Turning raw data into information

Despite the massive effects of the global economic recession on the auto industry, AuDaCon’s expectations were exceeded at the 2010 Automechanika Frankfurt, held in September 2010 in Germany, with over 1 200 guests being hosted at the AuDaCon booth.

“The interest of the trade visitors in our products was unexpectedly large,” says AuDaCon CEO, Rolf Wuehrl. AuDaCon is a European-wide operating information specialist for the automotive industry. Raw data and information is processed and analysed by AuDaCon to meet the information needs of every sector of the automobile and spare parts industry, service companies, fleets, insurances, credit grantors and lessors.

Wuehrl is convinced that the growing importance of technical data for the automotive industry was reflected in the positive feedback at Automechanika. The newly-introduced AuDaConControl and the technical database AuDaConAIS were the main products of interest for visitors, in addition to AuDaConCOO, the cost-of-ownership solution, and numerous other field-tested products.

The renewal in interest of automotive products is not confined to Germany, as was demonstrated by the colorful mix of languages heard at the booth. In amongst them were representatives of automotive companies from the Netherlands, Italy, and France; representatives of German car repair shop concepts, and the head of the Romanian car body association. The open exhibition booth area was larger than ever before with a floor area of 240m². Nevertheless, the four separate conference rooms were fully booked, with many discussions continuing into the evening activities at the Mainz Hotel.

But the visitors did more than just talk; the data specialists from Weikersheim reported sales of almost half a million Euros during the entire exhibition. All guests of the AuDaCon booth were granted a gift of a little black sheep which has become the company’s mascot. Wuehrl explained the significance of the woolen four-legged symbol: “Like a black sheep in a flock of white ones, we stand out from the majority with our unique products and services.”

Over 155,000 visitors from 180 countries visited Automechanika Frankfurt this year, with a 5% increase in non-German visitors from the previous event. President of the Federation of the German Motor Vehicle Trade, Robert Rademacher, said in a press release that “after the financial and economic crisis with its negative impact on the motor-vehicle sector,

Automechanika has given us some positive indications of the recovery. The mood in the motor vehicle trades has definitely improved. The quality of business deals is on the up, though there is room for improvement in terms of quantity. All in all, we are very happy with the way things have gone at the fair and take away with us some very positive stimuli for the medium term.”