Christophe Collin, Marketing Manager, Ford Service Direction, FMC Automobiles SAS, Ford France, and Charlie Kermarrec, External sales specialist, Ford France
“We see WYZ’ innovations as opportunities to develop our network’s operations and satisfy customers”
Why did you turn to WYZ to help you?
We had realized that because some references of tires made by our manufacturers were missing, we were, along with our dealers, missing sales. What was missed amounted to 5 or 10% of our total volume in sales. Though it is relatively small, it is still too much! WYZ offered a solution. About a year ago, we established contact with WYZ and started talking. Soon after, we started the process of referencing WYZ as a supplier. Once this stage was over, we started testing the system and from then on, things went smoothly. WYZ has great expertise in platforms and interface between various IT systems as well as in tire sourcing. We also benefitted from its experience with other professionals in our sector for this type of configuration.
Once the contract was signed, how did you link WYZ’ platform and your own? How does it work today?
We always prioritize our manufacturing partners. We included WYZ’ alternative sourcing with conditions in terms of delivery and quantities to our own platform, called Ford Pneus (Ford Tires), which gathers flows of information on stocks from manufacturers. This enables us to meet our dealers and customers’ needs. Linking the two systems, Ford Pneus and WYZ, was simple enough. Now the interface enables us to compare both flows. According to delivery and quantities asked, Ford Pneus tells us if tires are available either via our conventional sourcing or, in case tires are missing, via WYZ’ sourcing. In general, WYZ delivers within 24 to 48 hours. Then, at the end of the month, WYZ invoices Ford France for all orders made by each dealer when traditional supply was not available, and in turn, Ford France invoices each dealer. Tests were made a few weeks after the beginning of the contract and everything was going fine. In this respect, we noticed and appreciated WYZ’ professionalism.
Which new functionalities would you like to have to improve your dealers’ operations? Do you think WYZ could provide them for you?
We always listen to what our dealers have to say about their needs. As opposed to Ford spare parts, tires don’t yet benefit from an automatic system for prices and stocks management. In other words, employees at dealerships still do everything by hand when tires are delivered! Such a waste of time shouldn’t occur nowadays. If it could be avoided, employees would have extra time to sell tires…
Consequently, our idea would be to automate the current manual process for prices and stock flows for our dealers in their Dealer Management System. To go further in helping our dealers, we could envisage, if they agree, to modernize their system and put in place an alert when stocks are low, for example, with a suggestion for restocking orders. This is something we want to explore with WYZ and manufacturers. Again, our wish is to meet our dealers’ and end-users’ needs with a solution that WYZ could provide, in order to increase operations and revenues for our dealers.
How do you see the future with WYZ?
Our contract is a local one, signed between WYZ and Ford France, and the solution is currently being implemented in the French market only. Though it has been in place for just a few months, we already noticed a promising trend in terms of tire sales. Our experience is closely watched by Ford Europe and could serve as an example for other European subsidiaries. Even if every country has its own characteristics when it comes to tires, while there are also differences between countries in terms of volumes sold by manufacturers, we believe that WYZ could easily adapt if necessary, thanks to its knowledge and expertise in European markets.
In general, what would you say about WYZ’ ability to anticipate the future and meet customers’ needs?
We are confident WYZ will do just fine. When we sign a contract with a supplier, we do expect innovative proposals. Right now, our priority is to make sure the current platform is working fine. Then, we could explore new developments. Obviously, such developments are only possible when you have an innovative partner like WYZ. A partner who can listen, react and show agility. We see WYZ’ innovations as opportunities to develop our network’s operations and satisfy customers. These innovations complement what we want to do with our manufacturing partners for our ecosystem.