Digital Retail Solutions
The integrative platform for car retailers.
CROSS
CROSS 2 is an IT solution conceived for the car retail trade of Volkswagen Group brands; a solution into which over 40 years’ Porsche Informatik experience has flowed. The system supports all car dealership processes in the sales, service and spare parts, and management and controlling areas, allowing users to focus 100 percent on their customers.
CROSS 3 is the latest development of our successful CROSS 2 concept. The new application is web-based and modularized.
Cost-effectiveness thanks to an integrated IT concept
CROSS is highly integrated via interfaces to other Volkswagen Group standard applications. It covers the entire value-creation chain from the end-customer to retailers and wholesalers through to the manufacturing plants. This ensures optimum in-house efficiency and puts car dealership employees in a position to immediately and precisely answer every question a customer might have about a vehicle.
All users in the dealership access the same central customer database. Customer information and vehicle history are available to all the company’s or corporate chain’s users at the click of a mouse.
The system is subject to continuous functional enhancement and adaptation to market requirements, legal provisions and technological standards.
Engine room for the digital transformation
The focus in developing CROSS lies firmly – as in all applications from Porsche Informatik – in an uncompromisingly customer-oriented design. Whatever the channel or platform in which the customers operate: Porsche Informatik applications offer them a personalised, seamless experience in line with their changing expectations on the search for mobility solutions. The basis for this is a holistic data model with which the customer is integrated into the system landscape. CROSS constitutes the core of this architecture or, in other words, the machine room for the digital transformation.
Custom process support for sales.
VU3
Porsche Informatik’s VU3 salesperson support provides car retailers in PHS countries with a custom solution for sales. VU3 supports all processes in sales – completely integrated into the CROSS Dealer Management System and in the PHS countries’ IT landscape. The salesperson has access to data on the move on his laptop.
New and Used Vehicle
Electronic price lists updated daily, automatic check of configuration possibilities and information on deliverability make VU3 the basis for competent sales talk. Everything from financing offers and insurance, to servicing contracts can be offered and handled via a single system. Purchase contracts are electronically sent to CROSS and Carlos importer system, financing applications are sent to CarFin, the Porsche Bank back office system.
When it comes to used vehicles sales, communication with CROSS ensures an up to date stock list in VU3.
Customer Data and Contact Management, CRM and Sales Control
VU3 supports the salesperson with targeted input of sales-relevant information about the customer. Customer data are stored centrally, edited and queried online; ensuring that the customer file is always current. Retail Sales Excellence, the VW sales process specifications, is also integrated into the VU3 system.
VU3 contact management supports active, systematic and custom addressing of existing and potential customers. The sales manager in the car dealership can, depending on his authorisations, view the salesperson’s customer activities and thereby support new sales staff.
Support for the core service process on mobile devices
Mobile Service Reception
Mobile Service Reception is a web application that runs on tablet computers, which, in combination with CROSS, supports the processes around vehicle reception in service operations.
All information relevant for vehicle reception is input in the table, edited and sent to CROSS. Photographs, e.g. of damage to paintwork, can immediately be added via the tablet and assigned to the order.
Service advisers can provide instant and transparent information to customers about the vehicle condition, special offers and prices – all information is seamlessly and traceably documented. The order, including the customer’s electronic signature, can be concluded directly on the tablet. The signed order can either be sent paperlessly by email or printed out, depending on customer preferences.
Digital checklists make sure that all important topics are covered. This ensures a standardised reception process that also meets importer audit requirements.
Order Extension and Repair Documentation
Order Extension and Repair Documentation is a web application consisting of three components: Repair Documentation, CROSS-Webview and Order Extension.
Repair Documentation is used above all by mechanics on mobile devices. It serves the purpose of producing media for orders entered in CROSS and saving the media via the internet in cloud storage.
If additional activities are identified as being necessary during the course of a repair, then the service advisor can document these using a mobile phone or tablet camera. These photos or videos can be assigned to the order in CROSS and saved in cloud storage. CROSS-Webview can be used to assign corresponding order items and forward them to the customer.
This order extension can then be called up by the customer for digital authorisation on a very wide variety of terminal devices.
Standardised but individually adaptable website for the dealerships incl. rating function
Autohaus
“Autohaus”– the car dealership Internet presence: This is a standardised, professional online presence for car dealerships, meeting the corporate design specifications of the concerned brand, whilst leaving room for the individual presentation of each company.
Brand information on products is always absolutely up-to-date in Autohaus thanks to content sharing. Das WeltAuto, Car Configurator, New Vehicle. Immediately available and Special Offers are integrated into the solution; thereby all offers are always available on the dealer website without any manual input.
CarAdvisor
CarAdvisor is an online rating platform that allows customers to give feedback on dealerships as well as optional equipment for the car models of our Group’s brands.
After buying a vehicle or visiting a repair shop, the dealership invites the customer by email to rate the service in a quick and straightforward way (verified evaluation). Alternatively, customers can log in via the carLOG customer portal and rate a dealership independently of a linked appointment as well.
These ratings are also displayed on the Das WeltAuto used-vehicle portal as well as the dealer and brand websites.
The ratings for optional equipment appear in the Car Configurators of the respective brands.
Transparency in sales and service leads to greater customer loyalty and enhances the reputation of the dealerships. CarAdvisor simplifies the customer journey, thereby taking a further step towards a digital future.
Starting in 2018, CarAdvisor is also the official customer satisfaction tool for sales and service at the Volkswagen, Audi, Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles, SEAT & ŠKODA brands on the Austrian market. The back end of the application offers comprehensive administration and analysis functions are available to importers.