Maruti to introduce Android-based applications at workshops

Maruti Suzuki India (MSIL), the largest car maker in the country, says it will introduce an Android-based application at all its workshops and service centres, aimed at improving the vehicle servicing process.

The application working on android-based tablets would be linked to the company's dealer management system hosted on a private cloud server. Using the tablets, the service advisors at its workshops would note down the feedback and generate the job order.

For starters, MSIL had implemented the tablet facility across 250 of its workshops on a pilot basis, and the company expected to complete the roll out of the applications across all its service stations in the next financial year.

Using the tablets, the servicing centre executives could also click the picture of a car to record scratches or dents, if any, with the data entered in the tab then moving to the company's private cloud thus storing the vehicle history. The data could be then accessed from any of its service centres across the country.

According to Rajesh Uppal, executive director, IT and CIO of MSIL, with the use of the android-based application through handheld devices, the company was expecting to cut down the service initiation time drastically as against the manual process.

He added, this would also help the company in improving the service quality and reducing the waiting time of the customers significantly.

MSIL's network of workshops serviced around 2 million cars on a monthly basis.

Meanwhile, MSIL, the largest passenger car manufacturer in India, will soon introduce 0 per cent interest EMI options and discounts on its hot selling models, Alto, Swift and DZire.

This would come in step with the general trend prevalent in the auto industry today, which is seeing declining sales and MSIL was also facing the heat, which had already resulted in unscheduled days off at their Gurgaon and Manesar plants.

With declining demand, the company needed to adjust production accordingly.

The falling demand had forced the company to introduce a series of attractive schemes to attract customers, including zero down-payments, EMI holidays, buy back options and the chance to drive out of the company showroom in an Alto, Swift or DZire no upfront payment.

According to The Financial Express, Maruti Suzuki India would soon be introducing these offers across all their dealers in India.

Buyback options were a guarantee offered to the customer of getting a predetermined value at the time of exchange of his vehicle for another Maruti model after duration of three to five years.