Efficient processes and lower costs thanks to bezahl.de

The digitization of payment management at Autohaus Brandenburg ensures satisfied employees and customers

Autohaus Brandenburg has been a family business for over 50 years. Today, the founder's son, Ralf Brandenburg, runs the four branches together with Michael Niebel, his brother-in-law. The company sells new and used cars to end customers and dealers around Düsseldorf. The team has a special passion for golf: They were one of the first sponsors of the later Major winner Martin Kaymer and they still support young athletes today.

Information about the company:

Founding:

1969 in Dusseldorf

Branches:

4 car dealerships in Düsseldorf, Hilden, Mettmann and Dormagen

Employees:

240

Counting:

5,000 new and used cars a year

Brands:

BMW, Mini, BMW i, BMW M, Kia

Time-consuming processes for accounting in the B2B car dealership

Autohaus Brandenburg has two core businesses: Here, cars are not only sold to end customers, but also auctioned off to dealers on a weekly basis. The company generates around ten to 15 percent of its total volume through this trade. For internal administration, however, this means a particularly high level of effort.

The challenge in the auction business: The dealers want to pick up the cars as quickly as possible. However, the accounting department must ensure that the money has irrevocably entered the correct account. This creates – after all, 20 to 50 cars are auctioned every week – complex processes due to inquiries in the accounting department, which cost the employees a lot of time.

If a payment is accidentally made to the wrong account, for example in Hilden, although the car that was bought is in the Düsseldorf branch, the processes are enormously delayed. In the past, employees have spent a lot of time checking incoming payments and answering questions from merchants. Bureaucratic hurdles in the simplification of bank account processing have ensured that Managing Director Ralf Brandenburg looked around for further possibilities of process optimization.

Fast and uncomplicated cooperation with bezahl.de

Ralf Brandenburg found out about bezahl.de from his wife, who knows the car dealership industry well herself. The simplification of the entire process of car sales was important to the entrepreneur. With the know-how of bezahl.de, this goal was within reach. The cooperation was quickly sealed: "It was totally uncomplicated, as you would expect from a start-up," says Ralf Brandenburg enthusiastically. After a presentation by bezahl.de in the car dealership in front of Brandenburg and some employees, getting to know each other could begin.

The newly created cooperation was pleasing from the start: thanks to the short distances, the teams from the car dealership and bezahl.de were able to respond to special needs. The bezahl.de team was also able to learn a lot: The planning professionals at Autohaus Brandenburg provided the software experts with the most important information for implementation right from the start. Payment processing and process organization with bezahl.de was already implemented in the Alpha Online software around two months after we first got to know each other. So far, the car dealership has been using pay.de for B2B car sales to dealers. An introduction of the tool for selling cars to end customers is planned.

Pleasant customer feedback for digitized payment processes

Managing Director Ralf Brandenburg and his employees rave about the change in processing: "It's a blessing for us." Brandenburg sees the fact that the retailers have accepted the new processing quickly and without hesitation as confirmation of the advantages of the software.

For accounting, the use of pay.de brings a significant relief, which has accelerated the entire business. The employees are now deployed more effectively elsewhere. Merchants are happy to be able to carry out payment transactions digitally quickly and easily. "It also looks more professional for the business partner," sums up Ralf Brandenburg with satisfaction. As a result, buyers will receive their cars about two days earlier than before. For the car dealership, costs are also reduced due to downtimes. Buyers receive their cars earlier while the payment process for the dealership is simplified - a win-win situation.

Expansion of digital payment management to other business areas

In the future, bezahl.de will also be used to sell cars to private customers. Ralf Brandenburg is looking forward to tackling these challenges in order to speed up and simplify the processes in private customer business as well.

All important facts at a glance

• Significant acceleration and simplification of manual accounting processes

• Positive feedback for digital real-time payment process from customers of the car dealership

• Successful cooperation between bezahl.de and Alpha Online simplifies future project implementations

Customer Succes Story Autohaus Brandenbu

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