What Every Dealer Should Know About the Industry's Automotive Commerce Exchange

WHO is Fortellis for?
Fortellis is a platform for everyone involved in the automotive dealership operations process, from dealers and OEMs to industry software developers.

Dave Doff

Fortellis

If you’re a dealer, or involved at any step in that process, you’ve probably been frustrated with technology apps that are supposed to make your job easier and improve the customer experience. Most of the time the apps do the exact opposite. Maybe you told yourself well, that’s just the way it is. But, maybe you just didn’t know where to go to ask for help or find the answers.

If you’re a developer, you want to develop your app on one platform rather than customize it for each software app. Fortellis is the hub for you to connect and collaborate with like-minded individuals to build and test your APIs. Joining the Fortellis developer network gives you the opportunity to do just that—and it results in an amazing experience for the automotive industry.

WHAT is Fortellis?
Fortellis is an open platform that seamlessly connects the industry — dealers, OEMs, software developers, lenders and data providers. It’s an online destination where everyone collaborates to discuss the issues and mutually beneficial apps and improvements for automotive commerce technology. After all, if the industry’s stakeholders aren’t talking and working together, how is the technology they use and produce supposed to work for everyone involved?

WHERE can I get in on this action? And WHEN can I do it?
Launched in 2018, Fortellis is live right now on fortellis.io. You can register for free at any time. Once you register, you’ll have access to the Marketplace to browse apps or view documents to help you get coding.

Finally, WHY should I care about Fortellis?
Tech fragmentation is an all too common and formerly necessary evil. Your software apps should be talking to each other. When they don’t, it’s called tech fragmentation. Sometimes the result is simply inconvenient. Perhaps you have to ask your customer for their current address more than once. Other times, the resulting fragmentation might be significant enough to cost you business and impact your CSI score. Let’s say that your dealership has a hundred apps to enhance Sales and Service efficiency. However, if each app has its own time-consuming process, you’re losing valuable minutes that could have been used to close a sale.

One of the main goals of Fortellis is to make your technology apps less daunting by seamlessly integrating them to work together. Each optimization gives a boost to your productivity and, ultimately, your bottom line. The less time you spend populating and repopulating information fields on your tablet, the more time you can spend selling cars and service.

A great example of this has been the implementation of Hailer. Developed on Fortellis, Hailer lets dealers automatically call a ride-share vehicle through Lyft to give service customers transportation home, or to work, or wherever they need to go.

Hailer is already a game-changer because it integrates seamlessly into existing systems. It’s not you or one of your Service team members using a personal phone or logging into a completely separate website; it’s part of the repair order and all of the customer’s information is pre-populated into the correct fields. Just ask for a destination, and you’re done. That’s tech integration — and that’s the way all of your apps should operate.

The app that revolutionizes your business could be right around the corner at any time. That’s one of the most exciting things about Fortellis. The beauty of Fortellis is its potential. It exists to answer:“Shouldn’t there be a better way to do this?” And because the possibilities are endless, so are your potential benefits.

Learn more, and see what’s possible. Join the conversation at fortellis.io.