Volkswagen Group has gone live with a new automated system by updating the Leaselink procurement platform from Ebbon-Dacs. It is hoped that the updated system will save thousands of hours a year in manpower for its dealer network and increase transparency for leasing companies.

The current system requires more than 700 dealers across the Volkswagen Group’s five brands – Volkswagen Passenger Cars, Audi, SEAT, ŠKODA and Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles – to manually input the status of all vehicle orders they receive from leasing companies.

This can amount to up to 20,000 leasing company orders in one current order bank – a huge number with an enormous potential for manual input errors. Volkswagen Group calculates that it takes one hour to upload every 100 vehicle status updates, a total of around 200 man hours each week.

Now, under a new automated process, all new vehicle order details, including registration number, VIN number and engine number, will be uploaded directly into the Leaselink e-procurement platform from the Volkswagen Group’s new vehicle order bank.

Volkswagen Group said the automation of the order process is important to them because around 70% of its total annual leasing company order take now goes through the Leaselink system, and almost one third of all Group dealers are signed up as Leaselink users.

This process is currently undergoing pilot testing to ensure the system works efficiently and accurately, according to Volkswagen group. The next phase of the implementation, for completion by August, will considerably increase transparency for leasing companies.

Amanda Morgan, customer relationship manager, group fleet services at Volkswagen Group, said: “These new systems will save our dealers precious time and help reduce errors.

“Once we have completed the second phase, leasing companies will have a clearer view of their orders with us and a more complete picture of build and delivery times” she said.

Ebbon-Dacs has recently invested in new functionality and a new look for Leaselink, which is being rolled out in stages with an initial emphasis on new functionality modules, before the roll out of a new user interface across the whole platform.

Robert Pilkington, Director of the Leaselink International Division of Ebbon-Dacs, said: “The whole ethos behind Leaselink is to introduce efficiencies across the e-procurement process for all users of the platform.

“This latest initiative from Volkswagen Group is very much in line with that kind of thinking, introducing as it does both time and administrative efficiencies for the dealer networks, and improving transparency for leasing companies.”

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