Leverage business data to create both tactical and strategic advantages

Independent companies in the heavy-duty truck parts aftermarket have always faced tough and competitive business conditions, but in recent years the routine challenges in this industry have been compounded by rising inflation, supply chain disruptions and the emergence of large non-traditional competitors such as Amazon and Google. All of this further amplifies urgent problems most often expressed by distributors, including:

• Preserving profit margins
• Optimizing product availability and timely delivery
• Maintaining customer satisfaction and loyalty
• Managing cash flow and collections

Fortunately, for AutoPower users, these issues can be mitigated significantly by making use of the large volume of data that is captured and maintained in the AutoPower system. In a marketplace that is increasingly data driven, business insights prove vital to ongoing growth and profitability. 

Data is power if a business has the means to leverage it. As the center of daily operations, the AutoPower system gives independent distributors of all sizes solid head starts in securing future success as agile, data-centric organizations. AutoPower is designed to capture, process, correlate, and store every customer order, every inventory entry and every other discrete bit of business information in near-real time across all departments and applications–from sales and accounting to inventory and warehouse management, and to service and repair. These valuable insights form a larger strategic picture of the company’s performance and yield more precise context to steer management toward more informed, actionable decisions. 

Gleaning meaningful data from most business software systems can be challenging. The AutoPower system, on the other hand, extracts the greatest possible value from everyday transactional data, transforming it into meaningful reports, alerts, and queries with drill-down discoveries to provide maximum business agility at both tactical and strategic levels. 

At the tactical level, the AutoPower system includes the built-in ARIA (Active Real-time Intelligence Alert) suite, which enables rapid response to real-time events and conditions via four types of alerts that are automatically directed to select personnel:

1. AutoMail (the system’s built-in messaging function)—assuring effective communication and coordination across all departments and personnel
2. Credit-Hold—flagging at-risk customer orders for management approval or denial
3. Business Alert Management (BAM)—informing users of 35 preprogrammed indicators ranging from daily bank deposits to newly added customer accounts
4. DOT Certification—identifying specific vehicles and drivers that fall short of permit requirements, government certification, and preventative maintenance milestones

Alerts can be assigned on a credentialed basis and delivered via email, text, or AutoMail. Notifications are also documented and accessible via a log. These automated notifications and alerts pinpoint potential problems that are often overlooked, so managers can prevent them from evolving into profit-killing crises. 

At the strategic level, AutoPowerBI Business Analytics provides comprehensive data intelligence that can empower managers to share critical insights across the organization with confidence. It brings to life the vast detail of data in the AutoPower system with dashboards and reports for specific business operational areas, including sales, finance and inventory.

With such unprecedented near real-time visibility and control across departments, managers can now:

• Monitor, measure and improve the performance of individual sales personnel, manufacturers and product lines
• Better anticipate and fulfill customer needs
• Improve inventory management
• Detect competitor encroachment
• Make more informed, prudent business decisions
• Improve overall operational efficiency and financial management.

The application of data—especially data analytics—is here to stay and will continue to grow in importance as a force for driving operations and business strategies. In a 2021 distributor survey conducted by Distribution Strategy Group, 90% of respondents said that analytics was important in sales, and 80% said it was important to apply analytics to operations (including warehouse, supply chain and logistics).

AutoPower can help companies stay competitive and profitable in the data-leverage game by requesting a complimentary demonstration of the AutoPower system.