Pinewood helps ITC to Isuzu Truck Dealer of the Year Award

18 May 2009

 

Pinewood's Pinnacle dealer management system has helped The Isuzu Truck Centre in the Western Cape win Isuzu's Truck Dealer of the Year Award.

 

The dealership, based in Epping, is part of Reeds Motor Group and can claim to be Isuzu's largest standalone truck dealership outside Japan. Reeds, who also represent GM Opel, Chevrolet, Saab, Hummer and Cadillac in the Western Cape region, are celebrating their centenary this year.

 

The relationship between Pinewood and Reeds began in 2006, when Reeds chairman Ian Bell visited the UK on business and was first introduced to the Pinnacle DMS system. He said "I was blown over by the live access to information and the clear visibility of performance across multiple sites, all only a click away."

 

Reeds took the decision to implement Pinnacle in March 2007, with Pinewood successfully overcoming understandable concerns about the difficulties of modifying the system for the South African market and the fact that the deal made Reeds the company's first DMS retail customer outside the UK.

 

Two years on, Reeds are reaping the rewards of their decision and Bell can see the positive effects Pinnacle has had on the business.

 

He said "We have seen a huge improvement in our aftersales departments. For example, Pinnacle has allowed us to centralise our call centre booking process. The call centre now makes more than 170 bookings a day, with each agent having the ability to create bookings into any of their workshop departments. This has freed up our service advisors to be much more customer-focused."

 

Reeds are a main parts distributor for the GM brand and are also a user of the Pinnacle Distribution module. This has helped the dealer to enhance their stock inventory levels and improved their internal logistics. As a result, the parts stock turn has increased from six to 12 times a year and thanks to Pinnacle's intuitive reporting Reeds have reduced their overall credits by around 25%.

 

Bell is also complimentary about Pinnacle's accounts interfaces. The high level accounts view gives him and his management team a live picture of the business's current situation.

 

He said: "The improved control over debtors and company expenditure has seen a marked improvement in controlling cash flow throughout the business."

 

As Pinewood adds new functionality to Pinnacle through their rolling improvement programme, Reeds continue to challenge their internal processes, just as they did when they first installed Pinnacle.

 

Bell concluded: "The proof of the success of the system can be seen in the results. Since Pinnacle was implemented, our market share of GM in Cape Town has risen from 48% to 66%."

 

Matt Tipper, Business Development Team representative, said "Reeds are a good example of how Pinnacle can assist dealerships in performing strongly even during the economic downturn."

 

 

For further details please contact Simon Wells at
Paperchase Public Relations on 01283 711311
or e-mail simon@paperchasepr.co.uk