dealer groups and the modular nature of the system makes it scalable for any sized dealerships.

Auto-Mate’s Dealer Management System is endorsed by a number of motor vehicle manufacturers including Toyota, Lexus, Volvo, Ford, Mazda, SsangYong, General Motors, Nissan, Alfa Romeo, Fiat, Land Rover, Hyundai, Iveco, Volkswagen, Audi, Kia, Renault, Daihatsu, Mitsubishi, Aston Martin, Citroen, Honda, Jaguar, Peugeot, Subaru, FAW Trucks, Harley Davidson, Suzuki, MG Rover, Volvo Trucks and International Trucks.

Many of the importers of Chinese and Indian-manufactured vehicles into South Africa have approved Auto-Mate as a DMS of choice for their dealers.

Auto-Mate is committed to providing the automotive industry with the tools it needs to run an efficient and profitable business. As such, the company continues to develop its products to accommodate changes within the industry and meet the changing needs and challenges of its customers.

Auto-Mate’s African and Middle Eastern DMS presence

Auto-Mate is represented in 13 countries in Africa, from our neighbours in Namibia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, and Mozambique – through to Angola, Zambia, Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, Malawi, Sudan, Ghana and Mauritius, 4 in the Middle East: Bahrain, Kuwait, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.

The success of Auto-Mate in Africa is due the fact that it is stable and robust enough to run on a stand-alone basis in all these countries with little requirement for professional IT staff. Support for these sites is done locally from our offices in Bryanston, South Africa.

Auto-Mate’s Progress Software Awards

Since our inception in 1981, we have built and expanded our Dealer Management Systems and solutions and have gained various awards as a result:

• An award for 20 years of excellence 1981 to 2001.
• The Top Revenue Earner Award in 2000, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2006 and 2007.
• The Award for Industry Sector Excellence in 2002 and 2004.
• The Partner of the Year Award in 2003 and 2008.
• The Elite Partner Award in 2009.