The Cobalt Group, a provider of e-business software and services to the automotive
retail market, announced that it has acquired Cowboy Corp, an automotive customer relationship management (CRM) solutions company.
The acquisition brings together Cobalt Lead Manager, a lead management system, with Cowboy's
Prospector, a CRM system,
creating a combination that the company says will help dealers increase sales, customer
loyalty and customer retention.
"By adding Cowboy's rich capabilities to Cobalt's unique ability
to successfully manage high performance, large scale, and reliable
automotive e-business programs, Cobalt now provides the automotive
retail market with the most complete CRM solution available," said
John Holt, president and CEO of The Cobalt Group. "The resulting suite
of products and services will help manufacturers and dealers manage
every facet of customer interaction, resulting in increased sales,
more repeat business, and additional bottom line profit."
According to the company, the acquisition brings together the two organizations'
complementary J2EE-based technology platforms, allowing Cobalt to
advance the continued development of its CRM suite. Cowboy's
Prospector consolidates consumer information from multiple dealer
databases and touch points and tracks the value of the customer to the
dealer throughout the customer lifecycle.
"The Cobalt Group is the clear market leader in automotive
e-business, and Cowboy is excited to become an important part of such
an innovative and visionary company," said Ruby Osten, Cowboy Corp
chairman and CEO. "By combining Cobalt's proven technical prowess,
market share position, and broad channels of distribution with our
innovative applications, we can together deliver a comprehensive suite
of CRM solutions that meet the needs of every segment of the
automotive market -- from the single point dealership to the dealer
group to the OEM."
In addition to Prospector, Cowboy also brings to Cobalt Cowboy
Fulfillment Services (CFS), the recently announced call center and
fulfillment services joint venture with CenterOne Financial ServicesSM
(CenterOne). CFS is fully integrated with Prospector and the product
made its official public debut at the 2003 National Automobile Dealers
Association Convention and Exposition.
"Cobalt's reputation for a relentless focus on execution,
compelling market vision, and commitment to helping make their
customers and partners successful speaks for itself, and we are
delighted that Cowboy has joined Cobalt," said CenterOne president
Brent Burns. "When you put their combined strengths together with
CenterOne's automotive services expertise, we believe you have the
best dealer CRM solution in the industry. Our combined extensive
experience in executing consumer-driven programs will provide retail
dealers with tremendous upside opportunity," he added.
The company says Cowboy also brings Cobalt added strength in computer-telephony
integration for dealerships. Complementing Cobalt's recently announced
Media Tracker product, a performance measurement system that measures
the return on automotive marketing investments by monitoring and
reporting on inbound calls on Cobalt provided toll free phone numbers,
Cowboy Telephony tracks all of the calling activities at dealerships.
Cowboy Telephony provides dealers with customer information in
real-time as phone calls are received, giving dealers the ability to
view incoming calls through Prospector. Outbound calls can be made by
clicking on the contact's phone number listed in Prospector.
Cowboy Telephony captures all calls, inbound and outbound, recording
the length of call, missed calls, personal calls, as well as caller
IDs for demographic reporting information.
About The Cobalt Group
The Cobalt Group works exclusively in the automotive retail market
to help manufacturers and dealers develop integrated e-business
programs by leveraging its technology, broad range of
services and domain knowledge. Cobalt says it is uniquely positioned to help its customers maximize
their overall operating efficiencies and profits.
Cobalt offers a broad range of products and services developed
specifically for the automotive marketplace including enterprise
software for manufacturers and dealers; customer relationship
management (CRM) software applications; online automotive commerce
applications; OEM parts locating and marketing
service; and dealership e-business best practices training,
consulting, and process compliance analysis.
Cobalt operates a dealer network including 12,000 franchised
dealers and more than 70 of the 100 largest dealer groups.
With headquarters in Seattle, Wash., Cobalt has offices in several
major U.S. cities, and a field sales and services force in 30 states,
including all major U.S. metropolitan sales areas (MSAs).
For more information, please visit www.cobaltgroup.com or call
800-909-8244.
About Cowboy Corp
Cowboy Corp is an Application Service Provider (ASP) providing
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Lead Management
products and services, as well as Web sites for
the automotive retail industry. Cowboy's flagship product, Prospector,
is a software application that integrates all
departments' customers and leads into one database and
interfaces with existing Dealer Management Systems (DMS). Features
include third party lead integration, customized automated follow-up,
email campaign manager, daily agenda, live desk log, electronic
worksheet, automated service reminders and mileage follow-up, drivers
license swipe, wireless notification, extensive management reports,
data mining and inventory tools. For more information regarding Cowboy
Corp and its products or to arrange a test drive of the Prospector 3
system, please visit the corporate website at www.cowboycorp.net.
About CenterOne Financial Services
CenterOne Financial Services is a member of the JM Family
Enterprises, Inc. (JMFE) group of companies. JMFE is a $7.8 billion
diversified automotive company whose principal businesses focus on
vehicle distribution and processing, financial services, warranty and
insurance products and services, and third party services. With roots
grounded in the automotive industry, CenterOne brings
knowledge and expertise to its clients. Its servicing solutions
include fulfilled CRM, loan and lease servicing, collections,
pro-active remarketing and vehicle remarketing.
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