COBALT EARNS NADA ENDORSEMENT FOR FIFTH YEAR

Cobalt sales and marketing vice-president Mike Martinez (pictured at podium) conducted a panel discussion on the company's many new products (from left, Chris Hanson, Internet director, Hibbing Chrysler; Cathy Morse, director of e-commerce, Ed Morse Group; and Joe Hannon, vice-president and chief operating officer, McGuire Auto Group).

January 31, 2004—NADA is extending its exclusive endorsement of The Cobalt Group’s online retailing tools for a fifth year, according to NADA chairman Alan Starling. Since Cobalt debuted its Nitra family of products in 2000, almost a quarter of all dealerships have gotten on board. (Cobalt is the only e-business provider NADA has ever endorsed.)

Cobalt’s offerings include Nitra Complete, Nitra Extended, and Nitra Core, which offer different levels of electronic dealership management. Features include call tracking and reporting; online maintenance schedules and menu pricing; inventory managing; ad building; customer surveying; and vehicle configuration and research programs.

This year, NADA is also endorsing Cobalt’s Spanish-language Web site and Parts Marketing Solutions, which offer translated Web sites and the opportunity to market parts worldwide online. Another approved product, Dealer Group Portal, lets dealer groups aggregate their inventory onto a central family portal.

In addition, Cobalt is announcing F&I Web Services, which lets dealers integrate their F&I data from any partner F&I application with Prospector, the company’s customer relationship management product. Automotive Computer Technology (ACT) and The Cardone Group are the first two F&I providers to partner with Cobalt.

The new Prospector/F&I integration means data won’t have to be double-entered, and manual keying errors will be reduced. Plus salespeople will be able to pull up a customer’s info at the sales desk with one click of a button, says Cobalt.

Also debuting at this year’s show is Lead Manager Customer Central, which improves lead response times and provides easy access to customer and prospect info. It can handle large volumes of automaker leads and rout them to the appropriate dealer. It has been designed for ease of use so that any dealership employee can manage leads from the sales floor, phone, and Internet. In addition, it flags duplicate leads and keeps leads on track by notifying salespeople when tasks are overdue.

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