Month: October 2020

Pinewood BI provides profit-boosting insights

Dealers have the tools to be smarter than ever in their business decisions. When Pinewood launched their Business Intelligence (BI), it gave dealers the potential to look beyond the standard DMS reports, bringing new insights to light. Leaders can access live data in seconds from their mobile, delving into every area of the business in just a few clicks, from anywhere worldwide. It’s never been easier.

After launching BI for Porsche Norway, Stine Hagen, Corporate Business Development Manager, explained how the mobile intelligence tool delivered immediate results: “Leaders went from spending hours on KPI reports to having them live on their computer and phone at all times. This is an excellent tool for all leaders to see what part of the dealership needs their attention in a hectic everyday life.”

From struggling sales teams to inefficient workshops, Pinewood BI can help identify why businesses are falling behind, highlighting areas of concern and indicating where productivity can be improved. Fully integrated with Pinewood DMS, Pinewood BI acts as a ‘behind the scenes’ detective, interpreting real-time data through easy-to-understand, visual reports. Even away from the dealership, leaders can maintain full visibility and control, accessing the entire reporting suite from their mobile – giving them a huge competitive advantage.

Hagen explains: We strive to give the best value and service for our customers, which can only be achieved through complete internal transparency and process control. Pinewood has given us the perfect tool to monitor and steer all aspects, from trade-ins to car sales, service and used cars. Combined with the financial capabilities of the system, we’ve reached new levels of process excellence.”

BI is available for any dealer groups using Pinewood DMS, offering a powerful tool for building profit and productivity-focused reports, fully accessible on a PC or mobile device. This brings the data dealers want to their fingertips, anywhere at any time, providing full transparency.

Pinewood Sponsors Birmingham Open Hack 2020

Pinewood Technologies proudly sponsored the Birmingham Open Hack event which took place this weekend, challenging students from Birmingham City University to an online hackathon. Students put their technical skills to the test in a competitive 48-hour online challenge, with other major sponsors including IBM, Santander and Microsoft. Pinewood were impressed by the passion, commitment and technical skills displayed, Katrina McTernan, Early Careers Recruiter at Pinewood explains:

“It was inspiring to see such energy from the next generation of our tech community – these students have set the benchmark, giving us a clear picture of the level of talent we can expect to be joining our teams in the near future.”

Pinewood’s challenge was to develop a Microsoft Teams Bot for remote classrooms, allowing teachers to create flash cards and questions to present to students, returning results back to the teacher. Pinewood were impressed by efforts from all candidates, viewing the hackathon with fantastic potential to bring new talent into their software teams. Katrina discusses:

“We invest a lot in early careers, hiring up to 20 Computer Science Graduates and Undergraduates each year to grow the best talent. Being involved in events like Birmingham Open Hack allows us to scout out new talent, it’s great to see so many students showing an interest in development beyond their course of study.”

Pinewood are recruiting developers to join their team, with roles for Placement Students, Graduates and Senior Developers. Birmingham Open Hack offered students the opportunity to get involved in simulation projects, gaining valuable experience and the chance to get noticed. Pinewood are keen to chat further with those who made an impression and look forward to meeting more tech-enthusiasts at future events.

Pinewood offer remote training and implementation to dealers

2020 has been the year of change with dealers now exploring new ways to engage with their customers and boost profits. Pinewood have offered online coaching for some years, but take-up has grown hugely since the lockdown. This coaching is aimed at helping dealers remodel their business and get the best from their digital tools. All of this can be offered more cheaply than the fuel normally needed to attend a traditional classroom course. Mike Browne, International Account Manager at Pinewood explains how the online implementation proved a success:

“The remote implementation was one of the smoothest we’ve had. With eLearning, the staff could become familiar with the parts of the system related to their job roles, using real examples. During Live Week, everyone was prepared and ready to go. We used Microsoft Teams to manage any queries and held regular video calls to answer any detailed questions they had. Screen sharing and tracking their progress on Teams made everything so easy – just as, if not more, effective as being there in person.”

Online training allows Pinewood users to access courses designed specifically for their job roles – on desktops, tablets and mobile phones. Ranging from showroom courses for salespeople, to workshop courses for technicians, eLearning is a simpler, more effective way to learn about Pinewood DMS.

This new training initiative gained immediate traction with a clear demand from dealers for convenient, cost-effective training which did not disrupt everyday business. Alongside remote implementation, Pinewood has proven that the future for switching systems could look very different, with an exciting range of options to suit every dealer and cater to every learning style, budget and preference.

Pinewood wins DMS award at Car Dealer Power 2020

Pinewood DMS was announced as the overall winner for Dealer Management System of the year, at the virtual Car Dealer Power Awards 2020. Finalists were voted for by thousands of dealerships across the UK.

“Thanks so much to all of our Pinewood customers who voted for us. Our team are absolutely thrilled, it’s been a tough year for everyone and we’re glad that we’ve managed to support our customers through this time.” Says Neville Briggs, Managing Director for Pinewood.

Pinewood has improved on their zero-touch features over the past few months, with some great feedback from customers. For example; Online Service Booking, Remote document signing (Workshop Jobs & Vehicle Sales Orders), Online payments of Workshop Invoices, Voice Controlled Technician app.

To support dealers with adopting new tools, Pinewood’s Support team are available 7 days a week. The eLearning platform also provides role-based courses, making sure customers are using the system in the best way possible.

The team at Pinewood offer their congratulations to all finalists and winners.

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