The Cobalt Group and Volkswagen Expand Dealer e-Business Services Into Canada
18 January 2001
The Cobalt Group and Volkswagen Expand Dealer e-Business Services Into Canada
SEATTLE--Jan. 18, 2001--In its first Canadian business venture, The Cobalt Group announced today an exclusive initiative with Volkswagen to help the auto manufacturer extend its online presence into Canada.
Cobalt, a leading provider of e-business products and services to the automotive industry, will provide Volkswagen's 150 Canadian auto dealers with e-business marketing and reporting tools, and custom Canadian French and English language branded Web sites. Cobalt already provides similar services to Volkswagen's U.S. dealers.
"Volkswagen's decision to expand its partnership with The Cobalt Group into Canada reflects the success of the U.S. program and Volkswagen's dedication to working closely with its dealers to build successful e-business strategies," said John Holt, president and CEO of The Cobalt Group. "Cobalt's ability to successfully execute this project through Canadian French language integration and Web site customization demonstrates our commitment to leverage our industry-leading technology and work more closely with dealers outside the U.S."
Cobalt will customize Volkswagen's current U.S. e-business program for the Canadian market. Initially, Cobalt will provide Web sites, offered in French, English or both, and online inventory management and traffic reporting tools so dealers can easily market their vehicles online and measure their sites' effectiveness. Canadian Volkswagen dealers will also receive support from a French and English-speaking Cobalt team of Volkswagen customer service specialists. As part of the program, Volkswagen has stipulated that it will provide leads from the manufacturer site (www.vw.com) only to Cobalt-built dealer sites.
"Volkswagen believes that its dealers are the core of its business. To expand our dealer e-business program into Canada, we decided to deepen our already successful partnership with Cobalt, a company that really understands dealers' needs and their value to auto retailing on the Internet," said Tesa Aragones, eBusiness Brand Leader for Volkswagen. "By providing our Canadian dealers with Volkswagen-branded, Cobalt-built Web sites and the tools needed to manage the sites, we will have the ability to more efficiently offer our vehicles and services to a much larger audience."
ABOUT THE COBALT GROUP
The Cobalt Group(TM) , headquartered in Seattle, is a leading provider of e-business products and services that help automotive dealers and manufacturers effectively manage their businesses online. Cobalt's suite of e-business solutions includes Web services, Web site hosting, e-commerce applications, Internet-based customer relationship-management applications, data management, and best practices training and consulting.
Nearly half of the nation's auto dealers use Cobalt's technology, including 6,400 Web services clients, and approximately 10,000 PartsVoice(R) (www.partsvoice.com) clients. Cobalt's e-business products and services are endorsed by 15 automotive manufacturers and more than 50 of the 100 largest dealer groups in the United States. Cobalt is the only e-business provider endorsed by the National Automobile Dealers Association.
Cobalt operates MotorPlace.com(TM) (www.MotorPlace.com), an online business management and industry information resource for auto dealers. At MotorPlace.com, dealers utilize Cobalt tools to manage their Web sites, buy wholesale used vehicles, locate and market OEM parts, and access industry information, news, events, and stock quotes. Cobalt also operates DealerNet(R) (www.dealernet.com), one of the most widely visited consumer automotive information portals on the Web. IntegraLink Corporation, a Cobalt company, is the auto industry's premier provider of automotive data collection and reporting services.
Cobalt has offices in Seattle, Wash.; Portland, Ore.; Detroit, Mich.; Columbus, Ohio; and Austin, Texas. For more information, please visit www.cobaltgroup.com or call 800/909-8244.