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Paul Suter - Financial Director, Harwoods
Harwoods Group has recently become the first Audi dealer to officially adopt Pinewood's Pinnacle dealer management software following an extensive trial. Harwoods Financial Director, comments on why Pinewood were the obvious choice:
Pinewood completed an integration project for Volkswagen Audi Group dealers earlier this year, meaning that Pinnacle now integrates seamlessly with the in-house manufacturer IT used by Audi, Seat, Skoda and Volkswagen dealers.
Harwoods played a key role in this integration project, setting up a pilot site in 2008 which proved highly successful. Now Pinnacle will be rolled out across the group’s franchises at 17 locations in the south of England – including Jaguar, Bentley, Land Rover, Aston Martin and MAN ERF alongside Audi.
Paul Suter, financial director at Harwoods, said: “In recent years, we have been running four different DMS systems across the group, and it clearly made sense for us to migrate all our locations and franchises onto one platform.
“After looking at the market, we decided that Pinnacle was the best solution for our needs. The key factor in this decision was that that the system seemed highly capable but easy to use.
“The trial undertaken over the last few months has confirmed our initial impressions of Pinnacle but we have also been pleased to find that Pinewood has a genuine partnership approach that has made the whole process enjoyable.”
Neville Briggs, managing director at Pinewood, added: “Extensive work was required to complete the VAG integration project and Harwoods was one of a small number of dealers that worked with us on a trial basis to ensure success.
“We are now very pleased to see that they will be adopting Pinnacle across their entire group. They are a professional and well regarded company, and we believe the fact that they are an early adopter of the DMS will help us to open doors as we start efforts to market Pinnacle to other VAG dealers.”
Pinnacle integrates directly with the key manufacturer IT systems used by Volkswagen Audi Group dealers in 12 areas of operation, streamlining a range of processes to make them much faster, more accurate and more cost efficient.
The areas of integration include:
- Parts franchise file - ensuring invoices have the latest part numbers, purchase and sales codes, descriptions and recommended retail prices.
- Parts price updates - importing changes in pricing and discount codes without the need for loading price tapes.
- Parts stock ordering file - direct transmission of files into Audi’s parts ordering system.
- Parts auto receipts - automatically downloading of VAG receipts and pack notes into Pinnacle overnight, detailing the current day’s parts delivery and streamlining receipt of parts into stock.
- Parts national stock - Pinnacle integrates into parts sales, receipts, file changes and integrity transactions.
- Warranty – VAG Group’s SAGA/2 warranty routine is fully integrated into Pinnacle.
- Workshop - Pinnacle provides automatic transmission to VAG Group’s Dialogue, updating service history, and integrates with FISH to provide repair history. Workshop job updates are delivered into ELSA PRO for efficient job look-up and menu pricing quotations.
- Vehicle sales - Pinnacle integrates into vehicle model price list and updates, including models and specification with full codes and pricing.
- CRM - Pinnacle provides an automated showroom feed from Pinnacle’s prospecting tools to the manufacturer.
Pinewood holds manufacturer approvals from Volvo, Peugeot, Honda, Land Rover, Jaguar, Ford, Hyundai, Citroen, Suzuki and Mitsubishi.
Harwoods