Alpha Auto Group gears up for growth with VizAuto and Qlik

Alpha Auto Group (AAG) is an innovative auto dealer group based in Canada and the United States. The company is the bedrock of rapidly growing Global Auto Holdings Limited (GAHL), one of the world’s largest consumer-facing automotive companies with operations in both auto retail and distribution, managing 172 dealerships and distributing through 211 dealerships. The company is rapidly expanding its presence beyond eight countries across North America, the UK and Europe.

Our long-term strategy leverages foundational, data-driven insights and rigorous management controls to ensure sustainable growth and continuous innovation. That’s why we chose to work with Capital Data Analytics, a Qlik Elite Partner, to implement VizAuto and Qlik; we knew we had to move away from spreadsheet-driven analysis and adopt a comprehensive platform that delivers group-wide reporting and insights.

Our Qlik success story talks about our challenges, objectives, and early wins, but the more people at AAG that use VizAuto and Qlik, the more we hear about the value it’s bringing to our organization. Let me bring you up to speed.

The big objective: real-time visibility

Successfully managing a multi-store auto retail group requires visibility into performance. VizAuto’s Qlik Cloud Analytics™ dashboards now give us real-time access into crucial metrics including cashflow, profitability, and expense trends. This allows for timely decision-making and helps us identify opportunities to improve financial management even further.

With this transformation comes operational efficiency. Automating our reporting has significantly reduced manual workload, cutting monthly profit and loss (P&L) preparation time by an estimated three hours. Standardized dealer statements ensure consistency across stores, allowing seamless comparison benchmarking and forecasting, while Qlik’s integration with Intuit QuickBooks has also accelerated our quarter-close process, further reducing reporting times while ensuring data accuracy.

As Scott Gottschling, our CFO, reports: “Qlik has provided AAG with visibility into data that was previously inaccessible. This has enabled more accurate and timely reporting, allowing AAG to take actionable steps to improve dealership performance.”

Management and forecasting: time saved, efficiency gained

Many of the main improvements delivered by Qlik’s analytics capabilities are being experienced in our accounting operations. These are just some of the key advances:

• Reduced audit fees: Enhanced data accuracy and transparency have allowed us to negotiate lower audit fees with KPMG.

• Streamlined IFRS reporting: By automating IFRS compliance, we can save up to two weeks every quarter while improving accuracy.

• Improved month-end reporting: Switching from manual spreadsheets to automated Qlik reports makes month-end reporting more efficient.

• Optimized accounts receivable management: We have reduced outstanding balances by improving collections and decreasing the days aging on accounts receivable.

• P&L customization: Qlik provides detailed and customizable P&L statements, allowing quick comparisons and trend analysis across different stores.

• Enhanced forecasting: Improved financial forecasting improves resource allocation and enables proactive decision-making.

• System conversion security: Qlik’s historical data storage safeguards against data loss and provider service outages, ensuring operational agility .

“The days aging on accounts receivable has decreased, with most items now falling under 90 days,” confirms Laren Sunderland, AAG’s Corporate Controller. “Qlik’s Komment function facilitates quick communication between accounting and store managers, helping to manage and collect outstanding receivables more effectively.”

Driving improvements across departments and borders

Moving beyond finance, VizAuto’s accelerator templates have optimized multiple aspects of our operation. In our service departments it’s driving efficiency by identifying bottlenecks, reducing service turnaround times, and improving customer satisfaction. Real-time insights have also helped to optimize our parts inventory, reducing costs and minimizing obsolescence, while lead tracking and performance dashboards have boosted sales volumes and increased gross profits per vehicle sold.

Our continuing expansion demands robust financial tools that work seamlessly between locations and across borders. Qlik not only facilitates growth by providing historical performance data from newly acquired dealerships to enable realistic future expectations, but also ensures business continuity in the event of catastrophic outages.

Traditional dealer management systems have proven vulnerable during incidents such as the June 2024 CDK Global ransomware cyberattack, which affected thousands of dealer locations and is estimated to have cost over $1 billion. Qlik works differently. It retains crucial historical data, allowing for uninterrupted analysis of key performance indicators, identification of control issues and misstatements, and continued compliance with local financial standards, even during major disruptions.

Ready for a future where change is the norm

It’s no surprise that our vision for the future includes taking Qlik’s capabilities for enhanced reporting and integration to the next level and beyond. A centralized landing page is set to provide a unified view of key financial and operational metrics, while plans are already in place to integrate payroll data into Qlik, enabling our hard-working associates to track sales and commissions.

“Qlik’s ability to standardize and streamline processes is essential for future growth and global consolidation,” Karan Aggarwal, our Director of Financial Reporting at GAHL, explains. “It allows for efficient data management and reporting, which is critical for expanding the business.”

VizAuto and Qlik have been game-changers in optimizing financial management at AAG, streamlining our reporting and improving efficiency across the group. In a dynamic industry where change now comes as standard, it’s also the strategic backbone we need to move forward.