What Is Auto Management?
Auto Management, also commonly called Automotive Management, is the management of services around vehicle management. Auto Management includes management for auto repair shops, car and truck dealers, rentals, body shops and more.
So, for a normal person, Auto Management is management of everything that has to do with cars, trucks and other vehicles.
This is a really wide area that covers a lot and is tailored for the automotive area, even though you would see it bringing up areas that are common to most other businesses. Examples of specific automotive areas are:
- Used car dealer management
- Franchise management
- New car dealer management
- Sales and finance management tailored to automotive industry
- Car inventory management
- Spare parts management
- Dealership management
- Customer management
- Showroom management
- Insurance management
- Leasing management
- Sales management
- Repair and service management
- Labor management
As you see in the list there are quite a few areas. For most areas you are able to find the same support and management regardless of what vehicle you are involved with, including cars, trucks, motorcycles and boats.
One way to understand what is needed you can just see what is needed to manage when you want to get a car (or any other vehicle).
You start by going to the car dealer. They will show you examples of cars in their showroom. The showroom is designed in a way so that they will be able to sell cars that are most interesting for them to sell easier. Some car companies require a higher visibility than others which is also important for the showroom design.
Once you have chosen a car model you will be able to tailor your new car according to your demands. All these extras are added in the system and a few months later you will receive the car.
Should you lease the car or buy it? If you buy it, do you need a loan for it?
While waiting for your car you might want to rent another car to have something to drive.
You receive your car and of course there are things you want to change. You might want to have some winter tires or other things from the car dealer. You will need insurance and might bring in extra insurance for towing service and free rentals if something happens.
After 6 months it is time for the first service. It includes having personnel being booked to take care of the car. You might have been in a small accident and need the body to be fixed and therefore need to hand it in to that specific area of the car repair shop. This is continuous over a few years and you decide to sell the car. The car dealer makes you a deal to give you another car in exchange and you pay some extra money since the car is new.
The car dealer now has a used car they need to sell. This is another process but with a lot of similarities to sales of a new car.
To support these processes are different kinds of Auto Management Software (or Automotive Software). Different auto management software have different purposes and few include the whole area. There are different kind of auto management software to include support for the areas specified above, such as:
- Dealer Management System (DMS)
- CRM Software specific to the automotive industry
- Inventory Management Software
- Time Management Software
- Lead Management Software
- Finance Software
- Sales Management Software
- Warranty Submission System
- Auction Management Software
- Vehicle Showroom Management System
Dealer Management Systems usually covers several areas to make it possible to have less software included in the same workplace. This usually makes the working processes more efficient.
The area is so big that this article only covers a brief introduction of what areas to consider and what kind of auto management software that might be interesting to look further at.
Mattias Lind is CEO at Buissy.com Ltd, The B2B Market Place for Business Software that includes business software for numerous categories and offers the possibility for purchasers to find software and also compare software that suits their company the best.