Kerry Mueller: President of One-Eighty Corp. says more dealers are embracing tablets.
Canadian auto dealer editor Todd Phillips (left) was on a judging panel at One-Eighty Corp.’s Tab-Off event.
Five tablet testers from dealerships across the country put some of today’s top tablet models through their paces to see which is the best fit for dealership use.
The “Tab-Off” event was organized by Waterloo, Ont.-based One-Eighty Corp., a provider of sales and customer relationship management (CRM) software tools for auto dealerships. The company provided the tablets to five of its customers and asked them to use them in their day-to-day roles, and to test the company’s software on the devices. They were then invited to an event at the company’s head offices to present their impressions and meet with the other judges and invited guests.
In the end, the Apple iPad came out on top, followed by the Sony Tablet S, the BlackBerry Playbook, the Samsung Galaxy, and in last place was the Toshiba Windows 7. But the event wasn’t solely designed to crown a winner, it was to help raise awareness about the growing role of tablets and mobile devices within dealerships, said company president Kerry Mueller.
With tablet sales booming, and industry experts predicting tablets will replace the personal computer for many users, its easy to understand why dealers want more information. “We know a lot of dealerships have asked us about what to get,” said Mueller in an interview with Canadian auto dealer at the event. “We recognize it is a pretty confusing market if you are trying to decide so we thought maybe we could help.”
Mueller said the company has always listened to its customers in developing its product offerings, and this event was an example of that. “I thought the event went very well,” said Mueller. “I think this was all that we had expected and hoped it would be.”
The dealership judges were Natasha Kokor, Sales Manager at Endras BMW, Brock Lauer, Sales and Leasing Consultant from Budd’s Subaru, Willem Woudwyk from OWASCO RV, Dave Maier, Sales and Leasing Consultant from Victoria BMW and Zane Mercey, Sales and Leasing Representative at Victoria Star Motors.
The other invited judges including a mix of industry experts and industry media, including Canadian auto dealer editor Todd Phillips. The company also gave away 10 tablets in a random draw to some of its customers, along with other prizes as part of a celebration of the company’s 10th anniversary. In June, the company started to roll out its Mobile Showroom product to select dealers for testing.
