LAKE SUCCESS, N.Y. — Dealertrack Technologies chairman and
chief executive officer Mark O'Neil emphasized that the more governmental
regulations dealers face, the more valuable the company's suite of solutions
are.

Along with highlighting store appeal for its inventory
management system and more, O'Neil explained the lengths Dealertrack is going
to create a tool dealers can depend on as more rules from the Consumer
Financial Protection Bureau and other regulatory agencies arrive.

"Dealers have reached out to us and asked us to make sure
we're prepared to help them," O'Neil said during a conference call last week
when Dealertrack reported its first-quarter financial performance. "It's hard
to be definitive right now because no one really knows for sure where things
are going to land and how the lending landscape will ultimately unfold.

"We also have conversations going on with lenders because,
look, they're going to be the drivers of this," O'Neil continued. "We've
started to model a number of different scenarios for how loans would be
presented to dealers and ultimately to consumers."

O'Neil explained that Dealertrack's personnel have started
to create some early designs for high-level software requirements that would
help to track regulatory elements such as disparate impact.

"These are very good conversations. We're getting ahead of
the curve. I think we understand the potential range of change," O'Neil said.

"We're just not ready to start quoting and developing a
product because it's still an unclear landscape of where it's going to end up,"
he continued. "Where it ends up, we're going to make sure we're giving a dealer
the tools to help them manage their business in this new environment."

O'Neil is confident Dealertrack's past record of creating
solutions dealers want foreshadows future success with any new compliance tool.
To back up his assertion, O'Neil pointed toward Dealertrack's solution for Red
Flags and identity theft as well as the suite of new innovations the company
showcased this past February at the National Automobile Dealers Association
Convention and Expo. That cluster included upgrades to its inventory and
digital retailing suites.

"It was very strong at NADA when we launched the new
functionality," O'Neil said. "We have a number of dealers that have it actively
up and running.

"Dealers are acting as very strong advocates to other
dealers," he added.

Managers and principals recommending Dealertrack's solutions
to other stores are giving the company confidence to approach more segments of
the dealership community.

"Of late, we're more focused on the inbounds calls that are
higher — from the five-store, the eight-store, the 10-store, the 12-store
dealer groups. We have all of the functionality to address all of those dealer
needs otherwise we wouldn't be selling the current group of dealers we are,"
O'Neil said.

Dealertrack encourages a single store within a group to
conduct a pilot program of its software, a strategy the company boss believes
in generating adoption by the entire retail operation after that trial period.

"That's actually quite good," O'Neil said. "We like dealers
to try it before they buy it because it certainly gives them conviction once
they move. We're being very successful in the DMS arena based on our current
offering and we have a very aggressive development roadmap that we're not
prepared to talk about publicly.

"We've shared that selectively with dealers and I think it's
opened a lot of eyes in terms of our commitment to the business and some of the
unique things we can do that others can't do."

Dealertrack's overall strategy is dubbed "Project Fusion."
It gained that moniker since the company is in the ongoing process of
integrating all of its recent acquisitions into a streamlined product for
dealers.

By the fourth quarter of this year, O'Neil said Dealertrack
will have "tangible new solutions" to introduce to dealers. The company's
dealer council got a sneak peak of these products during a two-day span last
week.

"The reaction was extremely positive," O'Neil said. "In
fact, I would summarize their reaction in their words as, 'We are probably two
to three years ahead of any technology provider they've seen in terms of
delivering truly integrated workflows with this technology.'

"A bit more effusive reaction than perhaps we anticipated,
but obviously that's a good thing. We're excited," O'Neil concluded.

Nick Zulovich can be reached at nzulovich@subprimenews.com. Continue the conversation with SubPrime Auto Finance News on LinkedIn and Twitter.