Cloud Transformation for Automotive Dealerships

 
The customer is one of the leading automobiles in the world with multiple dealerships in USA. They partnered with us for the complete digitization of their processes in collection and storage of dealership-specific data.

Challenges

• Lack of a universal portal to manage dealership data. The data was collected and stored at each dealership in excel sheets.
• Whenever there was a change in data, the process of updating the changes in the repository was a manual process. Errors may also creep in due to the manual updates.
• The approval process required sending emails manually to managers and stakeholders.

Solution Offered

• We set up a centralized Azure platform and developed the scripts and services for Azure that perform specific tasks to analyze dealer’s location & metadata.
• The script runs once a day on the Azure platform and performs the following processes:
  • Download CSV & XLS from an FTP server where all the Dealer Locations and Dealer Metadata are
  • A new FTP server (Blob storage) was setup on Azure that replaced the current FTP.
  • Files are parsed and stored within a database.
  • Sanity checks are performed on the file & automated emails are sent if a deviation from the normal pattern is found.
• Security aspects such as DDOS, Azure Active Directory, Azure Key Vault and Token Based Authentication were validated to ensure that there are no security breaches.
• Scalability aspects of the solution were considered in the design phase itself. In the future, additional components such as a high-end front-end along with Business Intelligence or automated reporting solutions can be incorporated effortlessly.

Embitel Impact

• Automated emails helped in faster approval and repository updates.
• Complete digitization of the system minimized human errors.
• The platform saved stakeholders’ time and increased productivity.
• Centralized platform view and comprehensive report generation for all stakeholders can be easily incorporated in the solution.

Tech Stack

Azure data factory, Postgresql, Azure logic apps, Blob Storage, Azure function, net Core API, SFTP server, Office Outlook.