THE JEAN-MICHEL MARTIN GROUP HAS SEEN ITS PROFITS MAXIMISED THANKS TO THE CALMCO BI TOOL
“The proposed solution has enabled us to increase profitability, and this in turn allows us to invest in the future. Because in business, if you don’t go forward every day, you go backward every day.”
Thierry Kin, Finance Director of the Jean-Michel Martin Group
The Jean-Michel Martin Group is a BMW/Mini and Land Rover/Jaguar dealership, a major player in Brussels and the surrounding area. Its success is due in part to the size of its fleet market in the capital. A great many companies are established in the city, and the Jean-Michel Martin Group has had the pleasure of meeting all their motoring needs since 1993. This success story has led to the development of a strong brand encompassing a total of 13 companies. Over the years however, the gross profit margin has started to decline. CalmCo’s Business Intelligence tool has made it possible to identify new KPIs that have a positive influence on profitability.
THE CHALLENGES
The Jean-Martin Michel Group worked mainly with accounting data in the context of relationships with importers and general reporting. This does not of course make it possible to have an overview of the company, given that non-accounting data also constitutes a crucial factor, especially when the issue is to identify the core problem with profitability. “The CalmCo solution has enabled us to obtain non-accounting data automatically, which means that we can anticipate events and make targeted improvements.”, explains Thierry Kin, Finance Director of the group.
FINDING A SOLUTION
Thierry Kin was therefore searching for a way to clearly identify the reasons for the decline in the gross profit margin. In this context, while attending a conference organised by Carya, BMW’s IT service provider, he met Luc Cos, the founder of CalmCo. The Finance Director of the Jean-Michel Martin Group describes how their relationship got off the ground: “Initially I felt the tool was too complex for us. But Luc Cos redoubled his efforts with figures from other BMW dealerships. And we were fortunate to be sponsored by BMW, in a manner of speaking. That’s how we started working together.”
IMPLEMENTATION
Given that Carya, BMW’s official computer programme provider, was already working with CalmCo, the Business Intelligence tool was implemented smoothly. In fact, the Jean-Michel Martin Group was able to take advantage of the experience acquired by other BMW dealerships. Any problems that had arisen and been resolved with these other dealerships helped with the implementation of this easy-to-use solution, particularly by focussing on presales, including invoice tracking.
IN PRACTICE
Previously, the Jean-Michel Martin Group was based on BMW reporting. This is quarterly reporting for analysis purposes, but the resulting analysis is not really current because a report like this takes four months. This means in effect that no decision can be made before 6 months.
Thanks to CalmCo’s unique solution, today it is possible to identify within one or two weeks if any changes have been made to action plans and following decisions taken. The responsiveness and ease of use of automatic reporting means that crucial information can be obtained while focussing on other problems. Thanks to the IT decision-support solution provided by CalmCo, the Jean-Michel Martin Group has achieved real gains in time and money. By improving profitability, the group can invest in new projects. “If you don’t invest on a continuous basis, sooner or later you get swallowed up by a competitor”, Thierry Kin explains.
COLLABORATION
Encouraged by this first success, CalmCo and the Jean-Michel Martin Group are working even more closely together and thereby creating a situation that benefits everybody. CalmCo uses all this data to create a sort of dashboard where all the dealerships analyse their sales, presales, etc. The Jean-Michel Martin Group dreams of full reporting – a dream that is now coming true thanks to CalmCo.
