North East Motor Group, Benfield has agreed a £500K, 3 year contract with Aspire Technology Solutions.
Benfield have sought to use its latest tender for a digital service provider to enhance the customer experience across its dealership network. The auto retailer specifically required greater internet bandwidth and higher levels of integration for hand-held devices such as iPads and tablets within the dealerships.
Gerard Murray, Group Finance Director, Benfield Motor Group said; “This new contact with Aspire will enhance our sales and service experience for all our customers. In the digital age we are being faced with ever increasing demands to integrate hand-held devices (tablets and smartphones) to assist with our own internal processes and to aid our customers’ access to relevant applications to support their purchasing decision.
“It is important for our business that we increase our bandwidth provision with the implementation of a new highly resilient Wide Area Network (WAN) to ensure that we stay at the forefront of advances in the motor retail market and continually improve efficiency.
“Benfield operates sites across the country, the majority of which are dealership locations, and Aspire Technology Solutions will install high speed 20mb internet connections at each, whilst our head office and a couple of other key sites will receive even higher bandwidth.”
Lewis Clemmet of Aspire commented; “The wide area network will mean that all of the Benfield sites are highly resilient and networked together for maximum efficiency.
“The configuration of the network will ensure that time critical traffic, such as voice calls can be given priority over web browsing and emails, whilst the company’s discrete networks, such as CCTV security, data and voice networks will be converged into a single MPLS network with the benefit of reduced costs and dual connections to ensure greater resilience.
“We will also provide 24/7 pre-emptive monitoring and support across Benfield’s server infrastructure to identify any potential issues before they become business critical as well as upgrading some of the dealerships backup connections.”
Benfield Motor Group is an independent, family owned business that was founded in the North East in 1957. The group now operates 30 dealerships across the North East, North West, Yorkshire and Scotland. Benfield employs 1500 staff and represents Audi, Ford, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, Renault, Toyota, Ford, Honda and Volkswagen.
