Announcing the Launch of Open Dealer Exchange, a new company created to improve the vehicle financing process for finance sources, dealers and consumers

The Open Dealer Exchange (ODE), a joint venture between ADP and Reynolds and Reynolds, will help finance sources, dealers and consumers create a faster, more accurate sales process

DETROIT, MI (PRNEWSWIRE) January 21, 2009 -- Open Dealer Exchange is a newly launched company that will provide finance sources with the ability to improve operational efficiencies and enhance brand value by better integrating the loan origination process into the dealer's transactional, point-of-sale system. Open Dealer Exchange will facilitate the credit processing functions within the dealers' point-of-sale transactional systems used by automotive, truck and power sports dealers to conduct business in the showroom, at the desk, in the F&I office and online. Historically, dealers have been relegated to separate systems, one for credit processing and another for point-of-sale transaction processing in F&I. With Open Dealer Exchange, dealers can combine these systems to improve the overall vehicle sales process for all stakeholders.

Finance sources will benefit from more real-time information being delivered specific to the transaction at the point of sale. Dealers will now have the flexibility to embed the finance transactions throughout the sales cycle from websites through CRM, Desking and F&I, and consumers are left with more ways for financial approval and ultimately a better chance of getting their choice of vehicle.

"We believe that this joint venture will support our current mandate of streamlining the sales process for automotive, truck and power sports retailers", states Marty Zwolan, Vice President of Sales and Operations for Open Dealer Exchange. "Open Dealer Exchange will be able to provide a better sale process for the consumers, finance sources and dealers by acknowledging that vehicle financing is no longer just an F&I transaction. The vision for this company will be to transform traditional finance source — dealer relationships to help close and fund more deals."

This new company is based on the highly successful Computerized Vehicle Registration (CVR) model, which was the first ADP — Reynolds and Reynolds joint venture launched in 1992 with the three-way benefit of simplifying the vehicle registration process for the state, the dealer and the consumer. Used by over 9,000 dealerships in 24 states throughout the U.S., CVR provides the state a consistent way to embed vehicle registrations into dealers' systems, including non-ADP and non-R&R clients. It also gives the dealer a more efficient sales process and saves the consumer a trip to the local DMV.

As with CVR, Open Dealer Exchange will also provide a three-way benefit, this time by changing the finance presentation model within dealerships. Open Dealer Exchange will pave the way for future improvements to the sales process that increase dealers' profitability, provide greater lending options, and create a superior buying experience. Also similar to CVR, Reynolds and Reynolds and ADP will remain fierce competitors.

"ODE is an open platform, and will deliver integration and related services to non-ADP and non-R&R dealer system providers, other finance sources that serve auto and truck retailers, and other portal finance source networks," adds Zwolan.

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