Sonic Automotive's Mobile BI Transformation with MicroStrategy

Technology Category

Functional Applications - Remote Monitoring & Control Systems
Analytics & Modeling - Real Time Analytics
Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Data Visualization

Applicable Industries

Automotive

Applicable Functions

Sales & Marketing
Business Operation

Use Cases

Fleet Management
Predictive Maintenance
Remote Asset Management

Services

System Integration
Software Design & Engineering Services

The Challenge

Sonic Automotive, Inc., a Fortune 500 company, needed to ensure that executives and management had 24-7 access to daily business tracking metrics via a mobile platform. The company aimed to achieve mobility by investing heavily in Apple mobile technology, deploying iPads and iPhones to the executive team, regional management, and dealership management. In March 2010, Sonic began identifying potential partners to assist with the development of mobile apps that would enable their business processes and provide a platform to bring mobile business intelligence and reporting to the leadership. After a failed pilot with another provider, Sonic reached out to MicroStrategy to explore the potential benefits of mobile apps.

About The Customer

Sonic Automotive, Inc. is a Fortune 500 company based in Charlotte, N.C., and is one of the nation’s largest automotive retailers. Founded in 1997 with five dealerships, Sonic now owns over 100 dealership franchises and 20 collision repair centers across 15 states. The company sells around 30 brands of cars and light trucks. Sonic is committed to ensuring that its executives and management have 24-7 access to daily business tracking metrics via a mobile platform, which led to their investment in Apple mobile technology and the development of mobile apps to enhance their business processes.

The Solution

MicroStrategy stepped in and conducted a Mobile QuickStrike, a short consulting engagement, for Sonic Automotive. This was the first step in what has become a strong mobile BI initiative across Sonic. MicroStrategy produced superior versions of the previous provider’s reports and developed a brand new iPad app for Sonic. Today, MicroStrategy has replaced the mobile reporting solution and Microsoft BI tools that were in place at Sonic. The iPad app built for Sonic focuses on an overarching view of business performance that touches on internal sales, service, finance, and insurance as well as external market data. This app is used daily by top executives and others to keep tabs on the performance of Sonic-owned auto dealerships. The app provides a scorecard for each dealership with insight into sales effectiveness across automotive brands, product categories, and geographic regions. It also provides information on each dealership’s compliance with corporate Playbooks.

Operational Impact

The Sonic Executive Team and Regional Leadership use the iPad app to conduct monthly financial reviews and compare performance against that of other dealerships across regions.
With this app, Sonic replaces large binders of spreadsheets and saves significant time by eliminating the need to perform manual analysis of the data.
Executives, including the VP of Operations, CFO, President, CIO, SVP/Controller, and VP of Corporate Accounting, leverage the app to analyze daily operating costs and month-to-date results compared to forecasts and previous months.

Quantitative Benefit

Sonic owns over 100 dealership franchises and 20 collision repair centers across 15 states.
The app is used daily by top executives to evaluate sales performance at its 100+ dealerships in 26 major U.S. metropolitan markets.