European Motor Distributors

European Motor Distributors were established in 1977 with a business goal of being the leading New Zealand Vehicle Importer with an unequalled dealer focus. They are importers of fine European automobiles, including Porsche, Volkswagen, Audi, Bentley, Aston Martin and Lamborghini.

With the growth of Information Technology, European Motor Distributors decided to move with the times and upgrade from their previous system, ONE. According to Chief Financial Officer Ernie Miller, the ONE system was “Inflexible” and they wanted to have compatibility with Microsoft products. Stephanie Cowie the MIS Manager also states that “the old system was technically fragile and there was a finite time limit on how long it was going to last”.

European Motor Distributors decided to make a change. They conducted an extensive review of the market with the resulting decision of upgrading their ONE system to Incadea (International Car Dealership Application). They also decided to maintain their long standing relationship with Avanti Solutions Limited.

The decision was made to use incadea.engine and Avanti Solutions Limited to align European Motor Distributors’ Information Technology with their future business strategies. This allowed them to stay true to their core purpose of being dealer centric as well as moving with the times and keeping up to date with their strategically important Information Technology System. According to Ernie Miller, “incadea.engine was the best product at the time, it fulfilled our needs”.

Go live was reached in November 2002. Ernie Miller states that “The implementation encountered normal trials and tribulations but both Stephanie and I are extremely happy with the system and support”.

With incadea.engine being specifically designed for the vehicle industry including the Importer Layer – Add On, developed by Avanti, European Motor Distributors were able to find a product that did what they required. Both Vehicle and Parts Inventory were covered in Incadea as well as the high standard of the Navision Attain financial base. With the previous system European Motor Distributors required ONE to be very heavily customised to cover all their requirements, however in the case of incadea.engine less customisation was required to meet all their needs. According to Ernie Miller “Even without the required customisations Incadea fits the bill and does what European Motor Distributors require”.

With implementation complete and the processing in the new system full steam ahead, European Motor Distributors have been able to see immediate benefits. When Stephanie Cowie was asked about the benefits incadea.engine has brought to European Motor Distributors, she said it has “Helped identify weaknesses and tighten our structure and highlighted problems we previously weren’t aware of”. As well as the present, Ernie Miller discusses the future. “incadea enginewill allow us to get better quality information out of our system. We are going to be able to make more informed decisions”.