SAN FRANCISCO — At the National Automobile Dealers Association's Convention over the weekend DealerTrack unveiled several new initiatives, including a new tool within its CreditOnline solution for dealer websites that allows consumers to submit credit applications, giving dealers the opportunity to automate loan pre-qualification.

Basically, CreditOnline provides consumers with an immediate response about their auto loan inquiries. These new customized responses are based on a dealer's criteria and the customer's profile from their credit report. It allows dealers to pre-qualify and convert these website leads directly to credit applications.

"Today, a dealer's website has become a virtual extension of their showroom and can be a valuable source of leads when optimized correctly," pointed out Robert Granados, vice president and general manager of finance solutions for DealerTrack.

"Using CreditOnline, dealers can more effectively and efficiently convert visitors to their site into pre-qualified consumers. This new solution will support a dealership's vision to evolve their website from being a virtual marketing tool to a comprehensive sales and F&I platform," he continued.

CreditOnline will be available in the first quarter of this year. It will be packaged within DealerTrack's subscription-based compliance solution; however, it will also be offered as a stand-alone solution.

Chrome Release Online Vehicle Payment Calculation Service

Also during the convention, Chrome, a subsidiary of DealerTrack, announced the release of PaymentDriver, an online finance payment calculation service for auto industry portals and websites.

This solution can help give consumers the ability to generate accurate monthly payments for specific vehicles based on the most current finance rates and residuals available from a dealership's finance partners.

Designed as a Web service, PaymentDriver can be integrated into both online vehicle research and inventory workflows on portals, manufacturer and dealer websites, as well as mobile applications. Retailers can customize lender and rate choices to provide access to the best available rates and programs.

"A monthly payment is the key to vehicle affordability rather than the MSRP price tag and that calculation must be accurate," explained Amit Maheshwari, general manager of DealerTrack Data Services. "We believe that PaymentDriver delivers a level of accuracy and breadth of lenders unparalleled in the industry since it is the only calculation solution leveraging up-to-date finance rates and residuals from hundreds of lending institutions."

Maheshwari went on to say, "PaymentDriver is a valuable addition to Chrome's solutions in the online vehicle research and purchasing space. Together, with DealerTrack's newly released CreditOnline product, a new solution enabling a consumer to complete a credit application directly from a dealership's website, PaymentDriver can help deliver an engaging online financing experience that converts online consumers into highly qualified prospects."

Reynolds and DealerTrack Announce Certified Data Interfaces

In other news, Reynolds and Reynolds and DealerTrack  announced that the companies will develop new certified interfaces between their solutions, as part of the Reynolds Certified Interface (RCI) Program.

The companies will develop certified interfaces between the Reynolds ERA DMS and the DealerTrack AAX, eMenu and Salesmaker solutions. The new interfaces are in addition to certified interfaces with Reynolds' DMS and DealerTrack's credit application processing and eContracting solutions.

The RCI Program provides a standardized approach to handling dealership data from a Reynolds DMS in a safe, secure and verifiable manner, which improves the security and supportability of interfaces for both dealerships and third-party vendors.

"Delivering secure and reliable certified interfaces between the various systems that a dealership may use is critical to their success and the smooth running of a dealer's operations," said Raj Sundaram, senior vice president, DealerTrack. "With this certification, we can ensure that our common dealer customers will be able to securely and seamlessly exchange information between DealerTrack's F&I solutions and the Reynolds ERA DMS platform."

DealerTrack officials said they are committed to supporting dealer's technology needs through its OpenTrack program that enables secure, real-time and seamless integration between systems running in a dealership and in the company's systems and solutions.

"While Reynolds and DealerTrack remain competitors, cooperating on developing certified interfaces between our solutions is in the best interest of our mutual dealership customers," said Trey Hiers, vice president of marketing for Reynolds. "And that's who both our companies are serving in the most efficient and most effective ways possible. For Reynolds, this is one more example of our focus on developing the technologies that help improve dealership productivity and deliver results for dealers."