Auto Town Launches Management Tool for U.S. Auto Dealerships

21 January 2000

Auto Town Launches Breakthrough Management Tool for U.S. Automotive Dealerships; New DealerTrak Software Suite Designed to Transform the Future of Automotive Retailing

    ORLANDO, Fla.--Jan. 21, 2000--Auto Town, a venture capital-backed Silicon Valley-based software and Internet solution provider for automotive dealerships, today launched DealerTrak(TM), the first software suite designed to transform the future of automotive retailing. The announcement was made by company executives at the National Automotive Dealers Association (NADA) Convention and Exhibition.
    Unlike other software products, DealerTrak is a comprehensive sales management, finance and insurance (F&I), data mining and Internet marketing software suite that has been developed by automotive retail professionals who have operated their own dealership organizations. It was designed by Silicon Valley engineers to work seamlessly with a dealership's existing software applications and systems, and has been successfully installed in 30 automotive dealerships over the past six months. With these qualities built into DealerTrak, Auto Town is the first and only provider to combine all of the dealership's information and systems on a single desktop.
    "Having been in the automotive retail business for 20 years, I know what a difficult yet exciting time it is to be a dealer," says Al Babbington, chief executive officer of Auto Town. "To prepare for the challenges that range from industry consolidation to Internet marketing, dealers must embrace new tools like DealerTrak to increase productivity and profitability to levels that have already been achieved in most other industries. Dealers who respond to these challenges will thrive in the next decade."
    While last year, automotive sales in the U.S. set a new record of nearly 17 million vehicles, more than 50 percent of new car and truck buyers used the Internet to help them shop for a new vehicle.
    "At Auto Town, we've given a lot of thought and years of development to address the issues and problems dealerships are facing today," explains Jerry Daniels, company co-founder and vice president of sales and marketing. "The result is DealerTrak, a comprehensive suite of applications designed for the rapidly changing automotive retail environment."

    Product Description

    Built on a powerful relational database, the DealerTrak product suite includes:


--   Customer Relationship Management - provides existing and
     prospective customer tracking capability through the automobile
     dealership, improving customer service and retention.

--   Inventory Management - integrates valuation data from Kelley Blue
     Book, NADA and Black Book Data sources.

--   Sales Management - a complete finance and insurance software
     program that seamlessly integrates with the dealership's existing
     management system.
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    Auto Town also offers two additional Web-based products: WebTrak which consolidates all Internet lead provider referrals into a single management tool; and ServiceTrak which creates a personal Web site for each customer and launches continuous email communications.

    Product Features and Benefits

    DealerTrak cuts the time it takes to process sales by up to 50 percent, dramatically increases sales productivity, and collects all customer information in a single database regardless of how the customer contacted the dealer.
    Designed to integrate seamlessly with existing systems, DealerTrak empowers dealership management in a number of ways that don't exist today:



--   With customers: DealerTrak easily captures customer information
     via electronic guest registration, tracks customers through the
     entire sales and service process, and enables dealers to provide
     continuous follow-up service.

--   With salespeople: DealerTrak improves communication with
     customers through relationship marketing, improves organization
     skills with computer-generated daily work plans, increases sales
     and improves closing rates.

--   With managers: DealerTrak frees them from time-wasting data
     entry, provides the tools to effectively manage sales activities,
     and increases return on inventory and advertising investments.
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About Auto Town

Founded in 1996 in the San Francisco Bay Area, Auto Town is a venture capital-backed Silicon Valley-based software and Internet solution provider dedicated to improving the revenues and profits of automotive dealerships while increasing their customer responsiveness. Its easy-to-use Windows-based applications integrate fully with a dealer's existing software systems. DealerTrak, Auto Town's core product, is a comprehensive sales management, finance and insurance (F&I), data mining and Internet marketing software suite. Targeted to the top 10,000 franchised dealers in the United States, Auto Town's software solutions help automobile dealers compete in the face of growing consolidation and new distribution channels in the automotive industry. For more information, visit the company's Web site at www.dealertrak.com.