Automotive News - January 28, 2008 - (Page 4) 4 • JANUARY 28, 2008 GM combines 6 regions in dealer Web portal Ralph Kisiel rkisiel@crain.com GM’s new portal General Motors is moving dealers around the world to its new GM GlobalConnect Internet portal. GlobalConnect will Replace 6 portals used by dealers globally, including GM DealerWorld in the U.S. Give dealers a one-stop shop to conduct all business with GM Provide access to GM’s new Order Workbench, with all the software needed to order vehicles Provide access to the next workbenches — sales, service, parts and business administration Require little to no training to use Source: General Motors DETROIT — General Motors wants all of its dealers around the globe on the same page. GM is replacing its GM DealerWorld Web site, used by GM dealers in the United States since 1999, and five other portals used by dealers in different regions of the world. In their place will be GM GlobalConnect. This new Web portal is designed to be a onestop shop for dealers. It has all the software needed to do business with GM, such as ordering vehicles, submitting warranty claims and reporting deliveries. GM’s U.S. dealers will begin switching from GM DealerWorld to GM GlobalConnect in midyear and complete the move by year end. The automaker will give its U.S. dealers their first detailed look at the portal during the National Automobile Dealers Association convention, which begins Feb. 9 in San Francisco. GlobalConnect was developed by GM’s North Chevrolet-Buick dealership in Weimar, Texas. Brasher is a member of GM’s information technology dealer council. ‘More user-friendly’ GlobalConnect “will be easier to navigate than the current DealerWorld,” he said. “Really, it’s just a lot more user-friendly Web site.” For example, GM now sends messages to dealerships through DealerWorld. But a store’s sales manager must peruse scores of unrelated GM messages to find the ones that pertain to his role. Now GM will be able to deliver messages targeted to dealers according to their brands and even to individual roles within the dealership, says Jim Fisher, global portal product manager for GM’s global retail integration team. “Instead of just blasting the message out and all dealers getting it not knowing who it applies see PORTAL, Page 56 America Vehicle Sales, Service and Marketing staff over two years. “With 7,000 dealers, we are absolutely resolute we’re not going to deploy it until it’s right,” says Bill Middlekauff, global retail business process director for Vehicle Sales, Service and Marketing. “It has to be absolutely bulletproof.” The automaker will use GM GlobalConnect to communicate with its dealerships here and in 90 other countries. The plug is being pulled on other portals that GM dealers use in Europe, the Middle East, the Asia-Pacific region and Latin America. The new portal aims to make it easier for dealers to do business with GM. “It’s not going to take a whole lot of training. It’ll be more like My MSN or My Yahoo,” says Tommy Brasher, owner of Brasher Motor Co., a Ford fine-tunes Verve subcompact for American tastes Amy Wilson awilson@crain.com DETROIT — When Ford Motor Co. introduced its Verve hatchback concept at the Frankfurt auto show in 2007, the sleek subcompact drew rave reviews. But Ford already had deemed the Verve — the first of three such concepts shown by the automaker in the past five months — to be too European in its looks and package for the United States. So company engineers and designers reworked the subcompact for American tastes. The Verve sedan unveiled this month at the Detroit auto show is a preview of the subcompact that Ford plans to begin selling in the United States in 2010. “The design is complete, and the look of the vehicle has been well-received by the U.S. customers,” said Martin Smith, executive design director at Ford of Europe. Smith’s team led the design work on Ford’s global subcompact, or B-car, project. It is the first family of cars slated for introduction under CEO Alan Mulally’s mandate to develop global vehicles with regional variations. The first cars will go on sale in Europe and Asia this year. A key part of Ford’s approach is adapting the vehicles to regional preferences. So Smith and his designers joined with designers from Ford’s North American unit to finetune the Verve. To get customer input, the company staged focus groups on the East and West coasts of the United States. Many found the grille of the European car — with its large, lower trapezoidal opening — to be unbalanced. “To some people’s eyes in North America, it seemed to be too aggressive for them,” Smith said. So for the North American Verve, Ford reduced the size of the lower grille and enlarged the upper grille. The body style is another major change. Ford says 80 percent of small-car buyers prefer sedans, so the Verve morphed into a four-door sedan for North America. But although the concept is presented as a sedan, it could be built as a “hidden hatch,” said Ford’s smallcar marketer, Beth Donovan. Instead of a traditional trunk, it could have a large liftgate hinged at the roofline for better access to the car- Ford designers reduced the size of the lower grille and enlarged the upper grille of the European Verve, left, when they created the North American Verve, below. go space. Ford also will explore the U.S. market’s appetite for a traditional hatchback. The European Verve concept also was displayed at the De- troit show. With today’s younger car buyers wanting more premium features, Ford marketers say a hatchback with sharp design and high-end content could work here. A hatchback can be more than a cheap car for a college student, they say. Said Smith: “I think we can challenge that perception.”c Volvo may partner with Ford U.S. on platforms, assembly Mark Rechtin mrechtin@crain.com Volvo Car Corp. may link product development more closely with Ford Motor Co.’s North American operations, making it possible to build Volvos in Ford’s U.S. plants. Volvo now shares most of its vehicle architectures with Ford of Europe, Jaguar and Land Rover. But that may change, as Jaguar and Land Rover are about to be sold and exchange rate woes undercut Volvo’s profitability. In an interview, Volvo CEO Fredrik Arp said the Swedish company may use more parts from Ford’s North American supply base. “If we are sharing components and platforms, then we don’t need a huge site of our own,” Arp said. “But if we have our own components and platforms or share with Ford of Europe, then we Volvo CEO Fredrik Arp: “We are doing good things. Customers are enjoying our cars. We’re just not making any money.” have to go it alone.” Arp said Ford CEO Alan Mulally’s “One Ford” global product development plan creates opportunities for Volvo. “We have a good relationship with Ford of Europe in sharing engines and transmissions, start/stop engineering and other commodities,” Arp said. “But if One Ford means sharing North American and European platforms, and we had the opportunity, we could move into a North American plant.” Volvo has been hard hit by the weak dollar. In 2002, the exchange rate was 87 cents to the euro. On Friday, Jan. 25, it was $1.47. BMW and Mercedes have countered currency pressures with U.S. assembly plants. Volkswagen plans to build a U.S. factory. But Volvo still relies on its Swedish and Belgian plants for all models sold in North America. What’s more, Volvo is more dependent on North American sales than all other European brands. North America represents about 30 percent of its volume. But Volvo does not sell enough of any single model in North America to justify building an assembly plant. “There are no plans for assembly of Volvos in North America,” Ford CFO Don Leclair said last week during an earnings conference call. But he added that Ford is doing a “comprehensive review” of all Volvo operations. Last year Volvo achieved a 9.8 percent efficiency gain in labor costs in Europe and a $50 million decrease in global warranty costs. But those improvements were wiped out by currency losses, Arp said. In its fourth-quarter earnings statement, Ford wrote down Volvo’s goodwill value by $2.4 billion. Volvo recorded a loss for the year, but Ford declined to say how much. “We are doing good things,” Arp said. “Customers are enjoying our cars. We’re just not making any money.”c
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