Win Market Share Via The Cloud

By Matt Pillar, chief editor

By moving its software to the cloud and offering subscription-based pricing, this ISV was able to take market share from its competition.

Back in 2001, a little-known start-up software company called Dealertrack Technologies set off on a mission that some might have called impossible. The company developed financial software, most notably the first Internet-based credit application tool for auto dealers, which migrated the financing approval business from a fax-to-bank proposition to the Internet. Gradually, through acquisition, the company began to build an ERP (enterprise resource planning) system-like footprint for car dealerships, offering a core DMS (dealer management system) that includes accounting, payroll, parts and vehicle inventory, sales, and repair and maintenance management features. Dealertrack also offers software that manages finance and insurance, transportation and shipping, registration and titling, digital retailing, used vehicle inventory, and more for auto dealers large and small. In its early days, there were just two challenges standing in the way of instant success for Dealertrack. Namely, the two long-standing and big-name competitors in the space who collectively owned the vast majority of the market. Enter the impossible mission.