iB Management Solutions’s eTag Key Management System, which provides networked key management solutions to many UK prestige car dealerships, has now exceeded several key growth milestones: eTag is now protecting over 530,000 cars and some £5 billion of dealership-based assets.
The system is used by nearly 10,000 registered users from over 3,000 PCs across the client-base which includes the Porsche Retail Group, Mercedes-Benz Retail, BMW Park Lane and Sytner Group. Each site has an average of nearly 400 slots for keys in use and completes over 8,500 key movements or ‘transactions’ per month.
iB’s eTag software and fully networked key cabinets are deployed to provide secure access to car keys from key cabinets through the use of biometric readers which validate the fingerprints of individuals or secure card readers before providing access to keys. The system tracks movement of keys between cabinets as vehicles are moved between various parts of the dealership. The whole system can be integrated easily with Dealer Management Systems.
A benefit apart from tightening security is improved productivity of staff that no longer have to waste time finding keys. They can log in to eTag on their PC to view when a key was taken out from which cabinet and who removed it as well as where the vehicle is parked. With this information it takes seconds to find missing keys rather than an average of over five minutes, according to a recent survey of dealership system usage.
Paul Smith, managing director, iB Management Solutions, said:
“We are very pleased to have hit these key milestones. We now have significant penetration into the prestige dealership market which gives us market leadership in this segment We will unveil plans very soon for addressing the rest of the market.”
