Automotive Industry Roundtable

Hey, everyone. It's Daniel Littwin, the voice of b to b coming at you from our Dallas Texas studios, and welcome to this very special keeping out broadcast, brought to you by the DataScan team. Again, thank you for joining us. We're really looking forward to breaking down our core topics today. Sitting down for some roundtable conversation and talking shop pun intended on some of the most important trends, challenges, updates, and opportunities for reinventing and reimagining the inventory management and accounting process for the auto parts industry. Now before we get into our core talking points today and introduce our guests, I wanna make sure you're all caught up on our other data scan content. So make sure you're heading website, datascan dot com. Again, datascan dot com. There you'll find episodes of our podcast, keeping count, and other important resources on our solutions and services. Alright. Let's jump in, folks. On today's episode of the show, again, we're gonna be doing a deep dive on data scans break into a new important industry for us. That'd be the auto parts sector. And it's a sector that's ripe for digital transformation right now and how it handles its inventory management and inventory SEES. But more than just doing a breakdown on DataScan's new product offering, we really wanted to make this broadcast a chance to under and the challenges that the auto part sector is facing today and scaling some of their operations while also simultaneously trying to manage manual labor intensive, and often inefficient counting methods. And so we think it's time to rethink some of these legacy processes. And to do so, we're sitting down with not only the day a scan team, but also with a professional who's on the ground handling large inventory of auto parts. So we're gonna be getting a wide a variety of perspectives. Let's go ahead and introduce the guest. So for insights today. I'm excited to welcome our round table of professionals. First up, we're joined by mister Tom Calloway. He's president and CEO of a two c x, as well as smart count. Tom. Welcome. How you doing? Thank you. Doing great. Thanks for having me. Of course. It's a pleasure getting to sit down and source your perspective. Today. And then we're also joined by the data scan team. First up, we've got Ron Reznick. He's business development manager for the automotive division at data scan. Ron. How you doing? Great. Thanks for having us today, Dan. Absolutely, man. Thank you for joining us. And finally, mister Nick Ford, director of inventory solutions at DataScan. Nick, how you doing? Awesome. Thank you. Last but not the least. Right? It's always the way. Always the way. Hey. Give yourself some more credit. Alright. Tom Ron and Nick. Thank you again for joining us and, you know, talk and shop here on this roundtable. I think we're gonna have a lot of fun, and I want to start by keeping things a little light So we are going to jump in immediately into what we see as some of the biggest challenges, as well as advantages in the auto part sector today, especially when it comes to just their inventory management processes. And so audience, we're going to introduce these whiteboards. You may have noticed why do we have whiteboards sit in front of us well? We're not just doodling. And we're not just playing Hang Man, we're going to be playing a little bit of a visual game here. So what I want all of y'all to do is go ahead and get your expos ready. And the main question here is write down in, you know, five seconds, and I'll start to count. What you see is the biggest challenge for the auto parts side of the auto industry in twenty twenty two. Right? Alright. Let's count it down five. Four, three, two, two and a half, one point five, and zero. There it is. Alright. So let's see them folks. If we've got any alignment or if everyone's got a different perspective, flip them. What they said? Global supply chain, database accuracy, and supply. Well, you made this rather easy neck. I'm just gonna transfer over to Ron to start hearing. Alright, Ron. You said the global supply chain. I did. Why that? So, obviously, COVID has changed the supply chain not only from the ability to get auto parts to the dealers from the suppliers, but also raw material shortages have been created. So it's kind of a double two edged sword. And it it really truly has been very, very difficult just to keep the right parts on the shelf. Right. So, you know, definitely it's not the norm from what it has been in years past. Would you say that that's affecting just kind of the the small day to day parts or also the sort of more, I guess, large scale niche case by case parts in the in the auto parts sector. I mean, it's it's really it's been all encompassing. It's really impacting all parts and it's impacting vehicles. And the manufacturer vehicles. Sure. Yeah. Yep. The ability to manufacture vehicles. So very challenging and challenging for the dealers. Again just to keep parts on the shelf. Really tough. So Have you been experiencing the same thing? Yeah. No. I I would echo that. And I think there's a couple of elements. One, just just the supply chain in itself has holes in it that have been exacerbated through through COVID. And then you've got supply breakdowns in certain segments, particularly anything that's chip driven or or technology, that's certainly an issue that's been feeding into that and and it's only going to get more challenging when the inventory shift to a dual inventory between internal combustion and electric. Right? Sure. And you also said database accuracy in your on your y board answer there. Would you say that that is kind of intersecting with the supply chain issue as well? Is it a separate issue or kind of how do those interact? Yeah. So so supply chain has always been a challenge to start sorry. Database accuracy has always been a challenge to start with, you add into it COVID and human resource issues and and being able to staff appropriately. The fact, the pressure that's come from COVID as it relates to the profitability on the on the total store and the pressure that puts on the total business leaks into departments whether or not they're the profitable end of the business or not. So that creates staffing pressures other dynamics outside of that with the with the supplemental checks that came that might be driving some of the lower end of of being able to hire and retain the right people, all that have driven that. And the reality is that database accuracy has a broader effect on the productivity and profitability of departments that the parts department supplies. It's not just about asset protection. Right. Nick, anything to add there? I I think that the challenge that we we see a data scan across the board is one of inventory accuracy -- Yeah. -- flexibility and and the ability to to really be aware real time what's going on. And as much as you don't have something like buy online, pickup in store, BOPUS for automotive. Right. You still have customers bringing in a vehicle with a perhaps unknown situation that needs to be dealt with. And as expeditiously as possible for the customer's sake. Right. So for the dealers to know where where and what inventory they have or where they can source it, it's critical. Definitely. Alright. We're gonna jump to the flip side now. We're gonna talk biggest opportunities now for the industry. So another game around. I'll have y'all visualize here. But again, instead of a challenge, what do we see as the biggest opportunity or, you know, a potential solution out there for addressing some of these key challenges for the auto parts sector. So count it down again. Five four three two and a half one point five. I gotta make sure to give y'all a time and zero. Okay. Let's flip it. Let's see it. What do we got here? Technology, electrification, automation, and processes. I love it. Diversity. Okay. We'll start on the flip side now, Nick, You said technology. Is it specific technology? Do you see it as just the entire digital transformation of the industry? Kinda how would you hone in on your answer there? I was thinking about it more from selfishly from the inventory counting perspective. Love it. Sure. I mean, naturally, I love mean, it it's astounding to me that, I mean, you know, I have the privilege of of driving a a new Mercedes Benz right now. And it is it is out of this world wonderful just in terms of the technology and and everything that comes together. Over the last fifteen years, I've seen an incredible you know, coming together of of customer needs and and, you know, and the automobile. Yeah. And despite that, the back end, there has not been a lot of development and and change towards helping the the the dealers serve their customers as I mentioned earlier. Right. So so when when, for example, we go to work with a dealer, the process that we have to go through is it's it's retailers back in the eighties. Would you agree? Is that what you're saying? A hundred percent. Yeah. Yeah. Some of the DMS systems that the dealers use to calculate stock orders and do their inventories are honestly very antiquated eighties technology -- Yeah. -- which is difficult. And you know, the reality is and it's very simple. If you don't know what you have on the shelf, you're either running out because you don't have enough or you're ordering way too much -- Right. -- and parts are expensive. So I don't wanna have too much. Right. So That's fair. And then a lot electrification really brings in a completely different segment because combustion engine cars are not going way. They're going to be around for a long time, so dealers and parts stores are gonna have to keep those parts, but they're gonna have the addition of a number of SKUs to support the electric the electric vehicle conversion and, you know, some of the manufacturers, most of them are talking about twenty five percent electric within the next five to eight years. So Which in the grand scheme of things in five years is is a blip. Honestly. Yeah. Absolutely. So, you know, you see electrification as as something that the industry should begin to adapt to, but you also see it as an opportunity. Right? What about it is exciting or something that you think will push the industry in a positive direction? Well, I think just the commitment from manufacturers that they've made to convert such a substantial amount of their fleets and what will eventually be coming into service departments for repairs they're going to have to have the parts on the shelf -- Right. -- which is gonna be another challenge. So but I think it's exciting because it is another segment. So I mean, another segment means more opportunity. More opportunity. More customers. Absolutely. And more partnerships to build too to supply some of those parts. Yeah. I I love that. Alright. We'll jump over to Tom. Tom, you said automation. Set automation. I cracked under the time pressure, but what I'm really thinking is from an analytics standpoint, and better leveraging data. So and I think that's true brings a ton of the table from that perspective, and it was one of the things that really attracted me to that. And the parts environment within automotive universe tends to be an under invested area, particularly when it comes to thinking about it from a scientific standpoint. Ron listed off a couple of of areas of frustration of what happens when you don't have the part on the shelf even worse. If it is when you have on the shelf, but you have it on the wrong shelf and nobody can find it. You've got it sitting there and you still pay a premium to go get it somewhere else or even worse, you lose the sale. So I think completely underestimated the impact of lack having a lack of database accuracy of what it impacts and the profitability of the departments that departs department supports. So data analytics and being able to leverage the dart system and the the science behind what these guys do and apply that into our industry. Ron mentioned, you know, the the trying to be kind the fact that there's room for improvement with the dealer management systems. And again, parts is not necessarily the area primarily that everybody's focused on. It's more about service tickets and selling vehicles. So this will put people in a position especially as they have to be more more dialed in with a similar of investment to satisfy two entirely different segments of vehicles that inventory accuracy or lack thereof will exponentially get worse if we don't provide a solution. And I think not just from a process improvement of making the inventory experience go better, we're teaching them how to not just be cramming for the test once a year, but to build practices in place in a cycle count plan all through the year that that database accuracy doesn't hit its peak right before an annual event. It's stays at its peak all year round, and that will translate into huge performance improvements out of the production environment. Right? Yeah. Do you have any specific examples from on the ground, you know, working at a two c x that highlight that need for inventory accuracy or some of the challenges that come from not having the complete picture and then creating a solution? Yeah. Well, let's start with the challenge. Challenges are obvious, you know, it. So if if the if the database is not accurate, you could have the part yet it's in the wrong address when a counter person goes look for the part, you don't you don't find it. So the assumption is that it's not there because you don't have a huge amount of confidence in your database accuracy in part because you've been through this every day of your life. And what what happens is one of two things, either you lose the sale or or almost as bad, you buy it down the street, which you pay a premium for, and the technician is now either idle for that thirty minutes or even they have to pull the vehicle out and pull another vehicle in. And that's in the dealership world and the smaller environments, you know, they don't have as many bays or lifts as the large dealerships do set becomes even more more so a problem. And and the probably a loose translation would be for an average sized dealership with with let's say six hundred thousand dollars worth of of inventory. Every point that you lose of database accuracy is probably worth about five thousand dollars worth of gross out of the service department of parts and labor value combined. So if if you're at ninety nine percent, you slip to ninety eight percent, that's one thing. If you're at eighty percent that you're leaving tons on the table. Totally. Yeah. And I mean, those costs, I'm sure they stack up year over year, and y'all mentioned supply chain challenges. I mean, if if folks are already struggling to get the parts they need, thing you need is to then not know what parts you do already have and then it's -- Exactly. -- compounding cost challenges. Totally. Right. Yep. Absolutely. So let's talk data scan now. So I know this is a big break for y'all jumping into the auto business. Nick, let's start with you. Can you walk us through and give us some insights into this partnership with DataScan and the auto industry and how y'all are approaching, bringing your tried and true solutions that you've perfected in other industries and then transplanting them into the needs of the auto part sector. Oh, simple. Love it. Yeah. There we go. Right? Multi part question. And we're done. Thanks for joining us. Yes. Alright. Technology. So so, I mean, first of all, I love talking data scan. And, you know, data scan as as an organization, and I've been in the inventory counting world for decade or two. And, you know, it it is I I'm daily impressed with the level of technology that the data scan brings the equation, the ease of using the handheld, and and the the after count systems and data and analytics that come into the into play. So, you know, I when I was in a previous life, when I was in the inventory accounting world, you know, I attempted to get into the auto market because it's it's significant. I mean, not only do you have over seventeen thousand new car dealerships, but you've got RV. You've got you got leisure craft. You've got all the used car lots. I mean, you know, with this on the dealers' affection, they're called Rocklots. Yeah. Right? So so everybody's got inventory. There's lots of inventory. But, you know, it's it's it's a very particular area that requires an understanding of of how the dealership operates, what's important You know, as an example, we were in a parts department today, and you look at a product, and it's got five bar codes on it. I mean, if you're at a retail store and they have five bar codes, I mean, somebody get fired. Yeah. So so you just look at that and say, okay, what what do I do? Right? And so it does require specific knowledge, parts knowledge to to be able to accurately and efficiently I mean, the technology can help, but you wanna be efficient to move through and and capture that data. And, you know, as as data scan was looking for a partner, You know, we we talk to different people. We end up talking with with Tom, and I have to say, and, you know, and and and wham, sorry, being recorded. You know, he he he he struck he struck us all immediately as as extremely knowledgeable, you know, very well connected. You know, being with these two is is just an exercise in name dropping. I mean, they know everybody, and it's it's impressive. The depth of knowledge and understanding, it's really impressive. And would you say that that breadth of knowledge is both an advantage, but also unique when you look at this you know, the the market of solutions that are trying to something similar in inventory management, or maybe a better question is how do you see that being leveraged to the advantage of Yeal's clients? Those connections and that breath of knowledge. Yeah. It's it's it's interesting the way you posed the question actually because I mean, it it it wouldn't be difficult to find somebody who's worked in the parts department for a long period of time. It wouldn't be difficult to find a dealer or an ex dealer who's who's managed a number of dealerships. But with with Tom and also with Ron, you know, we have a couple of individuals who have been senior level executives at at significant automotive ventures. And in the in the process, they had to implement, design, control, and and and manage parts inventories at at national levels. And so it it's, you know, it's it's humbling. A way when you sit and you listen to the to the knowledge and expertise, and I hope you edit that last part. No. I I thank you very much. Twenty dollars in the mail for you. Yeah. There it is. I see it the exact opposite way, quite frankly. I think there's of smart folks in the automotive industry and I feel blessed to be in this partnership. What's what's been missing is the skill set that you guys bring to the and the technology and the background, and it's a night and day difference having having been through the due diligence of all the other players, both at the DMS level and other third parties that we're trying to get in and provide a solution. It doesn't even compare. And it there's no no words really put to it until people get to actually see the process of both from a manufacturing standpoint as well as the the quality control process to up for each of the events as we take care of our combined clients. Yeah. And I think, you know, Tom and I have both spent a long of time in retail as well as on the corporate level. We've been involved with and done hundreds of inventories the current process for ninety eight percent of the dealers out there is very manual. So it leaves a lot of room for mistakes and errors. Two man teams, a counter and a writer, keep punching every number manually in with revised counts with data scan equipment, scanning is easy. Everything's coded now. The scanners are phenomenal. I mean, I was so excited when I first started talking to Nick and and Mark and clearly Tom, who put me in touch with DataScan about the opportunity to bring more dealers into a twenty first century with not just a a great technology but a solution that provides accuracy, security, efficiency, and clearly a reduced cost. So it's it's a very exciting time and I think a lot of dealers and parts departments are gonna benefit greatly from this this technology. I am glad you bring up the bottom line too because, I mean, I think any of these digital transformation style investments nowadays need to have that ROI front of mind. Like, yes, it can be fun to announce. We just, you know, invested in a great technology. It's buzzy. Everyone's doing it. But, like, if you don't have a strategy that centers How can we actually calculate that this is reducing costs and that all of the domino effects of, okay, now we don't need to have two man teams. We can have a one man team. Okay. Now we actually can identify which parts have been hidden behind three other parts, and we didn't lose it in the process of trying to deliver on this job. You can compound all of that, analyze it, and then make actionable business decisions based on those domino effects. Well, and it goes a step further than that because One of the things that DataScan brings to the table is the analytics. Right. And so what you're seeing in the industry now is an incredible amount of consolidation. Dealers are you know, large dealers are buying smaller dealers. Part of that is because of the cost and the personnel and technology. I mean, everything costs more, so you you want a broader base broader revenue base. Sure. And so with data scan analytics, now we can give dealer owners that opportunity to compare performance across their their their stores and make decisions. Why is this happening here? Why is that happening there? Why are we not seeing this here? And start to make, I think, more global decisions. It's an ideal software for dealer groups with with, you know, multiple locations, some even hundreds of locations because now staff at the corporate regional level doesn't have to go to the store to watch the inventory and process. They can actually go on to the dart software and from anywhere in the world, look at any inventory count that's in process or that's already taken place. And that's very significant because traveling to all these different locations, to manage or monitor the inventory, it's not necessary today. Right? And that alone is cost sync, a resource sync. And imagine that using that person's resources in a way they're better suited as opposed to I don't wanna say a menial task but a a repetitious kind of task that, you know, they can be creative, they can do business development, and those kinds of things. They have time to spend their efforts on other more important tasks. So Which is critical, especially as we see all industries lean towards wanting to rescale and upscale their employee base because everyone's dealing with labor crunches right now. And, you know, you kinda brought this up wrong, and I wanna get a quick follow-up here. But you were highlighting some of the challenges that the current industry is experiencing specifically around how it goes through its accounting processes. So staffing, right, two man teams versus one man teams, some antiquated systems. Can you just, like, dig in a little further and and give us a bullet list of what those key areas are that specifically you see data scan helping to identify and also create solutions for. Well, so clearly one man teams are are much better than a two man team. Right? Eighty percent reduction. And again with the dark software, I can see who's counting. How efficient or how long it's taking them to count a bin, and then what their accuracy is at the, you know, at the moment real time. The the historical way of conducting the inventory is after the count's done sitting at a terminal punching in all these counts. Well, if you're punching five thousand SKUs in, what is the, you know, the likelihood of having data error data entry errors, it's huge. With our solution and our CDK partnership, and approved status, that revised those revised counts are uploaded back into the DMS. Nobody has to touch a terminal. So it's clearly twenty first century technology that I think the the especially the franchise automotive dealers are really gonna embrace. Tom, what do you see as the data scan advantage compared to some of the other players in the market today? Yeah. I think I think these guys hit on it very well. I think there's multiple variables to the the ROI and and it it's simple, Matt, to say that you cut one body, but reality is that it's even more efficient than the standard count, so it's really you need a third of the manpower. Right? So the guns cost less than DMS solution. The integration is certified through the DMS and is done by a technology group that's a global presence that's that does this over hundreds of thousands of SKUs a week, right, with with all kinds of experience and science built into that, and a fantastic team that that supports them. And the design is not so much just to stop there. It is to take it to the next level. And for those dealers that are so inclined and have the resources within that would like assistance to move to a complete self scan environment where the guns are shipped to them if are not already leasing them on a regular basis for cycle counts where they do it and not relying on a third party, and we would be Really, what we wanna do is help people get more and more efficient and and focus on bigger and better things than just counting parts. So -- Sure. -- for those that are capable of that, this is a part part of the road map is to get them to where they don't even rely on a third party to do that. These guys have mastered doing that globally in of other retail environments, and that was just yet another concept of how they approached the business that attracted me to them. I think you're me up really well for my next point here, but that autonomous nature of empowering the dealership and the various auto parts businesses to handle these counts themselves and to almost internalize the technology as just part of their larger process, I think also introduces the fact that there are different kinds of inventory counts per dealership, and these inventory counts, like, identifying them early, providing the right solution and helping work with the business to develop a strategy to implement it is essential. So I wanna get y'all thoughts on how the needs and the solutions differ slightly for each of these types. So we've got the self scan inventory count, we've got the guided inventory count, we've got the full service inventory count. Can you kind of break down each one of those? And again, what are some of the specific needs for each? And then how you see the data scan team stepping into create solutions. Sure. So self scan clearly would be the most economical for a dealer where as Tom just said, data scan would prepare the equipment, the scanner and the hot spots and so forth provide the dealer with the software. All of our equipment is is clean, charged, programmed with software ready to go. Literally, they open up a box. They take out the scanners. I personally have used the scanner several times really, it takes you five minutes to get acclimated to how to use one of our scanners. And the software is very intuitive and easy for an experienced parts manager to pick up very quickly. In addition, we offer twenty four seven helpline. So anywhere or anytime that they were in in the midst of a self scan inventory. If they did have a problem, it's super easy for them to get assistance instantly. There a charge for that? No, sir. Exactly. So one of the key points is the DMS Solutions. There is a charge for that support. During the the event. Yeah. Absolutely. I think further to your question. So if you think about it, one of the primary reasons or differences in the cell scan versus the the full service or even guided, is that there's a mentality of requiring third party validation. Right. And for varying reasons, If it's M and A activity or a buy cell and there's a buyer and seller, they want an independent third party, and that probably never goes away. Right? That you still need at least somebody driving the process that doesn't doesn't report to and is invested in either either party. And then, you know, publicly held companies, another large group think about it from a socks and or a compliance perspective, and or don't trust their cycle count process, at least enough to think that it is it survives a full blown the full blown scrutiny of an of an audit. Right? And and that's just that is a bridge that can be crossed, and we don't need everybody does not need to be on this third party mentality. If you need a third party for a buy sell and or for compliance, that's one thing, but there's plenty of space. And even if it's every other year to be thinking more along the lines of doing self scans. And the, really, again, the the punch line is they should be more focused on the discipline of the cycle count and daily inventory accuracy and not just cramming for the test once a year. Right? Doesn't accomplish what the real mission is other than making somebody in the front office feel a little bit better that their investment, at least most of it is still sitting back there. Right. Yeah. Nick thoughts? Yeah. It's it's it's interesting because I said at the beginning about the unique aspects of the automotive world. There are also a lot of similarities with the retail world. Sure. And clearly one of those is that with data scan, if you can reduce the cost of that once a year count, and you see value from that count. Now for the same money, you could do two counts or three counts. Or you can introduce the concept of cycle counting We talked to a vice president of an automotive group. And, you know, his his question was, would I know if the cycle counts were done? And you hear the same thing with retailers because there's a there's a task. You give a task to a task saturated individual. Do cycle counting. Right. And it drops to the bottom of the list. And so how do they know that it gets done? They go on to the data scan system, and they can see if it's been done. Full service platform, easy to view, easy to review. Yep. Hundred percent. Yeah. Which is critical. I mean, because having that touch point in that communication, I don't think ever goes away either. And so rather than okay, walk me through. Did you do every single step? Yes. Here's a sheet. Yes. Here's the manual count. It's just oh, yeah. You can just jump on the data scan warm check. Yep. Oh, there it is. Done. Done. Right? Yeah. Done. And then so guided scan -- Right. -- is really a self scan with an inventory manager provided through a two c x -- k. -- to really just act as a supervisor over the actual inventory process, nose and familiar with the equipment, the soft where, so can take that pressure off of the parts manager within the in the dealership. And when would that most applicable? Would it be during the M and A's that you're interested in? It it can be. So to Ron's point, so these are folks that would be supplied by the dealer or dealers if it's M and A activity. And the the plus is that they they have more owner of those people more control, and it's not strangers showing up. And the likelihood of their automotive experience being deeper, all of it breeds a more accurate and higher quality inventory. So we've been pressing that direction to get away from the some of the other players in the space that draw from other industries that really don't understand automotive. Fair. I I think if I could add to the one of the things that I you know, I'm already seeing as I'm being exposed to these these folks and and what they're about is that the dealer management system is there to provide the service around the parts inventory. But the inventory counting module is almost tacked on as a bit of an afterthought. It's not very well designed, and it's not very efficient. And so one of the reasons why a two c x is needed is because when inventory time comes around, these folks are looking at system, and they they haven't touched that module for a year. Yeah. So much like SAP and retail has an inventory module that is also you know, just a bolt on and you need somebody to come in and help manage that process. It's so, you know, the vision that that we have is that We're gonna have dealer partners who are gonna become more familiar with the process because the ease of using data scan, and we're really comfortable with doing these counts more often than getting the the benefit from it. Absolutely. I think that's a key point. Right? So another another reason folks defer to that third party other than third party or independent validation is it's just easier because it's been such a complicated process, and integration of these guys have built out and leveraging their process and and the tool. It is and forget. It's super easy to get somebody up to speed in about two minutes and walk them through the process and turn them loose. And then the the ability to audit through the process and identify any errors or issues just makes problem solving that much more real time. And and they're definitely is a big place for for full count. A good example might be we've changed managers in the parts department someone is new. Maybe they're less experienced. Maybe they've been promoted from an assistant. And again, in in retail, they're doing one count a year. It's hard to get really good and and be proficient when you do something once a year. Right? Yeah. We clearly have all experienced that. So, you know, that's an excellent time to have Tom come in with the data scan equipment. Either guide it or full. And guide it. Correct. We take care of that part as well. They don't have to be the experts. Absolutely. So you know, it it just really depends on the individual dealership, what their current situation is, I think, you know, and that's the great part of how we've positioned this is there really is a solution for everyone. So Which is exciting and what I think is also useful about theta Scan's trajectory into this space is that not only do you have a partnership to support it. But also you have years of experience of understanding that it's not always cookie cutter in every industry. Right? Retail is gonna have various different kind of counts, like you said. There's daily counts. There's once a year counts. And the weight of those processes, the time it takes, what that data is necessary for larger vision business strategies informs being able to take what does apply to the auto part sector. But then also with these partnerships, being able to identify what's unique and then build your solutions just for that. Absolutely. Yeah. It's it's really exciting stuff. And I think with that, what we'll do is get into our final sales pitch here, so I'll let you all kinda summarize and reiterate for our audience here. What do you see making DataScan the ideal inventory counting solution, but more specifically moving into this year, right, through twenty twenty two based on some of the current context, of supply chain challenges, labor challenges, whatever, what makes data scan the ideal inventory accounting solution for today's context. I'll start. Yeah. And, you know, I'll I'll leave the more automotive oriented response to to my colleagues. But but I think that that the the technology that DataScan brings to the table, the online of visibility. The fact that you see so much consolidation going on in this sector right now means that you must have better control. And in the same way in retail, control is dollars. And it's it's money that it is already being spent. So why not have as much of it go to the bottom line as possible? Very fair. I think and you you said it several times, it's exciting. I've said it many times as I was talking to Nick about coming on at DataScan because I got very excited as I learned more about product and and what we could do with the product. So I just think that it's it's a tremendous solution it comes at a very reasonable cost regardless of which solution you were to choose, and maybe you aren't able to choose. Maybe you need us to assist and guide you through that decision as well. Right. But, you know, we do have a lot of automotive experience. We've seen the good, the bad, and the ugly, for sure. You know, Tom and I have worked together before and have the utmost respect for him and his money. So I I just think it's exciting and it's bringing the opportunity to bring a fairly antiquated process into the twenty first century with the again, accuracy, and efficiency that dealers haven't known that have never had a scan inventory before. So Tom, final thoughts? I think I think it's a huge win anytime you can take an inherently complex process and simplify it. Yep. And if you can do that and reduce cost or increase profit or both at the same time or at least position your client to be able to reap the rewards off of that through something that you've affected or changed about their business is huge. And that not everybody can say that they can bring that to table and then do it. Right? And again, what's excited me the data scan team is that there that's really been the missing link within the automotive industry and why I was so attracted to working with these guys. And I'm super excited about that we're gonna help people do through this year and years beyond. And what's exciting is that this is just the beginning. So I'm sure we're gonna be having a lot of follow-up conversations to see how auto part sector is adopting and adapting to the data scan solution. And like we often see in digitally transforming industries, and I'm sure you can attest to it in retail, there's a chicken and the egg solution too. Right? DataScan enables a new perspective on how to approach these processes. And with that, you get feedback on how DataScan can continue to meet this new standard, and then it's open feedback, and then you develop, and then they get new opportunities, etcetera, etcetera. So I'm looking forward to seeing that open dialogue too in the industry take place, but I think for now, we'll go ahead and cap it because this has been a great conversation. And I think we've left our audience with a lot to chew on. So last thing is I wanna make sure our audience knows where to get more information. So make sure you're going to data scan dot com for a free evaluation of your current inventory process. You can also connect with mister Ron Reznick here on LinkedIn to begin that conversation. Any other touch points, we should point people to websites or personal contacts to get that conversation for us. I think on my end, it would be a two c x management dot com. And the brand that we we will be under in the years to come is starting this month and that is smart count. So smart count dot com as well. And, Nick, on your end? Ascan dot com all is around. Perfect. Love it. Or find me on LinkedIn. Yes. LinkedIn's the easy one. I love it. Alright, team. Thank you so much for tuning in. Again, folks, we've been chatting with our three guests. Tom Calloway, President and CEO of a two c x and smart count. Ron Resnick, business development manager for automotive division at DataScan, and Nick Ford, director of inventory solutions at DataScan. Been a real pleasure getting to chat with all three of y'all. Thank you again for joining us. Thank you, and thank you. Appreciate it. And thank you everyone for joining us on this very special broadcast with keeping count. Out to you by Datascam. If you like what you heard and saw today and you want some previous pieces of DataScan content, make sure you're heading to our website, datascam dot com. Make sure you're subscribing. To our podcast, keep in count, and we'll catch you on our next podcast. I'm your host Daniel Litwin, the voice of b to b, and we'll catch you on the next episode of keep in count.