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The Cobalt Group Continues to Expand and Integrate Its CRM Offerings in 2005 with New Cobalt Prospector SolutionsSEATTLE --(Business Wire)-- Jan. 27, 2005 -- Cobalt announces new features, expanded DMS compatibility, comprehensive CRM tools, processes and showroom management The Cobalt Group, the leading provider of retailing solutions for the automotive market, today announced a series of significant new Cobalt Prospector(TM) solutions. Prospector, the automotive industry's most advanced, feature-rich CRM (customer relationship management) and showroom management solution, has been improved with powerful new features and performance enhancements and an expanded ability to integrate with dealer management systems. In the first half of 2005, Prospector will be integrated with other Cobalt products--Lead Manager(SM) Customer Central and Cobalt Desking--for a seamless user experience and comprehensive CRM capabilities. "Cobalt Prospector is already the industry's most powerful CRM solution--enabling dealers to improve accountability, reduce marketing costs, boost sales and increase customer satisfaction," said Max Steckler, The Cobalt Group's director of product management and marketing. "Cobalt is now taking Prospector to a new level by adding new features and integrating it with other Cobalt solutions to allow dealers to leverage customer and prospect information throughout the dealership, making it easier for dealers to move prospects through the sales and ownership process." New features in Prospector include a friendlier user interface, smarter follow-up options, new management reports to help dealers manage their business and maximize the performance of their sales staff, and advanced searching and sorting options to quickly find critical information. Prospector also integrates more readily with dealer management systems, now integrating with approximately 80 percent of the dealer management systems on the market today. "Prospector enables us to coordinate all our communication--letters, emails, phone calls, and personal contact--in an automated fashion," said Al Tweedie, Allen Cadillac GMC's Executive Vice President, who has seen a 35 percent increase in Cadillac sales using Prospector. "It eliminates having to remember follow-up. For us, Prospector is everything in managing all the steps to the sale." Significant new Prospector enhancements slated for release in 2005 include: -- LMCC integration - Prospector integration with Cobalt's Lead Manager Customer Central, the leading Internet lead management solution for automotive retailers, will provide dealers with flexible and easy-to-use Internet lead follow-up tools that address every interaction in the customer's online purchase process. Integrated Prospector and LMCC will be available to dealers in June 2005. -- Desking integration - In early spring, Cobalt will release a fully integrated desking solution for Prospector that gives sales managers unprecedented power and control over all their deals. Prospector Desking will help dealers quickly create and manage multiple profitable deals that meet the needs of payment-driven consumers, resulting in increased closing rates and improved customer satisfaction. "These enhancements to the Prospector solution solidify Cobalt's position as the industry's premier customer relationship management solution provider," Steckler said. "From the moment a customer makes initial contact, Cobalt solutions help a dealer manage every customer interaction to drive profits and satisfaction." Prospector is a key component of Cobalt's complete family of CRM solutions. Nearly 6,000 automotive dealerships use Cobalt's CRM solutions to convert more leads and increase sales and profits. To sign up or get more information about Cobalt Prospector, visit http://prospector.cobaltgroup.com or contact Cobalt at 866-439-2258. About The Cobalt Group The Cobalt Group is North America's leading provider of automotive retailing solutions. For a decade, Cobalt's exclusive mission has been to help automobile dealers and manufacturers leverage online retailing and customer relationship management (CRM) technology to increase their effectiveness and profits and to enhance the car-buying and ownership experience for their customers. Cobalt provides automotive retailing products and services to more than half the automotive dealerships in the United States, Canada and Mexico and is endorsed by more than two-thirds of the world's major automotive manufacturers. Cobalt has also received six consecutive annual endorsements from the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA(R)). |
