GLOBAL plans to accelerate collaboration in the automotive industry were put into gear at an event near Whitchurch this week.

CDK Global, an automotive dealership software provider, kicked off its national roadshow on Monday with a visit to Motor Documents Solutions, in Litchfield.

The roadshow is celebrating the launch of CDK Global’s International Partner Programme, of which Motor Documents Solutions is a part.

The programme aims to offer partners new, international business opportunities and Monday’s roadshow event allowed Motor Documents Solutions to learn more about the next phase of the programme.

Jonathan Hales, UK partner manager at CDK, stressed the importance of companies working together to provide services of benefit to customers.

He said: “The industry is quite behind in terms of how things join together.

“There are lots of solutions out there but none of them join together. These things should be able to talk to each other.

“The danger is the market could be quite fragmented if we are not careful.”

Motor Documents Solutions provides cost-saving technologies for the automotive industry through its flagship iDealFILE platform. The cloud-based software turns paper records into electronic, digitally-signed data, helping customers’ productivity, compliance and environmental performance.

Richie Kelk, managing director at Motor Documents Solutions, says his company has worked with CDK before but this is the first time their partnership has been formalised.

“We have worked with CDK for a lot of years,” he said, “So we know the product and we are obviously trying to build that relationship to leverage the benefits that both parties can get.”

Alistair Jeff, head of CDK’s partner programme, said: “The UK automotive sector is generally really innovative and forward thinking. There are lots of people like Richie who are able to deliver this to market.”

“And we’ve obviously started off with the best here.” he added.