ATLANTA – August 5, 2020 – Manheim and vAuto continue to create new connections across their digital platforms, helping dealers reduce depreciation risk and drive greater inventory profitability. First, new functionality in vAuto’s Provision enables clients to request a Manheim Express Concierge specialist, so they can more quickly and effortlessly get their inventory listed right from their lots. Second, vAuto’s Stocking Grade and Strategy Action will now appear within the Manheim.com recommended vehicles carousel, helping enable dealers to see at a glance how suggested vehicles work with their current business plans.

“Dealers have told us that they want a tighter connection between vAuto and Manheim, and these two integrations are great examples of how we’re acting on that feedback and helping dealers better manage their inventory,” said Zach Hallowell, vice president of Manheim Digital. “vAuto and Manheim offer powerful inventory management tools and bringing them closer together delivers on the promise of Cox Automotive for our clients.”

More details on these integrations follow:

Request a Manheim Express Concierge Specialist from Provision

Since March 1st, over 120,000 used car trade-ins from vAuto’s Provision have been listed in the Manheim marketplace. Now, with the ability to request a Manheim Express Concierge specialist right from the Provision platform, dealers can more quickly have their inventory listed by a Manheim specialist while staying focused on other critical aspects of their businesses.

On the Provision Gauge Page, clients can now click to request a Manheim Express Concierge specialist. The Concierge team will promptly follow up and schedule a time for a trained specialist to visit the dealership, conduct thorough vehicle inspections and list vehicles using the advanced listing tools in Manheim Express.

In addition to the typical Manheim Express capture features, including exterior 360s of the vehicle, engine audio/video clips and detailed condition information, listings conducted by a Concierge specialist offer the bonuses of having an inspection grade, OBD2 readings, undercarriage video and interior 360 imaging. Plus, Concierge specialists serve as advisors, consulting on a dealer’s overall remarketing strategy and recommending vehicle values. 

This integration comes on the heels of the first touchpoint between Manheim Express and Provision, announced in 2019, which enabled dealers to more quickly send a vehicle to Manheim Express from the Provision app.
 

vAuto Data Integrated into Manheim.com Recommendations

No doubt, stocking the right inventory is key to used vehicle profitability, and vAuto Stockwave and Provision clients rely on those tools’ insights to make critical inventory acquisition decisions. Now, clients who use those platforms will see their business plans incorporated into the existing vehicle recommendations on Manheim.com, with the overlay of the vAuto Stocking Grade and Strategy Action appearing in the recommendations carousel.

Vehicle recommendations, launched in 2020 with the new Manheim.com, are based on dealer’s one-of-a-kind search and purchase history. These personalized suggestions are driven by M LOGIC™ technology, a suite of advanced decisioning products from Manheim that bring the power of Cox Automotive data to the remarketing industry.

Having vAuto data available on Manheim.com recommended vehicles helps dealers make faster, more informed decisions. The data is refreshed twice per day, so clients always have the latest information at their fingertips.

“vAuto has long been focused on giving our clients the live market insights they need to make more profitable decisions when buying and selling inventory,” added Randy Kobat, vice president, Inventory Management Solutions at Cox Automotive. “With these two new touchpoints between vAuto and Manheim, we are making it easier for clients to turn insights into actions that will keep their businesses moving forward.”

Clients interested in learning more can visit vAuto.com, Manheim.com, or reach out to their respective reps or performance managers.

About Manheim
Manheim, the nation’s leading provider of end-to-end wholesale vehicle solutions, is celebrating 75 years as an industry innovator, driving success for clients, the company, its employees and the industry. The dream of five men who auctioned off a handful of cars in 1945 from a single-lane location in Manheim, Pennsylvania launched a company that today offers 7 million used vehicles annually and facilitates transactions representing nearly $67 billion in value with the grit and determination of our team members. Through its physical, mobile and digital sales network, Manheim offers services for decisioning, buying and selling, floor planning, logistics, assurance and reconditioning. Operating the largest vehicle wholesale marketplace, Manheim enables clients more efficient ways to connect and transact business how and when they want. Headquartered in Atlanta, Manheim is a Cox Automotive™ brand. For more information, visit http://press.manheim.com

About vAuto

vAuto® provides innovative technology, tools and business intelligence to thousands of dealerships across the United States and Canada, helping them compete more effectively and increase new/used vehicle sales volumes and profits. Founded in 2005, vAuto revolutionized dealers’ used vehicle operations with the groundbreaking Provision® suite of tools. Leveraging The Velocity Method of Management®, pioneered by vAuto founder, Dale Pollak, Provision helped dealers adopt a more transparent and turn-focused approach to used vehicle acquisition, appraising, pricing and merchandising based on real-time, local market supply-and-demand data. In 2018, vAuto released the Provision ProfitTime metric and methodology to help dealers maximize inventory turn and gross profit based on the investment value or profit potential of each vehicle. The same year, the company expanded its integrations with Cox Automotive’s HomeNet unit and acquired iRecon, an online reconditioning workflow platform. The moves extend vAuto’s efficiency-focused used vehicle management solutions into vehicle merchandising and reconditioning.

vAuto’s solutions also include Conquest, a new vehicle inventory management and pricing system, and Stockwave, which enables dealers to efficiently find and purchase vehicles from leading wholesale sources via a single platform.

Headquartered near Chicago, Illinois, vAuto is a Cox Automotive™ brand.

Your dealership is all about growth. You may be looking to grow sales, improve your sales or service gross, maybe invest in new points.

Regardless of the growth path your store is looking to take, there are four levels that contribute to organizational and personal growth. In this post we will review and define each level. For an example, I am going to use employee development. Keep in mind that this same logic can apply to different areas in your dealership where you see growth opportunities.

The first level is ad hoc. Ad hoc growth is inconsistent, and has no structure. It is typically controlled by outside forces or just plain hard work. The main problem with ad hoc development is not very efficient.

For example, ad hoc employee development means inconsistent new hire onboarding. An organization may hire ten employees to find and keep two. Managers invent the training that occurs, and too often that training happens “at the desk” when the employee is in the middle of a situation. Performance is tracked is tracked on the sales board. It’s how many service hours an employee generates or how many cars an individual sold.

The next level is manager driven. Organizations that are manager driven take on the personality of their management staff. The Sales/Service Manager defines the processes that are deployed. New employee onboarding involves watching a veteran and modeling how they do it. Managers create and hold the training. Favoritism is rampant in a manager driven growth level. Another issue with this level is the management linchpin. If a manager leaves the organization, all of the training and processes leave with them. The dealership is left with a large vacuum that needs to be filled (usually with another manager and their training and processes.

The third level is dealership driven. This is the minimum growth level your organization should employ. In this level, the store defines and implements the training and processes. The market, time of year, or management does not control the training. Store goals are defined and driven by the executive team.

For example, the store onboards all employees. New employee onboarding means indoctrinating an employee on the “dealership way” of doing things. Training and processes are documented, and management is assigned to deliver the dealership training. Employees are managed based on performance, but the store has established activity metrics that lead to the ideal results with which employees are held accountable.

The final, fourth level is continuous improvement. In this level, growth is ingrained into the organization, and technology is leveraged to automate and scale.

In our employee development example, processes, training, and employee standards are captured in software. Orientation is automated for consistency. Furthermore, training is tied to strategy and uses a standardized curriculum for instruction. Everyone has a defined career plan, and training along with performance expectations are incorporated to advance employees through their career. The organization also executes performance reviews monthly to check in on employee development.

As stated earlier, we used employee development as an example, but you can use these four levels to create a growth in your organization. Inventory management, your service advisor or finance processes, digital retailing, all can use these four levels to help you define success. Take a few minutes to audit your store and determine what needs to take place to get to level three. You will create efficiencies and develop a successful growth strategy.

NEW YORK (July 13, 2020) - automotiveMastermind®, part of IHS Markit (NYSE: INFO) and a leading provider of predictive analytics and marketing automation solutions for dealerships and manufacturers, has hired two new executives and promoted one to add to its leadership team.

Charity Taylor joins the team as vice president of data analytics, and Matt Leone joins as chief operating officer leading the operations, finance and human resources teams. Mastermind has promoted Tomy Szczypiorski from national enterprise account director to vice president of national enterprise accounts. The addition and promotion of these seasoned professionals will play a vital role as the company continues to accelerate.

Taylor has been working in the automotive industry for over 20 years, beginning her career supporting a variety of departments at General Motors with her finance background. She then spent more than 12 years making data driven decisions at J.D. Power, helping the company provide real-time estimation of retail sales, incentive spending and transaction pricing. With her industry background, she will help the organization refine the use of third-party data to support product advancement and improve sales efficiency for Mastermind clients.

Prior to joining Mastermind, Leone was the chief operating officer for HotSchedules, a software-as-a-service (SaaS) providing HR services for the hospitality industry. His background in the SaaS industry will help Mastermind be more effective and efficient long-term, as well as support overall employee culture and growth.

Szczypiorski joined the company in 2018 as the director of strategic partnerships. Prior to Mastermind, he spent two years with the digital marketing solutions provider, Dealer.com. His automotive experience, along with owning his own business, gave him concrete sales and solutions acumen. In his new role as vice president of national enterprise accounts, he will oversee the enterprise account team, working to strengthen and broaden relationships with current and future dealer group partnerships.

The addition and promotion of these seasoned professionals will play a vital role as Mastermind continues to invest in the expansion of its product offering and team to provide increased value to dealer partners.

“The best data and the best people are Mastermind’s most important assets,” said Mastermind co-founder and CEO Marco Schnabl. “I look forward to collaborating with Matt and Charity to continue building a team of the industry’s best so Mastermind remains a leader in providing behavior prediction technology and predictive marketing analytics to the automotive industry. Tomy has been a great member of our team for the past few years, and I’m confident he’ll continue building on the value he’s provided to our dealer partners in this new role.”

About automotiveMastermind

Founded in 2012, automotiveMastermind, part of IHS Markit (NYSE: INFO), is a leading provider of predictive analytics and marketing automation solutions for the automotive industry. Market EyeQ by Mastermind is the single sales platform to identify, communicate with and close every buyer in a local market. Mastermind is headquartered in New York City and San Francisco. For more information, visit automotivemastermind.com. Based in London, IHS Markit is a world leader in critical information, analytics and solutions.

I recently sat down with Mike Darrow, CEO and President of TrueCar, to chat about the current state of automotive. We talked about TrueCar's direction and where he sees the industry headed.

Moving to an All-Digital Format Has Not Slowed Dealers’ Ability to Secure the Vehicles they Need to Grow their Businesses

ATLANTA – June 25, 2020 – While Manheim Pennsylvania’s 75th Anniversary activities were postponed due to COVID-19, record vehicle demand from dealers in June is a reason to celebrate. Manheim’s flagship auction location sold more than 8,200 of the approximately 10,000 vehicles offered for sale digitally during the week ending June 19. This digital sales week beat last year’s combined physical and digital sales week by almost 900 vehicles. Using Simulcast, OVE.com and Manheim Express, nearly 9,000 dealer buyers participated virtually, showing dealers’ ability to keep their businesses moving forward by leveraging the digital wholesale marketplace.

“While we weren’t able to host our in-lane anniversary sale in March due to COVID-19, we could not be happier about meeting the demand from dealers for vehicles during this most recent week in June,” said Joey Hughes, vice president and general manager at Manheim Pennsylvania.  “Even though we could not physically greet and see our clients this week, we are excited about continuing to help them be successful.”

Due to COVID-19, Manheim shifted its 76 sites in the U.S. from physical to Simulcast-only sales beginning on March 16. This included closing all locations to clients and operating with limited staffing based on local and state directives. To assist dealers during this time, Manheim waived all Simulcast buy and sell fees and continues to do so today, and 90% of Manheim sites now offer clients the ability to preview inventory onsite. Earlier this month, the company allowed sellers to represent vehicles on the block and piloted in-lane bidding at five of its sites beginning the week of June 22. Both decisions were made after establishing strict safety protocols based on COVID-19 guidance.

While in-lane physical sales with cars running down the lanes have halted, used vehicle demand is strong and dealers buying vehicles digitally has soared. This is evidenced by Simulcast participation nearly tripling since early April, Simulcast attendance hitting approximately 20,000 attendees each day starting in mid-June and experiencing an 81% increase in OVE.com sales in one week. In addition, the company experienced approximately 1 million digital transactions from January through May, weeks ahead of the same time last year.

“We realize that moving to an all-digital format was a significant adjustment for our clients,” said Manheim President Grace Huang. “Our clients have shown great resiliency, resourcefulness and an ability to overcome challenges, and we thank them for their patience and support as we work together to keep our businesses moving forward in the safest way possible.”

Established in 1945 as Manheim Auto Auction, Manheim Pennsylvania is the world’s largest wholesale auto auction offering more than a half-million used vehicles for sale each year. 

About Manheim
Manheim, the nation’s leading provider of end-to-end wholesale vehicle solutions, is celebrating 75 years as an industry innovator, driving success for clients, the company, its employees and the industry. The dream of five men who auctioned off a handful of cars in 1945 from a single-lane location in Manheim, Pennsylvania launched a company that today offers 7 million used vehicles annually and facilitates transactions representing nearly $67 billion in value with the grit and determination of our team members. Through its physical, mobile and digital sales network, Manheim offers services for decisioning, buying and selling, floor planning, logistics, assurance and reconditioning. Operating the largest vehicle wholesale marketplace, Manheim enables clients more efficient ways to connect and transact business how and when they want. Headquartered in Atlanta, Manheim is a Cox Automotive™ brand. For more information, visit http://press.manheim.com
 

 Insights on digital retailing, predictive analytics, millennial buyers, and marketing insights competed onstage at the DrivingSales Presidents Club event virtually in June

Salt Lake City, UT – June 15, 2020 – DrivingSales today announced the results of the 2020 DrivingSales Most Valuable Insight Competition, which was created to foster the spirit of progress and thought leadership in the auto industry.  Finalists were asked to provide an insight that would provide significant value to dealership executives.  They were selected from a competitive field of submissions by a dealer board. Each finalist competed virtually during the 2020 DrivingSales Presidents Club event, June 9, 2020.

“There are so many creative innovators in our industry that we wanted to provide a special forum for uncovering insights that can create significant change and benefit, but that are often overlooked or unheralded,” said DrivingSales Founder and CEO Jared Hamilton. “This is our chance to hear from the deep thinkers among us – those who have an intuitive understanding of the automotive industry and who are constantly seeking to improve it. We congratulate the finalists, each of whose insights – whether on mobile or millennials or marketing metrics - will provide immediate value not only to the executives attending the Presidents Club, but to all dealership leaders on the look-out for smart ways to improve their operations.” 

The 2020 DrivingSales Most Valuable Insight results are: 

• Winner, Most Valuable Insight: “Leverage Your Human Capital To Drive Better Results” by DriveCentric.

• Finalist: “U.S. Automotive Well Being Index” by Experian Automotive 

• Finalist: “What Car Buyers Really Want” by DealerPolicy

• Finalist: “There is no Average Buyer Journey” by Stream Companies

Each finalist presented their insight virtually at the DrivingSales Presidents Club event. A panel of dealer judges scored each presentation.  The 2020 Most Valuable Insight will be presented in more detail at the 2020 DrivingSales Executive Summit held in October in Las Vegas.

The Most Valuable Insight Competition is part of a high-level line-up at the DrivingSales Presidents Club, an intimate and collaborative event. The event is designed to help an elite audience of dealership principals and general managers build the strategies they need to adapt to a changing automotive retail market – and to lead it. The event focuses on the three foundational elements of successful dealership operations – Capital, Brand and People. 

Visit www.drivingsalespresidentsclub.com for more information and to register for the event. 

For more information about the DrivingSales Most Valuable Insight Competition, go to http://drivingsalespresidentsclub.com/most-valuable-insight/. 

About DrivingSales 

Founded in 2008 and dedicated to the dealer community, DrivingSales is a business intelligence and performance improvement company that delivers unbiased*, profit-building information to make automobile dealers more successful through three distinct channels: DrivingSales Data, DrivingSales University and DrivingSales Media. DrivingSales Data houses the largest database of cross-vendor, dealership performance data in the North American auto industry and provides dealerships with the most statistically accurate performance benchmarks and metrics for their marketing and technology investments. Approximately one in every three dealerships in the United States has a registered member in the DrivingSales community.

*Vendor Neutral Policy: Dedicated solely to making dealerships more profitable, while also providing benefit to automakers and the industry as a whole, DrivingSales adheres to a strict vendor neutral policy through each of its channels. This means the company only provides unbiased information, not ‘pay-to-play’ follow up services -- and never accepts payment in exchange for media coverage or lets potential advertisers dictate messaging or create bias in any of its channels.

CFO JOE TAUTGES WILL ASSUME ROLE UPON APPOINTMENT OF CFO SUCCESSOR
 

HOFFMAN ESTATES, Ill. – June 15, 2020 – CDK Global, Inc. (Nasdaq: CDK), a leading retail automotive technology company, today announced  Its intention to create a chief operating officer (COO) role to better align functions and improve the overall effectiveness of the company's North American business. The COO role will bring together the North America Sales and Customer Experience teams, as well as the DMS, CRM, Layered Applications, and Portfolio Business Units, to ensure the accountability and execution of a coordinated and focused plan.

Joe Tautges, executive vice president (EVP) and chief financial officer (CFO), will assume the COO position effective upon appointing a successor to the CFO role.

"Adding this critical role will help us drive further our strategy for growth and continue our commitments to delivering the best support to our customers," said Brian Krzanich, president and chief executive officer, CDK Global. "In his more than three years at CDK, Joe has made tremendous contributions both inside and outside the Finance area, which makes him the ideal leader to assume this position. Joe brings strong financial acumen, in-depth knowledge of both the automotive and technology industries, and a keen ability to drive our top-line growth, as well as manage the bottom line. I am confident in his ability to build on our momentum and carry us forward into the future."

Tautges joined CDK Global in 2017 from Hewlett Packard Enterprise. An internal and external search for a new CFO has already begun.
 

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About CDK Global, Inc.
With $2 billion in revenues, CDK Global (Nasdaq: CDK) is a leading global provider of integrated information technology solutions to the automotive retail and adjacent industries. Focused on enabling end-to-end automotive commerce, CDK Global provides solutions to dealers in more than 100 countries around the world, serving approximately 30,000 retail locations and most automotive manufacturers. CDK solutions automate and integrate all parts of the dealership and buying process, including the acquisition, sale, financing, insuring, parts supply, repair, and maintenance of vehicles. Visit cdkglobal.com.

Phoenix, AZ – One of the most lucrative segments in the automotive market has remained steady
despite the recent automotive retail sales volatility. Bankruptcy protection is considered an essential
government service and courts have continued providing much needed relief to consumers nationally. Throughout the pandemic, fresh bankruptcy customers have proven to be a “lifeline” for many dealersthroughout the U.S. and all indications are, these leads will surge in quantity over the next 12-18months.

Lead providers, such as www.OnlineBKmanager.com who specialize in Bankruptcy leads, are assisting auto dealers in identifying and marketing to these need-based buyers in their markets. “Many of our dealer clients are depending on BK leads like never before,” said Robert Davies, the company’s President. “Every day during this crisis we have delivered fresh leads to dealers in our network. A good portion of these folks have an immediate need to buy a new or pre-owned car or truck and the timing for them is right now,” explained Davies.

Due to this immediate buying need, dealers are experiencing swift results from their marketing efforts. The GSM of a Mid-West Ford/Nissan Franchise explained. “Earlier this week we contacted all the BK leads from March, April and May in our area to let them know we are now open and ready to help. In just a few days we set over 15 appointments and sold 3 cars.” Another franchised dealer in Virginia simply continued contacting the fresh BK leads provided every day during their state’s lockdown. “We sold 16 units in May to our fresh BK leads by appointment only,” the dealer explained. “These people needed reliable transportation despite the crisis happening around them.”

Many Sub-Prime lenders are specifically targeting Bankruptcy applications and contracts with incentives and special terms. A major lender in the sub-prime arena indicated over 85% of their recent loans are to applicants with fresh bankruptcies. “Our funding model is to continue lending as much as possible to the Bankruptcy market,” indicated the company’s representative. “Historically, BK loans are by far our best performing portfolios. We are excited and prepared for the imminent surge we are starting to see in BK apps and contracts.”

With major car rental companies reducing their fleets due to restructuring or filing bankruptcy
themselves, the availability of used car inventory could soon flood the market. This “perfect storm”
could also make way for the increased demand the Bankruptcy market will inevitably place on the used car market over the next 18 months.

For information about www.OnlineBKmanager.com and a FREE Bankruptcy Marketing Prospective, call 888-739-1468 or email contact@onlinebkmanager.com.

FirstLook inventory management clients gain access to millions of Monroney stickers

CHICAGO — June 11, 2020— MAX Digital, a leading data-driven software provider for automotive dealers, announced that it has included access to over thirty-five million OEM window stickers within their inventory management system.  

Easy access is available through the appraisal and eStock Card functionality within the FirstLook interface across sixteen OEM brands including Ford, Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge, Ram, Hyundai, INFINITI, Volkswagen, Nissan and more. There is no additional fee to access this additional information.

"Now it's more important than ever to be great at understanding the full value of your vehicles. This data is especially useful where details were not previously available and now access to the original window stickers can fill in any gaps in package level data and more," said MAX Digital Executive Vice President Mike Cavanaugh.

"While coverage varies across brands, we are confident we have one of the largest collections of window stickers available and are proud to include access without any increase in cost. We strive to provide our clients the best merchandising data and you will see more product enhancements over the weeks to come," shared Ryan Walker, Vice President of Product and Engineering.

The Monroney sticker was created to provide a minimum mandatory standard of detailed information available for all new car buyers. Now, FirstLook users have this level of detail for their used car teams across a sizable selection of vehicle inventory.  

About MAX Digital
MAX Digital creates experiences that drive success. Guided by a deep understanding of the car buyer and the opportunities in retail environment, MAX delivers award-winning inventory management and people-friendly digital retail solutions that work. With unmatched vehicle merchandising data, advanced analytics and extensive consumer testing, MAX helps dealerships thrive by exceeding the rising expectations of today’s car shoppers. For more information visit maxdigital.com.

DAYTON, Ohio – June 5, 2020 – The Reynolds and Reynolds Company today announced publicly that Tommy (N. Thomas) Barras has been promoted to president and chief operations officer (COO) of Reynolds and Reynolds. The promotion is effective immediately. Barras will report directly to Reynolds Chairman and CEO Bob Brockman.

In making the announcement, Brockman said, “With more than 40 years in the industry and with the
company, Tommy understands in amazing detail the core strengths of our software and products, and how both fit into a dealership’s operations as a retailer. Tommy has been involved in developing
virtually every major software and product initiative across the company, and his product achievements have been an important key to our success.”

Barras, 61, joined the company in 1976. He was named a company officer over software development in 1988 and has held the position of executive vice president of software development since 2008. Brockman concluded: “I look forward to working even more closely with Tommy in his new role as we continue our focus on building software and services that deliver more sales and gross profit to dealers. That is who we are.”

About Reynolds
Reynolds and Reynolds is a leading provider of automobile dealership software, services, and forms to help dealerships deliver better business results and transform the customer experience. The company is headquartered in Dayton, Ohio, with major U.S. operations in Houston and College Station, Texas, and Celina, Ohio, as well as operations in Canada, in the U.K., and Europe.
( www.reyrey.com )

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