Brandon Boyd	Lisa Mork
Fortellis	Fortellis

We recently spoke with Lisa Mork, the Development Program Manager on the Fortellis team. We discussed “EVENTING,” one of the many elements the team is working on to enhance the Fortellis platform.

LISA’S “EVENTING” EXPERIENCE

In a past role at CDK, I provided DMS systems support to customers. Here is an example of one particular use case that might better explain how eventing could be used within Fortellis. When inventory for a particular part in the system reached a certain threshold, our system would send a notification via the DCS subsystem to the dealership parts manager or directly to the OEM to reorder the parts. Instead of having to periodically query the system, an event would only publish once the parts in question were low.

There are a number of other conditions where a system could proactively report certain states beyond when an item hits a certain stocking level, triggers could also be produced for when a salesperson in the dealership hits a sales quota or noting specific levels of Service Appointment availability. Until these events happen, no action is taken. When these events occur, the notification is triggered and a payload is delivered to a specific endpoint that prompts some desired reaction.

WHAT I WOULD TELL OTHER DEVELOPERS

There are real efficiencies that become apparent once eventing is implemented. Instead of the end user needing to contact the developer for specific data requests, someone like a large dealer group can start to subscribe to specific events relevant to their business workflows.

By automating at the workflow level, the dealer group can also realize efficiencies programmatically without adding to their own headcount. For example, the dealership just used their last fuel injector on a repair, they can reorder to base stocking levels without an employee having to do that manually.

HOW FORTELLIS ENABLES EVENTING

At Fortellis, we’ve enabled the infrastructure — the pipes — to be able to handle eventing transactions. In order to take advantage at an API-level, the Fortellis eventing specification should enable the developer to build that into their API architecture and provide a more useful API to dealers, ISVs and OEMs.

IMPACT ON API COMMERCIALIZATION

Eventing can raise the intrinsic value of your API by increasing the volume of transactions, increasing API profitability and providing more opportunities to automate processes in the auto industry.