Luke Bettles, Automotive Automation’s Managing Director, provides a full overview of the company’s software capabilities.
Our Vision platform is currently made up of two applications, Vision Mobile and Vision TMA, as well as the desktop control panel used for administration. Both apps are designed to assist busy motor factors and suppliers in their day-to-day operations. By securely connecting to customers’ MAM Autopart databases, our software enables users to monitor and improve sales/staff performance, as well as time management and attendance.
Vision Mobile
When it comes to monitoring sales performance, there are only a handful of options available to the aftermarket. After starting AutoMM and working with different types of motor factor, we quickly noticed that as good as these choices were, there was an opportunity to offer something different. Something that was comprehensive but simple to use, low in cost with high value, and that provided live data without affecting performance. Our aim was to build a solution that ticked all of those boxes and could be used anywhere.
There’s no ‘one size fits all’ solution for viewing your business’ data. We found motor factors could be structured in various forms, with different setups operating in different ways. Owners and managers could be seen taking on a number of different roles and, in some instances, they weren’t seen at all. Whether you are the type of owner that is hands on and is constantly involved with operations at all levels, or the type of owner that doesn’t get to spend as much time on-site, we wanted to provide a platform that would bring value to as many business types as possible.
Essentially, Vision Mobile provides users with important business data in an easy to read format. Sales, credits, nett and margin figures are live and can be compared against previous periods and targets – as an overall figure or by individual branches.
They can also be broken down by supplier, customer, product group and sales operator. This is not a deep-dive into a business crammed onto a small screen. We have arranged a collection of critical operational figures, specifically for mobile devices. By building this into a mobile application, users can quickly see these figures simply by taking their phone out of their pocket. To increase ease of use and convenience further, users can set up notifications and alerts. Vision Mobile allows users to tailor specific business information to be pushed to their device as a native mobile notification or to any email address as a graphical report.
Notifications can be set to fire on a schedule (for example, it can be set to show the margin figure, for all branches, every weekday at 5pm), or when certain conditions are met (such as when a particular branch exceeds £2,000k in credits). We found that by enabling users to tell us what they want to know when they want to know it, we drastically reduced the time they spent looking at data. These prompts are ideal, not just for business owners, but for branch managers, department heads and other supervisors.
Instant notifications from live data events bring issues to users’ attention immediately without relying on CSV exports, end of day reports or customer complaints.
Vision TMA
It’s surprising how many organisations are still using archaic clocking in methods such as punch cards, timesheets and, in many cases, nothing at all. These methods are not only at risk of abuse and being mislaid, but can encumber basic staff management tasks such as health and safety roll calls, annual leave, sick leave and payroll. One of the biggest hurdles for average-sized motor factors when it comes to installing a TMA (time management and attendance) system is cost. TMA hardware is a large upfront cost. Software to administer these systems is built to cater for a wide range of business types, and can be complicated to use and poorly supported.
Vision TMA was designed as a simple, affordable clocking in system with the aftermarket in mind. This provides the standard features necessary for monitoring and managing attendances and payroll, but also connects MAM’s Autopart user IDs to display sales operator performances, through the Vision Mobile app.
As staff clock-ins are captured, they are instantly available on the app as well as the control panel. Administrators can view and edit clock records, and can manage holidays and sick leave via the cloud-based control panel, which can be accessed via any desktop browser. Using this control panel, various attendance reports can be exported, including payroll, which can be formatted to integrate with most popular accounting systems.
Helping you through tough times
In light of the COVID-19 situation, AutoMM has set itself up to demonstrate its software offering remotely. For more information, click here.
The company is also offering motor factors the opportunity to participate in a month-long free trial of its mobile app and/or clocking in system. For more information, click here.
For those in need of some assistance, AutoMM is also releasing a series of videos called Vision tips, in order for users to maximise their use of their Vision software. To access these videos, click here.
