Connected cars are officially here. The 2018 Honda Odyssey minivan is just one example of how this technology is turning vehicles into traveling entertainment centers. Inside, passengers can access a 4G LTE Wi-Fi network so they can stream videos or surf the Internet. The Odyssey also offers smartphone control of entertainment and climate control centers, and a host of driver assist and safety features.

All these snazzy features are controlled by on-board computers, and just like your office computers, they need software updates on a regular basis.

At some point vehicle software updates may be performed over-the-air automatically, directly from the manufacturer to the driver's vehicle. For a number of reasons this option isn't viable at the moment, so for now drivers must bring their vehicles into the dealership.

To accommodate the growing demand for these updates, manufacturers are starting to mandate to dealerships new requirements for wireless capacity in their service lanes.

Although at first these mandates may seem onerous, in many ways this is good news. Think about it! Dealerships are the only service providers equipped to properly install vehicle computer system updates. So the customer who bought a Honda Odyssey from you, then decided to go to an independent repair shop for regular maintenance, will be forced to come into your dealership for a vehicle software update. Every time that happens is an opportunity to win back that customer's business.

Instead of bemoaning the new wireless mandates, I encourage dealers to make the most of this opportunity. Think about how you can make the software update experience better, faster and cheaper than your competition.

Right now the average software update takes anywhere from 30 to 60 minutes. The time it takes to perform an update is directly dependent on how much wireless capacity you have and the speed of your Internet. Most updates are also performed with the vehicle in a service bay, a practice that is expensive and inefficient. Most dealers charge about one hour of labor time, so customers are paying as much as $100 or more just to get a software update.

What if you could offer a software update for only $50, and it could be installed in 30 minutes or less while the customer is sitting in the car? And what if you offered a latté with that update?

You could make this happen if you install one or two wireless access points outside of your service bay, so updates can be performed in either the parking lot or in your Quick Lane, if you have one. A technician could even start the software update and go back to work on another job until it's finished.

To make this happen, however, requires a number of upgrades to your information technology (IT) infrastructure. If and when you receive a notice from your manufacturer with new wireless capacity guidelines, I strongly encourage you to consider doubling whatever the recommendation is. The recommendation from your manufacturer is probably the minimum of what you will need in the next year or two.

The reality is, you're going to need more. In the next five years, the practice of updating a car's software is due to grow at least tenfold, according to IHS Automotive. Is your service department ready to accommodate a tenfold increase in vehicle computer system updates?

Additionally in service departments, Wi-Fi connectivity is required for mobile tablets, cloud-based service applications, employee and customer cell phones, tech tools and more.

To avoid having to make upgrades every year, and to ensure that you have enough bandwidth for all your service needs, here's what you will need:

• Depending on the size of your service department, anywhere from six to a dozen enterprise-grade wireless access nodes that will give you super-fast bandwidth both inside and outside your service department
• Enterprise-grade Internet service provided by fiber optics
• Gigabit network switches

Oh yes, and you may also want to invest in a latté machine.

Is there someone in your family who hardly ever answers the phone, but will almost always respond to a text? Don't take it personally. This same person probably prefers to make dinner and travel reservations online, and only answers the phone if they feel it's imperative to do so--like if it's their boss calling them for the second time or their mother calling them for the eighth time.

Increasingly, a growing percentage of the population, especially younger people, prefers to interact with family, friends and businesses electronically.

Dealers, this means you too.

Granted, the majority of customers still prefer to contact your dealership via the phone. Some of them are even patient and will wait for a call back, but most won't. If a prospect can't find an immediate answer to their question, or they get sent to voice mail, chances are they'll grow impatient. They may even start Googling to find another dealership or service center while they're still on hold.

At this point whoever connects with the customer first, wins.

For this reason, many dealers are now offering electronic communications options. Online chat, online service scheduling systems and texting applications are all examples of technology being used now to connect with customers and improve customer satisfaction.

Even more technologies are coming down the pipeline. On the sales side dealerships have barely scratched the surface when it comes to videos, offering cars for sale online and location-based technologies. On the service side, the next few years will bring tremendous increases in usage of over-the-air software updates, mobile tablets and wireless shop tools.

You may not realize it yet, but many of your customers are really eager for you to get all these technologies in place so they don't have to talk to you. It's strange but true; among a certain segment of your customers, the less they talk to you, the more satisfied they will be.

When you consider new applications and tools for your dealership, remember to always ask, "How much bandwidth will this take?" Bandwidth is important because no matter how incredibly well designed a new application or technology is, customers won't be happy if it's slow and unreliable. To provide a positive customer experience, speed and reliability are critical.

So as you strive to improve your customer experience, remember to conduct periodic assessments to see if your information technology (IT) infrastructure is up to the task. For most dealerships, the two main areas to be addressed are Internet and wireless connections.

INTERNET

Today's dealership requires an enterprise level Internet connection provided by fiber optics, which delivers data at speeds ten to 100 times faster than small business Internet service.

Many dealers believe fiber optics is too expensive, but thanks to recent deregulation and increased competition, the cost of fiber optics has dropped dramatically. In many areas a carrier can bring fiber optics right into your server room for under $1,000 per month.

Resiliency is also important. Dealers should consider having two fiber optics connections from two separate service providers; or at the minimum a fiber optics connection from one provider and a dedicated Internet circuit from another provider.

WIRELESS (WiFi)

In order to understand how much wireless coverage your dealership needs, it's important to understand how much you have now. These definitions will help you determine where you are and how much you need to upgrade.

Level 1: Shop and Guest

I estimate that 25 percent of dealerships are still at this level. Typically this means there are anywhere from one to six wireless nodes in the store. This level is not adequate if your dealership is using mobile tablet applications or cloud-based DMS and other third-party applications.

Level 2: Data Throughout

Currently about 70 percent of dealerships are at this level. At this level wireless access is available throughout the entire dealership. This level of coverage typically doesn't extend to the lot, although there may be some access close to the building. Depending on the size of the dealership, this type of coverage requires from six to 20 wireless access nodes.

Level 3: Voice

This level is basically Level 2 with the addition of roaming voice capability for wireless phones. However, most people now use mobile phones, so there is less demand for this level of coverage. Only three percent of dealerships are at this level.

Level 4: Location Based

Not many dealerships are at this level yet, but this is where the industry is headed. This level provides "Big Brother" capability, or extreme high-density wireless coverage. If you're considering any type of location-based software that tracks customer and/or employee movements out on the lot and through your store, this is the level of wireless you'll need.

Level 4 provides coverage over the entire lot, all the way to the perimeter. This type of wireless requires a minimum of 25 access nodes per store. At about $800 per access node, it doesn't come cheap. The good news is, the wireless access nodes you purchase today should last from three to five years.

Last but not least, you probably want to upgrade your network switches. Most technologies require switches that deliver 1,000 Mbps, or about one Gigabit, of throughput. Many dealerships are still using 100 Mbps switches, which are woefully inadequate for a typical dealership's needs.

If your customers don't want to talk to you, don't take it personally. Offer them the communications options they're comfortable with. Just don't forget about the bandwidth.

Timonium, MD –­ July 18th, 2017 –­ Helion Automotive Technologies, the retail automotive industry's leading Information Technology (IT) managed services provider (MSP), today announced the recent addition of Tracey Reyes as its new Director of Marketing. Reyes brings more than 20 years professional experience in marketing, advertising, events, branding and strategy to the position, with over 10 years of experience in the retail automotive industry.

In her role as Director of Marketing, Reyes will oversee the development and implementation of strategies to increase awareness of Helion's position as the premier choice of auto dealers for IT managed services.

"Tracey brings a wealth of marketing knowledge to this position and I'm excited to have her energy, expertise and guidance for achieving our vision for the future," said Erik Nachbahr, founder and president of Helion Automotive Technologies.

Prior to joining Helion, Reyes held positions as Marketing Director with Digital Air Strike and as Marketing Manager with DealerTrack. Additionally she has held positions as Director of Marketing with Paypro Corporation and Assistant Marketing Manager with First Data Merchant Services. Reyes has a proven track record of increasing customer engagement, lead generation and revenue with creative and innovative marketing campaigns.

"Helion's unique service offerings are one of the best kept secrets in the automotive industry, and I look forward to changing that narrative," said Reyes. "The main challenge lies in educating auto dealers about how IT services should be viewed as an investment that can help them grow and reach their business objectives, versus an expense to be contained."

Helion's service offerings to auto dealerships includes end-to-end management of hardware infrastructure, software applications support, Help Desk support, data and cybersecurity solutions, communications and more.

For more information contact Helion at 443-541-1500 or online at http://www.heliontechnologies.com.

About Helion Automotive Technologies

Helion...Putting Your Dealership in the FAST LANE! Helion Automotive Technologies is a leading IT solutions provider, providing auto dealers with faster, more efficient networks and secure data protection. From managed services to IT assistance and service desk help, Helion offers both short-term IT fixes and long-term planning so dealers can focus on what matters most: selling more cars. Helion has specialized in IT for more than twenty years and works with 650+ auto dealers nationwide. Dealers can request a free assessment of their IT needs at www.heliontechnologies.com.

Timonium, MD –­ July 10th, 2017 –­ Helion Automotive Technologies, the retail automotive industry's leading Information Technology (IT) managed services provider (MSP), today announced it has been ranked # 69 out of 501 top managed services providers in the world according to the 2017 MSPmentor 501 Global Edition - Worldwide Company Rankings. The list is compiled annually by MSPmentor.net and is widely recognized as the IT industry's most respected rankings.

"The fact that Helion is among the top MSPs in the world demonstrates the degree to which the automotive industry recognizes and embraces the importance of technology to current and future business operations," said Erik Nachbahr, founder and president of Helion Automotive Technologies. "In the last ten years the auto industry has been completely transformed by technology and there is still much more change ahead."

Helion's service offerings to auto dealerships includes end-to-end management of hardware infrastructure, software applications support, Help Desk support, data and cybersecurity solutions, communications and more.

Helion currently provides IT managed services to more than 650 auto dealerships and 28,000 end users. The company handles an average 300 Help Desk calls every day and resolves more than 6,000 IT issues per month. In 2016 Helion expanded into heavy-duty trucking and currently supports 33 commercial truck dealerships.

Each year MSPmentor.net, a leading online resource and destination for managed services providers, compiles the list of company rankings by data collection and analyses of MSP business models, technologies, vertical markets and revenues. The MSP 501 ranking features IT services firms from virtually every corner of the earth, both large and small.

For more information contact Helion at 443-541-1500 or online at http://www.heliontechnologies.com.

About Helion Automotive Technologies

Helion...Putting Your Dealership in the FAST LANE! Helion Automotive Technologies is a leading IT solutions provider, providing auto dealers with faster, more efficient networks and secure data protection. From managed services to IT assistance and service desk help, Helion offers both short-term IT fixes and long-term planning so dealers can focus on what matters most: selling more cars. Helion has specialized in IT for more than twenty years and works with 650+ auto dealers nationwide. Dealers can request a free assessment of their IT needs at www.heliontechnologies.com.

Timonium, MD –­ July 17th, 2017 –­ Helion Automotive Technologies, the retail automotive industry's leading Information Technology (IT) managed services provider (MSP), today announced the recent addition of Tracey Reyes as its new Director of Marketing. Reyes brings more than 20 years professional experience in marketing, advertising, events, branding and strategy to the position, with over 10 years of experience in the retail automotive industry.

In her role as Director of Marketing, Reyes will oversee the development and implementation of strategies to increase awareness of Helion's position as the premier choice of auto dealers for IT managed services.

"Tracey brings a wealth of marketing knowledge to this position and I'm excited to have her energy, expertise and guidance for achieving our vision for the future," said Erik Nachbahr, founder and president of Helion Automotive Technologies.

Prior to joining Helion, Reyes held positions as Marketing Director with Digital Air Strike and as Marketing Manager with DealerTrack. Additionally she has held positions as Director of Marketing with Paypro Corporation and Assistant Marketing Manager with First Data Merchant Services. Reyes has a proven track record of increasing customer engagement, lead generation and revenue with creative and innovative marketing campaigns.

"Helion's unique service offerings are one of the best kept secrets in the automotive industry, and I look forward to changing that narrative," said Reyes. "The main challenge lies in educating auto dealers about how IT services should be viewed as an investment that can help them grow and reach their business objectives, versus an expense to be contained."

Helion's service offerings to auto dealerships includes end-to-end management of hardware infrastructure, software applications support, Help Desk support, data and cybersecurity solutions, communications and more.

For more information contact Helion at 443-541-1500 or online at http://www.heliontechnologies.com.

About Helion Automotive Technologies

Helion...Putting Your Dealership in the FAST LANE! Helion Automotive Technologies is a leading IT solutions provider, providing auto dealers with faster, more efficient networks and secure data protection. From managed services to IT assistance and service desk help, Helion offers both short-term IT fixes and long-term planning so dealers can focus on what matters most: selling more cars. Helion has specialized in IT for more than twenty years and works with 650+ auto dealers nationwide. Dealers can request a free assessment of their IT needs at www.heliontechnologies.com.

Have you ever waited for an important call from a potentially important customer, only to miss it when the call finally comes through? Nothing is more aggravating. You call the person back immediately but meanwhile they're leaving you a voice mail. You try again and they don't answer.

What to do? If you call them a third time, you risk being obnoxious. If you don't call, you're playing the waiting game all over again. Every missed opportunity in auto sales is missed revenue, both for the salesperson and dealership. There are plenty of vehicles to choose from out there, so the last thing you want is to miss a call from someone who is actively shopping for a vehicle.

Unfortunately, it appears that dealerships are missing a lot of phone calls.

A 2016 CallRevu report revealed that 32 percent of incoming calls to sales departments never reached an agent. Only eight percent of those callers left a voice mail. The rest hung up. That means 24 percent, or nearly one in four calls, were potential missed sales opportunities.

One reason so many calls are missed is because most car salespeople are not chained to their desks, nor should they be. They're either calling customers or they're with customers out on the lot.

So when a customer calls the dealership's main number and asks for a specific salesperson, that call gets transferred to the salespersons' extension and rings at their desk; and rings, and rings.

To combat these missed calls, many salespeople give out their personal cell phone numbers to customers. But the customers may not always call the cell phone, and as a dealer this can present a few problems. Now your salesperson owns that customer contact information. If they're calling and texting back and forth with each other, your dealership doesn't have any documentation of those phone calls and messages. Something non-compliant could be going on and you would never even know it. And if your salesperson quits, he or she may do so with hundreds of your customer contacts stored on their cell phone.

A very simple and very effective way to solve these problems is a technology called Single Number Reach (SNR). If your dealership has a Unified Communications Platform (UCP) phone solution from a provider like Shoretel or Cisco, you probably have SNR capabilities. Hopefully you are using it and liking it. If you aren't using it, here's why you should.

SNR assigns one phone number for every employee. This means your business cards or email signatures will no longer have to include both a work number and cell number. Customers like it because they don't have to decide which number to call. Your employees should like it because they won't have to give out their personal cell numbers to customers.

How that phone number is routed at any given time can be customized by each individual. A default route would be the call going to the desk phone. After three rings, if it hasn't been answered, the call is automatically forwarded to the cell phone. If after three calls it still hasn't been answered, it goes into voice mail.

But if an employee knows they're going to be away from their desk for a few minutes, they can very simply -- by clicking one button -- program the call routing directly to their cell phone.

If the customer leaves a message, there is a universal voice mailbox that can be accessed from either the desk phone or cell phone. The employee doesn't have to check two separate voice mail systems.

A SNR also protects the dealership in a couple different ways. When a customer calls a salesperson directly, that customer's number is automatically stored in that salesperson's personal cell phone record. With SNR that's not the case; the customer's number is routed through the dealership's UCP and therefore is stored in the CRM. If a salesperson suddenly quits or gets fired, it would take a lot more effort to try and access and save all those records.

Also with SNR, call times and text messages are saved, documented and can be accessed for review in the event that any customer complains.

For salespeople, a SNR means that if they step away from the desk for a minute and that important calls comes through, they won't miss it. SNR increases the availability of all your dealership employees, which should also reduce the number of missed calls, missed opportunities and lost revenue.

Timonium, MD -- June 12th, 2016 -- Helion Automotive Technologies, a leading provider of information technology (IT) solutions for auto and truck dealers, today issued a new data security warning for auto dealerships. Hackers are now planting malware inside of social media posts designed to lure employees of organizations to click on the post. If an employee takes the bait and clicks on the social media post, e.g. Facebook and Twitter messages and public postings, the malware is downloaded onto the employee's computer and may compromise the entire organization's network. Security software and firewalls cannot prevent this type of attack.

"This is the same spear phishing scheme that hackers have been using successfully in targeted email messages for several years now," said Erik Nachbahr, President and CEO of Helion Automotive Technologies. "The problem is that although most employees have been told and know not to click on emails from people they don't know, they don't think twice when it comes to clicking on a message or offer in their Facebook feed. They are more trusting in a social media environment."

Spear phishing is a type of attack that involves identifying specific people for attack, studying their social media posts to learn their interests and activities, and then creating a message or offer that appeals to them. For example, a recent breach at the Pentagon was caused when the wife of an employee clicked on a Twitter link that promised a great deal for a family-friendly vacation. She had previously been exchanging messages with friends over what they should do with their children over the summer. Although the wife was at home at the time, the hackers accessed the Pentagon employee's computer via a shared home network, and once the employee was back at the Pentagon, accessed the network from his computer.

Auto dealership employees are ideal targets for spear phishers looking to steal Personally Identifiable Information (PII) and bank account information.

Helion recently conducted a phishing test at an auto dealership by sending emails to 125 employees. Three employees clicked on the emails and were taken to a website where they entered their user names and passwords when prompted. If this was a real attack and customer information was compromised, the consequences for that dealership may have been thousands of dollars paid out in credit monitoring for customers, investigations and lawsuits.

"That test was a good sample that revealed auto dealerships are very vulnerable to this type of attack and need to do a better job at educating their employees," said Nachbahr.

To help prevent this type of attack, Nachbahr recommends the following tips:

• Educate employees to never click on links in social media posts and messages from their computers or personal devices while at work or at home. If they want to click on social media posts at home, encourage them to use a personal device that they do not bring into work.

• Require employees to change their network login passwords every 90 days. Encourage them to use strong passwords and to never share or give login information to anyone.

• Encourage employees to keep social media profiles private and don't accept friend or connection requests from people they don't know.

• If employees receive a phone call, email message or social media message from a banking institution, vendor, or other entity that asks for personal information, user names or passwords, do not give this information verbally or via email. Instead, contact the institution directly and give the information verbally. Also never click on a link that takes you to a website that requires login information; instead, open a new browser window and manually navigate to the website.

• Ensure that your dealership has the latest versions of security software and firewalls. Although they don't prevent phishing attacks, they can help to prevent other types of attacks.

• Every auto dealership should have cyber liability insurance, which covers costs associated with a data security breach and/or loss of data.

• Apply software updates, also known as patches, to Microsoft Windows, Internet Explorer and all software applications on every PC on a regular basis.

As the leading provider of managed IT services to auto dealerships nationwide, Helion offers 24-hour monitoring, managing and problem resolution for dealerships' computers, servers, and networks. Helion currently services more than 650 automotive and heavy-duty trucking dealerships, and 28,000 end users. The company handles an average 300 Help Desk calls every day and resolves more than 6,000 IT issues per month.

For more information on Helion's managed IT services, contact 443-541-1500.

About Helion Technologies

Helion...Putting Your Dealership in the FAST LANE! Helion Automotive Technologies is a leading IT solutions provider, providing auto dealers with faster, more efficient networks and secure data protection. From managed services to IT assistance and service desk help, Helion offers both short-term IT fixes and long-term planning so dealers can focus on what matters most: selling more cars. Helion has specialized in IT for more than ten years and works with 650+ auto dealers nationwide. Dealers can request a free assessment of their IT needs at http://www.heliontechnologies.com.

If you're like most dealers when I say the term 'collaboration tool,' you may have no idea what I'm talking about. However, when I say the term 'Instant Messaging' you know what I'm talking about, but you may not like it. Remember a decade or so ago, when IM apps were all the rage in the workplace? Many dealerships tried, but quickly abandoned them because employees were spending too much time chatting and not enough time working.

If that was your experience, I'm going to ask you to keep an open mind. In the last few years IM has evolved into a workplace collaboration tool guaranteed to improve your customers' experience.

Today's collaboration tools are integrated with both phone and computer systems; examples include Jabber from Cisco or Connect from Shoretel. In the workplace, a collaboration tool enables customers to connect with more employees, reduces phone tag and allows issues to be resolved quickly.

Here are a couple examples of how this overlooked tool can be used in your dealership.

Connect More Calls

According to a recent "2 Million Call Report" issued by CallRevu, 28 percent of incoming calls to dealerships never connect with anyone. Callers either hang up while on hold or after being transferred to voice mail, or they leave a voice mail but nobody calls back, or the phone just rings and rings.

That's nearly one-third of customers and potential customers that aren't getting price quotes, issues resolved or other questions answered.

Collaboration tools have a feature called 'Presence Management,' which allows receptionists and other employees to see the status of their fellow employees; whether 'Available,' 'Away from Desk,' 'Out of Office' or 'On the Phone.' This can help eliminate many of those annoying hold delays.

Let's say Mrs. Smith calls in to find out if her car is ready to be picked up at the service department. Her assigned service advisor may be with another customer, but he sees a message pop up on his mobile tablet: "Is Mrs. Smith's car ready?" He can respond without having to take the call, servicing both customers better.

Or, when a customer calls in to ask if your dealership has a vehicle in stock, the receptionist can instantly see which salespeople are available. If three salespeople are showing as available, they can be sent a group message alerting them to a lead.

Eliminate 'Check With the Manager' Syndrome

While collaboration tools are great for connecting off-site customers with the appropriate agent, they also play an important role in better servicing your on-site customers.

One of the most often cited tactics that annoys car shoppers is the "Let me go check with my manager" syndrome. When a salesperson leaves their office in the middle of a negotiation, do you really want that customer to sit there with plenty of time to talk themself out of buying?

Imagine instead if that salesperson uses a collaboration tool to ask their manager for approval of price or other terms. The back and forth messaging is private, instant and the salesperson never has to leave the office.

A collaboration tool can be used in a similar fashion to prevent the escalation of issues and to quickly resolve issues. From a customer's perspective, nothing is worse than calling to complain about something and then being placed on hold or sent into voice mail. Your instant perception is that nobody cares, which only makes you angrier.

If an employee is not empowered to resolve an issue, they can instantly reach out to a manager with the authority and availability to deal with the customer. Even if the manager is occupied, they may choose to make themselves available when they see a message pop up on their computer screen alerting them to a situation that needs attention.

Today's collaboration tools aren't designed to replace email or phone calls, but rather as an additional channel that can be used for specific types of communication, such as the instant exchange of information.

Can they be abused? Certainly, but it's highly doubtful, especially if you roll it out with guidelines and let employees know that all messages sent on the system are occasionally monitored and/or stored. That should eliminate the use of the system for gossip and personal communications.

From a customer perspective collaboration tools increase the connection rate for inbound calls and empower employees to take better care of customers. Dealers who have tried IM in the past and dismissed it as a productivity waster may want to approach this underutilized tool with an open mind.

What is your experience with IM and collaboration tools? Do you believe they help or hurt workplace productivity?

Baltimore, MD, May 9th, 2017 – EY today announced that Erik Nachbahr, President and founder of Helion Automotive Technologies, is a finalist for the Entrepreneur Of The Year® 2017 Award in the Maryland region. The awards program, which is celebrating its 31st year, recognizes entrepreneurs who are excelling in areas such as innovation, financial performance and personal commitment to their businesses and communities. Nachbahr was selected as a finalist by a panel of independent judges. Award winners will be announced at a special gala event on June 28, 2017 at the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront Hotel.

"Being selected as a finalist for this prestigious award is a real honor," said Erik Nachbahr, President and Founder of Helion Automotive Technologies. "Like many entrepreneurs it took me years of hard work, perseverance and commitment to build a successful business. It's incredibly satisfying to be recognized and supported by peers in the business community and sponsors of this program."

Helion Automotive Technologies is an information technology (IT) managed services provider (MSP) specializing in retail automotive. Like many technology gurus, Erik started working alone and out of his basement. In 1997 his first automotive client was a Toyota dealer who hired him to fix several IT issues in his store. That dealer referred Erik to several other Toyota dealers, who in turn referred him to more dealers. Erik quickly recognized an opportunity in the retail automotive niche and formed Helion Automotive Technologies.

Today Helion services over 650 auto dealerships and 28,000 end users. The company handles an average 300 Help Desk calls every day and resolves more than 6,000 IT issues per month. In 2016 Helion expanded into the heavy-duty trucking industry with the addition of a client with 33 commercial truck dealerships.

Now in its 31st year, the EY program has expanded to recognize business leaders in over 145 cities and more than 60 countries throughout the world.

Regional award winners are eligible for consideration for the Entrepreneur Of The Year National competition. Award winners in several national categories, as well as the Entrepreneur Of The Year National Overall Award winner, will be announced at the Entrepreneur Of The Year National Awards gala in Palm Springs, California, on November 18, 2017. The awards are the culminating event of the Strategic Growth ForumTM, the nation’s most prestigious gathering of high-growth, market-leading companies.

Sponsors

Founded and produced by EY, the Entrepreneur Of The Year Awards are nationally sponsored in the US by SAP America, Merrill Corporation and the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.

In the Maryland region, sponsors also include DLA Piper, PNC, Cushman & Wakefield, KELLY Benefit Strategies, Randstad Professionals, and the Baltimore Business Journal.

For more information contact Helion at 443-541-1500 or online at http://www.heliontechnologies.com.

About Helion Automotive Technologies

Helion...Putting Your Dealership in the FAST LANE! Helion Automotive Technologies is a leading IT solutions provider, providing auto dealers with faster, more efficient networks and secure data protection. From managed services to IT assistance and service desk help, Helion offers both short-term IT fixes and long-term planning so dealers can focus on what matters most: selling more cars. Helion has specialized in IT for more than twenty years and works with 650+ auto dealers nationwide. Dealers can request a free assessment of their IT needs at www.heliontechnologies.com.

About Entrepreneur Of The Year®

Entrepreneur Of The Year®, founded by EY, is the world’s most prestigious business awards program for entrepreneurs, chosen from an independent panel of judges including entrepreneurs and prominent leaders from business, finance, and the local community. The program makes a difference through the way it encourages entrepreneurial activity among those with potential and recognizes the contribution of people who inspire others with their vision, leadership and achievement. As the first and only truly global awards program of its kind, Entrepreneur Of The Year celebrates those who are building and leading successful, growing and dynamic businesses, recognizing them through regional, national and global awards programs in over 145 cities and more than 60 countries. ey.com/eoy

About EY’s Growth Markets Network

EY’s worldwide Growth Markets Network is dedicated to serving the changing needs of high-growth companies. For more than 30 years, we’ve helped many of the world’s most dynamic and ambitious companies grow into market leaders. Whether working with international mid-cap companies or early stage, venture-backed businesses, our professionals draw upon their extensive experience, insight and global resources to help your business succeed. For more information, please visit us at ey.com/sgm or follow news on Twitter @EY_Growth.

About EY

EY is a global leader in assurance, tax, transaction and advisory services. The insights and quality services we deliver help build trust and confidence in the capital markets and in economies the world over. We develop outstanding leaders who team to deliver on our promises to all of our stakeholders. In so doing, we play a critical role in building a better working world for our people, for our clients and for our communities.

EY refers to the global organization, and may refer to one or more of the member firms of Ernst & Young Global Limited, each of which is a separate legal entity. Ernst & Young Global Limited, a UK company limited by guarantee, does not provide services to clients. For more information about our organization, please visit ey.com.

This news release has been issued by Ernst & Young LLP, a member of the global EY organization that provides services to clients in the US.

For more information, please visit ey.com.

A recent article in Automotive News states the era of online car sales has arrived. Some dealerships already offer customers the ability to transact most, if not all, of the purchase experience online. AutoNation CEO Mike Jackson said that in January 2017, 30 percent of AutoNation's new-vehicle sales were transacted online.

Experts predict this trend is about to be fast tracked, and many dealerships are within a year or two of being able to offer the entire vehicle-purchase experience online.

But there's one aspect of the online car sales experience that many dealers overlook as they begin exploring this option: their IT infrastructure. As your dealership evaluates online shopping portals, new F&I and leasing apps, and other technologies that allow you to move the car-buying experience online, it's important to also evaluate whether or not your IT infrastructure can support the increased data.

In order to offer a fast, seamless and secure online transaction, the majority of dealers will need to make upgrades in the following areas:

Internet

Have your applications been feeling sluggish lately? Are you still using T-1 or DSL based Internet at your dealership? Many popular dealership applications are now web based or otherwise utilizing your Internet connections to operate. Add on customer WiFi and other increasing demands to have it be just as good as at home, and you are likely at full capacity on your current connection. If you also don’t have a backup you can be completely down when a carrier experiences an outage.

Slowness definitely hurts. Your employees are less efficient, your customers can be dissatisfied and you can lose money from lost time to poor CSI scores.

There are plenty of options for upgrades. Fiber optic services are fast and can be easily upgraded as needs further increase. A best case scenario would be redundant fiber connections or a primary fiber and a coax or similar backup connection.

Hardware

Servers, switches, PCs and routers that were manufactured more than five years ago do not have the processing capacity to handle the large amounts of data involved with online vehicle transactions. Additionally, many dealership networks are still using Small-Office/Home-Office (SOHO) hardware that they picked up at a local retailer.

If you're planning to sell cars online, the large amounts of bandwidth and processing capacity involved requires upgrading to enterprise-grade equipment. Benchmark recommendations include:

• If your server is older than three years, purchase a new one. If you don't have a centralized server set-up, you'll need to implement one for security purposes.
• If your PCs are older than five years, purchase new ones.
• Check your network switches; 100 Mbps switches are obsolete and will need to be upgraded to Gigabit switches.  
• WiFi routers. These need to be enterprise-grade; Cisco/Meraki brand routers are best in class. For security purposes routers should also be cloud-managed.

Communication Systems

When you start selling cars online, do you really want your salespeople and F&I people to be texting and calling customers using their personal cell phones? If you're not sure of the answer, let me make it clear: NO YOU DON'T. For multiple reasons, security being high among them, all customer communications should be sent over a secure network and tracked, just as all documentation will need to be tracked.

Online chat tools, texting apps and Unified Communications Platforms (UCPs) are all systems that can be integrated with your CRM and/or DMS platforms to create secure, trackable and seamless communications channels.

Security

When a customer purchases a vehicle online they'll be required to enter their personal and sensitive information into a website form. It's your dealership's responsibility to ensure that all this data is protected. Collecting and storing social security numbers, birth dates, addresses, bank account numbers and credit card numbers online is no small matter. That's the type of information that hackers love to target.

To sell vehicles online, your dealership will need to create a virtual fortress. A benchmark recommendation is to hire a trained IT security consultant to oversee this important task. This is not something you want to mess around with.

Wireless

An important value-add that your dealership can offer that other online shopping sites may not be able to offer is a live, virtual walkaround. If a customer is interested in a particular vehicle, a salesperson can run outside and use a tablet or phone to start a two-way video chat that allows the customer to view the vehicle up close in real-time and ask questions.

This type of service, along with other up and coming location-based technologies, requires a robust wireless network that extends coverage to the edges of your dealership's lot. For the average-size dealership, this will require a minimum of 25 enterprise-grade WiFi routers. Yes, you read that right. No, that's not a typo. Trust me, I know.

More vendors are coming out with very cool front-end apps, portals and other technologies to help make online car sales a reality. As dealers evaluate the risks, costs and benefits involved, it's important to factor in the necessary upgrades to IT infrastructures. These benchmark recommendations should help.