How the buzzword "API" is changing the automotive retail industry to benefit your dealership.

You may keep hearing the acronym "API". You may also be thinking, "oh another acronym being banded around that means nothing to me". After all, technology and software companies do love an acronym, but what does it mean?

In layman's terms, APIs are 'pipes' that hypothetically connect system 'a' to system 'b' and/ or system 'c'. They facilitate the data being retrieved, updated and created between the systems behind the scenes, seamlessly.

What i am passionate to get across to you in this article is how the APIs are changing the way the automotive industry and retail space connect up and the value they provide to your process of selling and servicing vehicles.

As you may know, I currently work in the Product Management team at CDK Global ,we are a global automotive retail software provider, historically known for providing full end to end Dealer Management Systems (DMS). I work in a team specialising in API integrations and mobile applications. My area is the sales related processes.

In my previous jobs, I was working in various dealer groups selling cars, I loved it - especially being a big car enthusiast myself.

What most of you can relate to working in dealerships, within all departments is the sheer amount of computer systems you need to use to get your job done; none of them seem to be linked in any way and that can be frustrating, taking valuable time to use!

APIs are being created by a large majority of software providers these days and their aim is to seamlessly sync data between systems, in the most secure and seamless way.

What does this mean for you in the dealership?

When you are using software to sell vehicles, market to customers, service vehicles, sell parts and all the other jobs to do - the API integrations between the various systems you use will do all the hard work of syncing data, saving you time re-keying data multiple times!

At CDK, we have been hard at work and still are by creating APIs. They are already being used by suppliers (certified via our CDK Partner Programme) to integrate data both in and out to the "source of truth" information stored in the DMS.

You can expect to see in the near future APIs will be connecting up the dots between those various websites, systems and apps you use alongside your DMS.

The possibilities with this are truly infinite, especially when you see where the industry is heading with connected cars, e-commerce, new mobility models etc.

I hope this has helped shed some light on what APIs are and how they are changing the automotive industry. Watch this space for further updates!

If you'd like more information on how CDK Global is connecting up the automotive industry, please visit: https://www.cdkglobal.com/en-gb/partner-programme.

Thank you for reading.