Volvo’s ‘Porten’ Solution Empowers Dealer Sales Organizations

This process-oriented portal provides the right information to the right person at the right time, makes the salesmen’s everyday work more effective and empowers the sales organization to take advantage of the complete range of available products. If it will help Volvo dealers to sell, it is worth it. Peter Lorentzon, CEO, Volvohandelns Utvecklings AB

The Situation

The Volvo dealerships in Sweden needed to increase sales of add-on services, such as financing, insurance and service agreements. However, they were faced with complications that included a sales culture not accustomed to these products as well as system availability and usability challenges. These issues needed to be addressed by Volvohandelns Utvecklings AB (VU), a subsidiary of Volvo Car Corporation that provides software to automotive dealers in Sweden and Norway.

The Solution

VU saw the opportunity to overcome these challenges by developing a dealer portal that would combine information from different systems into a single solution. The portal, called “Porten – the salesman Portal,” was developed by VU together with Capgemini.

Through its single sign-on functionality, Porten addresses the challenges of logging into several different applications, including a Dealer Management System (TACDIS, Truck and Car Dealer Information System), customer database, B2B exchange and business intelligence.

Previously, dealer salespeople were required to access information from these multiple applications, each with a unique login.

The new portal is a significant step toward improved modernization of Dealer Management System (DMS) applications, using technologies such as Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS 2007), Web 2.0 and mashup applications.

The Result

The response from dealers has been very positive, as they clearly recognize the business value that the portal will deliver to their sales personnel. Additionally, the new system provides VU with a platform for continual business development on which new Service-Oriented Architecture based (SOA) services can easily be orchestrated and tailored to meet future business needs.