International group of companies Modus Group engaged in car sale and maintenance, fields of rental services, real property development and energy develops innovative IT projects. One of the latest initiatives is the concept of online car purchase, which will allow the buyer to assemble the car and wait for its delivery to their doorstep.

The ability of Modus Group to turn visions into reality is confirmed by a successful City Bee car sharing service and many more ambitious projects. To take a look at the backstage of the activities of this group of companies, we interviewed one of the company's idea generators: Giedrius Zaronskis, Head of the IT Department. "This is a projects that has few analogues in the world: online car sale with the concept of delivery of cars to the customers' doorstep. In 3 to 4 steps, the buyer can assemble the desired car and order it by paying a very small fee", the specialist explained.

Today, the group manages 8 companies engaged in car sale in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Belarus, and achieved turnover of EUR 171.3 million last year. According to the specialist, one of the strategic goals is to transfer the sale of cars of all manufacturers represented by Modus Group, i.e. BMW, MINI, Fiat, Fiat Professional, Alfa Romeo, Maserati, Porsche, Jeep, Dodge, Chrysler, to the electronic space by 2018. Last year, SIA Autobrava, one of the companies of the group in Latvia, became a representative of Hyundai, Suzuki, Isuzu and SsangYong.

Process improvement laboratory

According to G. Zaronskis, IT systems are deployed within the group to make its operations more efficient. "New internal BMW configuration system allows sales managers to assemble the car faster in line with the customer's expectations, while minimizing the likelihood of errors. The customer monitors the configuration process on their screen and takes part in the design of their new purchase", representative of Modus Group says.

Integration of this configuration system with the customer relationship management (CRM) system helps the managers to generate personal offers with the chosen characteristics and car images, and to send them together with the automatic SMS reminders.

According to the representative of the group, the changes introduced into the document management system simplified the process of invoice confirmation, which is performed in the electronic space from the moment the document is uploaded to the payment of the invoice. The system is also used to approve requests for leave and business trips, and to manage advance accounting. "As the number of employees grew beyond 500, we started developing a specialized human resource management system. Employees can use it to check their wages and incentives, remaining days of leave, assigned property, former and planned training, and monthly or quarterly tasks", G. Zaronskis added. 

The tool is especially convenient as the managers distribute tasks; they can also monitor the amounts invested in their employees and individual departments, check the training and incentives provided for the team. Such information is useful during annual reviews, for the analysis of operations and presentation of information to the Board.

Delegated IT maintenance

Modus Group entrusted the maintenance of its IT infrastructure to Penkių Kontinentų Komunikacijų Centras, which helped the group to optimize the internal network structure, increase the network speed and consolidate the server inventory. "Centralized management of computers significantly increases the speed of software installation and configuration. Internal infrastructures of remote departments were taken care of and contingency plan for critical network nodes was developed. To complete this work, we chose partners with proactive and customer-focused approach", G. Zaronskis noted.

According to Robertas Ragauskas, Deputy Director for Commerce of Penkių Kontinentų Komunikacijų Centras, when high-quality IT infrastructure is ensured, more attention can be dedicated to the main activities. "We have developed a concept of services for businesses, i.e. ProfIT, designed to ensure maintenance and operation of IT infrastructures of companies. The business goes well, when everyone does what they do best", R. Ragauskas emphasized.

According to him, highly qualified ProfIT specialists not only provide assistance in problem solving, but also work to constantly improve IT systems of the customers and prevent incidents in the future.