Offer Manager, by MakoLab. An innovative B2C sales platform for the automotive industry

Manage end-of-lease car sales in a platform on the Microsoft Azure cloud
Summary
MakoLab created a complex B2C tool for the simple, rapid construction and publication of car sales offers on leading sales websites on various markets
Client
Industry
Automotive
Service
Solution delivery
Deliverables
Web sales application
The integration of data originating from numerous external and internal sources, simplifying the process of preparing and publishing offers.

Details

The client

The client was Arval, a business which is part of BNP Paribas Capital Group. The company is involved in corporate car rental and leasing.

The challenge

The project presented the team with several challenges. First and foremost, the system required far-reaching integration not only with the client’s existing system, but also with internal and external data sources. In addition, it needed to be adaptable to a wide range of local market conditions and to the specific nature of external advertising websites.

More than 20 of our experts, developers, testers and UX and DevOps specialists from various teams worked on the project.

The goal

Our client needed a B2C tool for the rapid construction and publication of offers for the sale of end-of-lease cars. The web platform would need to be extensively integrated with the client’s existing system and draw on numerous sources of data, both internal and from external partners.

The solution

MakoLab created and developed Offer Manager, a B2C market platform for configuring and publishing offers. While the project was in progress, indirect phases were prepared and implemented in order to ensure that, for the client, business value appeared as quickly as possible in the form of a site that was operating, albeit with restricted functionality.

Primarily based on the tools available in the Microsoft Azure cloud, it provides all the sources of information on the vehicles integrated into one interface. The system facilitates a robust minimisation of the time required to put an offer together, from the moment the data is obtained to the moment of publication on the Internet.

Consisting of more than 150 parameters, including the brand, fixtures and fittings, technical data and service history, and supported by photos and financing information, the complete description of a vehicle is drawn from client databases and rounded out with data from external clients, who join the system via the API.

At the next stage, Offer Manager enables sellers to supplement the information and verify it. The entire process concludes with the automatic publication of the car sale offer not only on the client’s website, but also on leading vehicle advertising sites such as OtoMoto and Autotrader.

Key results
  • Integrated information from numerous sources
  • The information is tailored to a given market
  • Costs converted into different currencies, kilometres into miles, engine power from kW to kM and so on
  • 13 apps deployed in 11 countries to date

Integration with our system works like this; we contact the operator of an advertising website and then, taking its specifications into account, we create a data exchange module that makes it possible to put a given car up for sale on the basis of information drawn from Offer Manager. That’s what we’re doing for the client’s website. Working together with the client, we’re planning to expand the system by adding more functions connected with the automatic processing of purchase formalities. This will make it possible to carry out as much as 80% of the purchasing process online, with no need for personal contact.
Szymon Wojciechowski, MakoLab Project Manager