MaximTrak Technologies

Jim Maxim Jr., President MaximTrak Technologies 1. Please give a brief overview of your mobile offering. MobileTrak is an enterprise level mobile solution for the F&I Industry. It enables Dealers and F&I Managers to cut the cords from the “traditional” F&I Office while making presentations, handling objections and contracting F&I business. MobileTrak leverages the MaximTrak platform in a mobile-optimized offering for dealerships, agents and administrative companies. Similar to our traditional F&I Technologies, we segment our mobility solutions into three main product categories: MenuTrak, Dashboards and E-Trak. MenuTrak is our flagship F&I Menu platform and is the backbone of our product offerings. This encompasses all of the transaction-based, point-of-sale services that our company offers including F&I Menu and Sales Tools as well as incorporating a number of application services including Certified DMS integration, compliance tools, credit application integrations and private label programs. Dashboards is our company’s management reporting suite of services that includes real-time reporting technologies, DMS enabled reporting programs and interactive management dashboard for dealers, product providers and income development consultants.and E-Trak is the company’s e-business platform supporting e-Rating, e-Contracting, e-Signature, e-Registration and coming soon e-Pay. Our F&I Network is connected to roughly 100 industry participants, administrative platforms and exchange networks. 2. Which mobile devices are supported? Currently MaximTrak supports the big two, Apple iOS (iPad) and Google Android operating systems which represent a very large percent of the overall tablet market. Kindle Fire is something that we are watching closely and we believe that 2013 will be a revolutionary year for Microsoft’s new Surface device which we are heavy supporters of given its capabilities for the business user. Most of our dealers are using iPads today. The iPad by far is the most robust platform out there to date. However we expect some new entrants to start chipping away at the impressive market share Apple has been able to achieve. 3. Have you developed a specific mobile application or have enabled your software for mobile devices? We have not released a specific device application to the market, but rather we have built infrastructure and mobile-optimized solutions that can be used in a broad spectrum of applications and mobile devices. MaximTrak is a cloud-based application solution, so we try not to get into specific platform development. 4. Explain the way you expect the F&I manager to use your mobile solution. MobileTrak replaces the paper and cuts the cords that tie an F&I Manager to the F&I office or desk for presentations, upsell, closing and contract execution. With MobileTrak, F&I Managers can run multiple payment scenarios, modify menus and presentations on the fly, utilize sales aids to address customer questions and have the customer sign on the “dotted line”, all on the MobileTrak solution. Today, F&I Managers are able to leverage the training that they receive and take the old paper processes to the next level by employing state-of-the-art technology. This means that much of the sales processes are similar (except being tied to the F&I office) but the way in which we interact with the consumer at the point-of-sale has been enhanced dramatically… and the results are paying off. 5. How will this enhance the sales process for the F&I manager? The things we fight most in F&I are the negative perceptions and the unwillingness of customers toward hearing about what it is that we have to offer. The sins of the past have become the objections of the present. What MobileTrak does is create a portable, relaxed atmosphere and method of selling that leverages the comfort zone of the customer and the credibility of interactive consultative selling. Quite frankly, the flash of the tablet based approach goes a long way by itself just because people are more apt to listen to you when you present from an iPad. MobileTrak takes advantage of our known weaknesses and turns them into strengths. We know that customers do not like going into the “back room”, where their level of fear and insecurity starts to rise. We now have the ability to leverage a comfortable situation, go out to the customer on the showroom floor and address all of their questions, close and have the customer execute their signatures right on the iPad for the products they just accepted. This eliminates the need to go back and forth from an office to make changes or modifications, reprint menu, update down payment information, etc. It enhances the professionalism of the F&I Manager and creates a transparent and very credible customer interaction and overall experience. We know a lot of F&I Managers that do this iPad presentation in their F&I offices because their showroom floors are not conducive to the F&I process and that of course is just as good. There is no one right way to leverage the MobileTrak solution. The nice thing is that the dealership has the choice of how they would like to use it. 6. What other mobile solutions do you believe the F&I office and agents will see in the next few years? In the short-term (next five years) tablet based devices and electronic contracting will be the biggest innovative drivers in the F&I technology arena. We have already seen the tremendous impact that digitizing the process can have on the administrative costs and overall efficiencies of many of our partners. Tablets will change the way agents can train and implement processes as well as hold people accountable to those processes. I remember when there was no real-time reporting and people were flying blind month-in and month-out. Soon the real-time feedback on process and the impact on profits will be common place and most agencies will not be able to compete with the factory unless they have a platform to train and offer their dealers as an alternative solution. The biggest change in the future (greater than 5-years) to the F&I office may not be the technology that F&I Managers utilize themselves, but rather when consumers are engaged with F&I options and how. We have seen dealers, lenders and providers have varying level of discussions as to when F&I may be introduced throughout the online buying process. This is something to watch closely as the industry evolves; keeping your products and services at the forefront and upstream in the process will be the hurdle in the future. 7. Does your product benefit agents? MaximTrak and MobileTrak provide agents with the tools they need to maximize business within their dealership accounts. Agency representatives have real-time insight on both the process they are training on as well as the performance results they are accountable for delivering on. These are the obvious benefits, but the less obvious is more often the more profitable and that is the impact on product sales. MobileTrak has demonstrated an average VSC penetration increase versus non usage of 12 percent across a few hundred thousand transactions. The ancillary product volume increases are much starker. Often times we see 40 percent lift in GAP, and sometimes 200 percent in secondary product categories such as Tire & Wheel or Maintenance. MobileTrak is also providing actual sales statistics from its e-contracting module called e-Trak which can be broken down by product, provider and F&I manager. MobileTrak provides the accounting office at the dealership with a point-and-click easy way to register business by eliminating the paper. It’s funny, oftentimes we hear more about how much the accounting department loves MaximTrak more than just about anyone else. We’ll take that as a compliment!