IRVINE, Calif. —Spireon, the vehicle intelligence company, announced Kahu Connect, the latest offering from Spireon’s Kahu^® solution, a connected car solution truly designed for franchise dealers. Leveraging the strategic integrations with Cox Automotive’s HomeNet and Dealertrack DMS, CDK Global, and Reynolds and Reynolds, Kahu Connect offers dealerships the visibility needed for retail inventory management, a new dashboard for ease of access to actionable data and the ability to track down specific inventory for customers.

“With dealerships facing increasing pressure to deliver top-notch service to buyers, it’s critical that they are buttoned up on backend operations."

With the integrated solution, dealers can now visualize and report on the current status of their entire inventory, not just the connected cars on the lot with the Kahu solution. This gives dealers deeper insight into inventory location, protection and usage as well as expedites customer sales.

“With dealerships facing increasing pressure to deliver top-notch service to buyers, it’s critical that they are buttoned up on backend operations,” said Brian Skutta, president of automotive at Spireon. “We’ve created a holistic solution that allows dealers to seamlessly integrate Kahu into the operational DNA of the dealership, leading to lot health and a shorter, streamlined customer buying experience, which in turn, increases sales.”

Kahu Connect provides dealerships with stronger tools to optimize lot health and operational efficiency. Key benefits of the solution are:

• Automated Activation and Deactivation—utilizing the DMS sales feeds, Kahu automatically processes activation into consumer accounts or deactivates devices without requiring staff to spend time with manual processing

• True Retail Inventory Visibility—automatically adjusts reports and dashboards to help visualize how dealership management systems (DMS) data feeds and active retail changes impact a dealer's inventory landscape

• New Inventory Management Dashboard—delivers real-time data on a dealership’s retail makeup and problem areas, as well as highlights the most urgent and actionable data that dealerships need at their fingertips

• Increases the Ability to Connect the Right Vehicle to the Right Customer Quickly—richer vehicle information is automatically populated and searchable within the Kahu app and online including interior/external color, stock number, trim and body style

• Inventory Classification—allows dealers to segment and view inventory by type including new, used, loaners, parts and shuttles

• Improved VIN Decoding—key data integration with HomeNet Automotive allows Kahu to utilize additional data sources as backup for VIN decoding

With visibility into both Kahu connected vehicles and those not yet paired with a device, dealerships are able to ensure all vehicles are accounted for and protected against theft.

“Kahu Connect promises to be a game changer for us, in terms of our ability to clearly see the status of our entire lot,” noted Shalee Bleecker, controller at Arrowhead BMW in Arizona. “While other lot management service providers tout inventory management as a feature, it doesn’t apply to all of the vehicles in our queue, giving our team only half of the picture. Spireon has taken the much-needed steps to build an all-encompassing tool that not only gives us the confidence on our backend operations but also empowers our team to provide the best car shopping experience for our customers.”

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