Motorbuys.com.au

From side project to major build

After an initial consult and delegation of a smaller side project, my clients realised that I was the right person for the job of creating their major project. Given my critical thinking and ability to rationally analyse a situation from all angles, I had the privilege of being involved in the development of the business concept and model. The plan was simple - create a platform that will revolutionize the new car industry, and fulfil three key objectives:

• Save customers money on new vehicle purchases;
• Avoid the hassle which customers receive after contacting dealerships; and
• Create an incredibly easy-to-use platform for dealerships to quote vehicles.

Make it awesome

From the ground up, a custom platform was the only practical solution for this project. The amount of work and custom functionality required was mind-blowing. Using the supplied database of new vehicles across Australia, I needed to implement simple, easy-to-use search functionality to allow customers to select the exact car they wish to purchase, and then customise it to their liking with transmission, fuel type, body options, colours, and accessories. Customers are then able to select the Australian states they wish to acquire prices from, pay the small fee, and then submit their quote.

Cron tasks

In the background, the system is a moving, writhing, and constantly changing. These quote requests that come through are then distributed to all of the dealerships within the database (over 3,000!). Dealerships then have a set time period to put in their best prices on the vehicle, using a custom control panel, which is then accessible by the customer in order to select the best quote to suit their needs.

Final result

Once the quoting period has finished, the customer has the opportunity to select the best quote which suits their needs - it's dependant on both the distance from their location, as well as obviously the price. Once a quote is selected, all dealerships are notified of the status, and the customer then receives the dealership's details in order to finalise the purchase of their new vehicle. It's a transparent, unbiased system, with many hours of concept development and code floating around in the background.