A Recipe for  Strong Auto Parts System Software!

Auto Parts System Software, E-Commerce Website Development and mobile tools are a critical piece of any auto parts sales company. Building software systems are complex, because of the requirements and the catalogues. To save a lot of time and energy, contact the right vendor or vendors to supply catalogues. Maintaining an in-house catalogue can be a big project. Another important piece of the puzzle is asking the right questions. What information does the company need for its sales reps and counter staff? What do the clients of that business need? What do the owner and manager of the company need to know? How will all these users use the system?

To make sure everyone is on the same page, create a “software requirements specification”.   This includes feedback from all stakeholders in the system. Marketing and research is also a piece of the puzzle, to fully understand the customer preferences. From this document, you then create the software. Like an architect creating a  building plan and then the building is constructed, the software is developed after the plan is created.

Different approaches to software engineering include Agile Development or the Waterfall model. The Waterfall is the more traditional approach and still effective. Agile is also popular as you can quickly see results.  A Software Requirement Specification describes in detail how your software is developed. An SRS (or Software Requirements Specification) puts together all the pieces of the puzzle so that a clear plan can be put in place to develop and deploy your software. In our companies’ experience, this is the best way to build any advanced software, and this is also the same process used by NASA. In fact, the term software engineering was invented there.

User Segments

For auto parts system software and e-commerce development,  an important consideration is what the visitors need, and what types of visitors are the site providing a service for. For example, different kinds of customers may have different price points. Garages, retail or hobbyist customers all have different pricing expectations. This affects how the software is constructed.

A one size fits all website and mobile app is not be a great solution; instead tailoring the software for each different kind of customer is better.  This lets the customer login if they have that setup, and receive their individual pricing. This system as well can access past orders, reviewing total purchases made. Each kind of customer might use the site differently as well, with some features relevant and others not.

For garages a central login to see what each individual mechanic was ordering is helpful.

Accounts with industrial institutions can also benefit from this since they have multiple members of the team.

For individual hobbyists, this isn’t necessary.

Mobile

One revolutionary idea for this kind of auto parts system software is to utilize mobile application technology, to save as much of the catalogue on the user’s mobile device. This way they can quickly access and order, minimizing requests sent to the Internet, and not having to wait for the web page to load. For example, a mechanic is in a garage, finds he needs a specific part of the car. He can quickly pull out his mobile device, and find the part, placing an order. The mechanic can very quickly place an order on his phone, faster than on a competitors website!

Legacy Point of Sale

An e-commerce website and auto parts system software can also replace any legacy point of sale unit. This saves on licensing costs and simplifies the ordering system, with the capability to pack, pick, print and ship items, track sales. The system can also provide a dashboard with key performance metrics, and send the orders to the appropriate drivers. The counter staff can simply log into the website and process the order through the site payment technology, bringing up all the customers details. This way as well, all the inventory stays up to date with the system.

Catalogue’s Available

There are several different catalogue companies out there. There is Epicor, WHI,  Dcinet, ShowMeTheParts and Turn14  to name a few different catalogue companies. These different companies have different kinds of catalogue data. Some are designed for the aftermarket parts market, and other catalogues are designed for the replacement parts market.

Conclusion

In summary, these are the ingredients for awesome auto parts system software, e-commerce website and mobile app software.