Case Study: Bruce Auto Group

Business Need

Running a franchised auto dealership business is complex. There are many areas where money can quickly leak out of the business and opportunities can be missed if they are not carefully managed. Automotive consultants have created a large industry out of documenting the many financial KPIs that a dealership needs to attain to maximise their business, but their tools and insights are costly. For most stores, the reporting is infrequent and the consulting can leads to an unhealthy dependence on external expertise rather then empowering employees.

Consolidating information is also a challenge. Marketing spend is distributed amongst a number of digital and traditional medias. The amount spent per vehicle is significant and dynamic as demand and inventory levels fluctuate. This can make tracking performance difficult and hard to contain. The head of marketing felt a large portion of their marketing spend was underperforming and could be re-allocated or eliminated completely. The challenge was how to stitch together the significant marketing data available – in a meaningful way. The senior management team began to seek out a business intelligence solution.

In conclusion, reporting today is more often an autopsy. Reporting problems and identifying them only when it is too late.

Solution

When Bruce Auto Group scanned the market (for business intelligence providers) - they identified Real World Analytics (RWA) a company based in Dublin Ireland as a world leader in Business Intelligence. Their solutions seemed to offer a solution to BAG’s challenging data needs. The timing was perfect, as RWA was in the process of expanding it’s intelligence solutions – which had been operating in Ireland and the UK for years – overseas to Canada. A partnership was formed!

RWA’s data analytics solution runs in the cloud which means it is cost effective and quick to implement. To meet the needs for constant and freshly updated data, the RWA technical team set up automated daily data transfers from their PBS Dealer Management (DMS) and other third-party applications and then blended these with BAG’s budgets and targets. These are presented back to BAG in easy to absorb dashboards that allow the executive team to drill down on the information – to better understand what is happening. The CEO, CFO, Brand Managers and VP of Sales and VP of Fixed Operations receive additional schedule reports that are automatically delivered to their email. They in turn can request and schedule the reports for their teams - including the Daily Operating Controls (DOCs) for Sales, and Fixed Operations. By looking at the same information – everyone is on the same page and have a clearer understanding of activities that are on track or off track. The RWA dashboards and reports are essentially the workflow documents that identify what needs to be done in the dealership to achieve the company goals or Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).

The marketing team was able to consolidate their digital data and enhance their tracking to measure engagements. This meant advertising spend could now be evaluated by more than just clicks, as not all clicks are the same. With the RWA solution, Bruce Auto Group are given graduated metrics of engagement to identify casual browsers from buyers who are at an advanced stage. With a daily snapshot, Bruce is able to see performance of all campaigns and the vehicles that are attracting the most interest, helping them price vehicles more effectively. The daily snapshot allowed Bruce to spend more resources on campaigns that generated engaged shoppers – increasing conversion and reducing costs by eliminating campaigns that didn’t lead to conversion.

“The clarity RWA’s reports give us have been invaluable in these times of great change in our business. We get more done in less time. This solution has not been a cost to us, it has contributed value well in excess of its cost.”

- Justin Barker, President, Bruce Automotive Group