By Patrick Luck
December 2005

This issue is dedicated to honoring the Innovative Company of the Year award winners.

This year’s honor is awarded to companies in 2 categories:

First, innovation in the service of suppliers and OEMs and second, innovation in serving automotive retailers. Below we announce the winners and we reveal the best practices of the most innovative companies in the automotive industry today.

Criteria for Innovative Companies of the Year:

Most innovative products & services

Growth in revenue, profitability & client base

Company’s ability to increase productivity & profits for their clients

Company’s client satisfaction

Announcing the Winners

Our winners deliver the most innovative products and services for helping their clients generate huge increases in profit while growing their own business. Accomplishing this while achieving excellent client satisfaction has earned SAP and BZ Results recognition as AutoSuccess! Innovative Companies of the Year.

SAP is the world’s largest enterprise software company and the world’s third largest software provider. In the automotive industry, they work with 17 OEMs and 39 suppliers. BZ Results currently works with 8 of the top 10 eCRM dealers of the year and they help manufacturers and retailers use technology and training to improve their sales and service profits.

Innovative Companies Need Innovative Leaders

Recently, SAPs President and CEO, Bill McDermott and BZ.com CEO Sean Wolfington were named as finalists in Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year program. Ernst & Young created the annual Entrepreneur Of The Year® Award program in the United States in 1986 to recognize the most successful and innovative entrepreneurs.

Many of the Entrepreneur of The Year winners have become household names: Amazon.com, Southwest Airlines, Enterprise Rent-a-Car and AutoNation. Wayne Huizenga, the founder of AutoNation, was last year!s winner. William “Bill” R. McDermott is the Chief Executive Of” cer and President for SAP America, Inc. In this position, McDermott is responsible for all of SAP!s business activities in the United States and Canada and managing the region!s more than 4,000 employees. Prior to joining SAP, McDermott served as the Executive Vice President, Worldwide Sales Operations, of Siebel Systems, an organization responsible for supporting customers in 37 countries, where he led global sales and field operations.

During his tenure, he established a clear vision to build the most professional, customer-focused and consistently high-performing sales organization in the information technology industry.

Sean Wolfington is the co-owner and CEO of BZ Results. In this position Wolfington is responsible for all of BZ’s business operations around the world. He started his career in the automotive industry in 1989, co-founded Cyber Car in 1999 and led the acquisition of Automark which was later sold for an enterprise value of US $200 million. In the past five years, under Wolfington’s leadership, BZ Results has grown 6000%. During his tenure, he has built a clear vision and strategy to help manufacturers and retailers leverage technology to improve the customer experience and increase their profitability, customer satisfaction and loyalty.

BZ Results and SAP were among 4 finalists recognized for being among the most successful and innovative entrepreneurs in technology today. “Few companies have the passion and perseverance to turn a bright idea into a brilliant business like the men and women recognized by the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year program,” explains Ernst & Young.

For 19 years Entrepreneur Of The Year has shone a spotlight on the entrepreneurs who, through their vision and vigor, have created enterprises that blaze trails for others to follow. Both companies experienced dramatic growth while casting a new vision, developing new products and services and creating extraordinary growth for their customer partners. In the automotive industry SAP is the clear leader for providing enterprise application software products for suppliers and manufacturers. For Automotive retailers, BZ is a clear leader for providing technology and consulting to improve dealers sales and service profi ts. Both companies have enjoyed 10 quarters of dramatic growth because they have a customer-centric approach aimed at generating value and creating a measurable ROI for their partners.

Congratulations, Innovative Companies of the Year!

The Automotive Technology Revolution

As publishers of one of the auto industry’s most widely-circulated trade magazines, we consider ourselves to be students of the car business. This year we noticed a dramatic the way technology is used by suppliers, manufacturers, dealers and customers. As customers began using the web to shop for vehicles rather than traditional advertising sources, dealers responded by marketing online and by using technology to better manage and measure their customers and business. Suppliers and manufacturers have learned to use technology to improve their productivity and make sourcing and building vehicles more efficient. Technology has created a tidal wave in the automotive industry and both SAP and BZ are helping their respective customers stay on top of the wave to use its momentum to improve their productivity and profits.

About the Winners

BZ Results was incorporated in 1998 and in the last five years has become the industry leader in digital marketing, CRM and consulting.

BZ Results has grown 200-400% a year over the last fi ve years and they have increased their dealers’ sales and service profits by up to 1000%.

BZ Results is a technology and training company that helps dealers and manufacturers fi nd, sell and keep more customers profitably. Their system includes tools and training for the following areas of the dealership: Marketing, Digital Marketing, Search Engine & Email Marketing, Websites, BDC, CRM Tools, New & Used Car Sales, F&I, Service & Parts. When we noticed that 8 out of the top 10 eCRM dealers of the year were BZ clients, we decided to take a closer look at the company.

It appears that BZ dealers are successful for several reasons. BZ mastered search engine and email marketing for their clients before anyone knew anything about it. BZ clients like their award winning websites and their best in breed CRM tools.

Bob Tasca at Tasca.com explains, “The secret to the success of BZ’s system is that they give us all of the tools and training we need to get positive results without a lot of effort. We need a simple strategy that connects our entire business together in a way that’s easy to implement or it won’t work.” Mr. Tasca summed it up when he said, “I do not want to work with 15 different companies to get everything I need to run my business. BZ’s system gives us everything we need to attract, sell and service more customers profitably.” SAP has more than 30 years in the business of helping businesses grow.

Founded in 1972, they are the recognized leader in providing collaborative business solutions for all types of industries and in every market. With 12 million users, 96,400 installations, and more than 1,500 partners, SAP is the world’s largest inter-enterprise software company and the world’s third-largest independent software provider overall. SAP has a rich history of innovation and growth that has made them a true industry leader.

Today, SAP employs more than 34,000 people in more than 50 countries. When we learned that SAP worked with 17 OEMs and 39 suppliers we wanted to know why. The first thing we discovered from some of their customers is that SAP Automotive professionals are dedicated to providing the highest level of customer service and support. In addition, SAP has effectively leveraged their extensive experience in other industries to deliver comprehensive range of solutions to empower every aspect of automotive business operations. Finally, we have learned that by using SAP solutions, automotive organizations of all sizes have reduced costs, improved performance, and gained the agility to respond to changing business needs.

About the Award

AutoSuccess honors Innovative companies who inspire other businesses by pursuing excellence in every aspect of their operations. We also honor the men and women of these innovative, high-performing organizations who continue to blaze trails for others to follow.

Innovative Company of the Year Award winners can be nominated for next year’s awards by contacting us at Innovation@AutoSuccess. biz. Next year we will be adding additional categories to honor more innovative companies that serve the automotive industry.

All nominees will be evaluated rigorously by an independent board of examiners on the following criteria: Most innovative products & services, growth in client base, company’s ability to increase productivity & profits for their clients and the company’s client satisfaction.

The evaluation process will include an in-depth review by teams of examiners to clarify questions and verify information in the applications. Most importantly, we will profile the winners in our special Award edition that will reveal the best practices of the best companies in the automotive industry today.
Patrick Luck is the editor and publisher of AutoSuccess Magazine. He can be contacted at 866.239.3698, or by e-mail at pluck01@autosuccess.biz.