Managing fleet sales (and more)

MakoLab’s solutions for Renault, Dacia and Alpine.

Summary
In recent years, the automotive sector has been undergoing a sweeping transformation as it moves towards digitalisation, making it possible to create products and services in a way which is more individualised and suited to the client’s needs. The changes encompass not only vehicles and the solutions used in them, but also the approach to buying and selling them. MakoLab, which collaborates with the Renault and Dacia brands on a daily basis, has developed digital sales tools which are designed not only for individual customers, but also for companies.
Client
Industry
Automotive
Service
Solution delivery
Deliverables
Web sales application
The primary goal of the project was to simplify the preparation of comprehensive offers and orders for new vehicles by integrating data from multiple sources and providing better analytic capabilities through using the AWS cloud.

Details

Goals and challenges
The NEST platform is continually developing. With fleets representing a significant segment of Renault Group’s new vehicle sales, the decision to extend the application to encompass that functionality was made. MakoLab’s task was to automatise and simplify the management of fleet sales to businesses, making it possible to place one order covering the sale of multiple vehicles.

Before the deployment of our fleet management module, business clients were served in the same way as individual customers. A dealer could only issue an offer for one vehicle at a time. There was no capability for providing the client with a single document covering all the vehicles purchased. Applying a discount programme on the basis of the number of vehicles purchased was equally as impossible. MakoLab was therefore faced with the challenge of shaping NEST to service the new requirements.

Our work so far
NEST is a MakoLab web sales application custom-created for Renault Polska. The platform is used by every Renault and Dacia dealership for preparing offers and orders for new vehicles and it was recently deployed at Alpine, where it is also now in use.

The primary goal of the project was to simplify the preparation of comprehensive offers and orders for new vehicles by integrating data from multiple sources and providing better analytic capabilities through using the AWS cloud.

An important aspect of this is that NEST serves not only individual customers with offers for a single vehicle, but also companies putting together an order for a fleet.

Our engineers developed a system which combines a CRM application and pivotal in-house Renault and Dacia brand apps to create a single cohesive sales tool. The platform, which was created in collaboration with teams from Renault Polska and Grupa Dealer, was built entirely on the basis of tools and services available from the AWS Cloud.

The solution makes a number of things possible, including full configuration of vehicles, single and fleets alike, the sale of accessories and services, purchase financing and special bodywork. This not only makes it easier to construct an offer, but also facilitates the client’s preferences for the collection and analysis of data which had previously been spread across numerous systems.

For more on the solution, see MakoLab | Case study | Renault AWS

Work on the solution included integration with:
  • the central identity provider (IDP);
  • two vehicle configuration tools, CSB and AOC;
  • RCES, a central application for storing data on offers and orders;
  • R-doc, a document storage tool;
  • Fleet Quotation, a tool for managing fleet discount policy.
The MakoLab team was also responsible for developing:
  • an RCI Bank application for preparing offers and carrying out financial calculations for new vehicles;
  • the integration with the CPL application for offering accessories;
  • the SLAS application for selling services and extending warranties;
  • Car Export, an application for pricing used cars traded in as part of a purchase;
  • the integration with Distrinet, an application for ordering the production of vehicles that have been contracted for.
Development, working and testing methodologies
Our work on the project is carried out using Agile methodology. The greatest technical challenge presented by the project was the integration with the external systems supplied by Renault, which necessitated the adaption of the NEST application to external tools. This, in turn, introduced limitations when it came to preparing the functionalities.

Selling fleets involves generating a range of subprocesses which are responsible for servicing every single vehicle. With offers for fleets, the synchronisation of various subprocesses needs to be controlled, as does servicing any errors which may occur.

In mid 2021, we began working on the project, which was divided into two stages. Stage one involved the creation and development of the entire fleet order management module. That was deployed across the dealership network in April 2022.

Work is currently in progress on stage two. The outcome will be integration with the external discount module for fleet orders.

At present, almost one hundred Renault, Dacia and Alpine dealers are happy to be using the fleet sales solution custom-created for them by MakoLab.

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