IAS News and Press
Automotive Add-Ons
Innovative Aftermarket Systems drives sales of products after the car purchase
Dec 3, 2003
Remi Bello - Special to the Austin Business Journal
This article is reprinted from the Austin Business Journal, Volume 23, October 24, 2003, Top 50 Fastest Growing Companies, page B8.
View a printable version of this article (.pdf)
When Dallas automotive industry veteran Jerry Lacour founded Innovative Aftermarket Systems L.P. in 1984, all he had was $1,000 in personal savings and rock-solid will.
In 1989, his son, Garret Lacour, a Loyola University of New Orleans graduate, would join the entrepreneurial bandwagon that is IAS, effectively a one-stop shop for the add-ons after you buy a vehicle - from antitheft security devices to warranty processing.
In industry lingo, the business is called "aftermarket automotive programs." And the Lacours are called innovators in that business.
With Garret in the fold, the question became where to call home. Jerry favored Dallas. Garret thought otherwise.
"Let's move to Austin," Garret insisted. "It's a lot nicer place to live."
Austin stuck, and so has IAS.
Twenty-two years later, the Lacours' invention, which today sits on 40 acres in Leander, has blossomed into a $50 million powerhouse that is literally defining an ever-evolving automotive aftermarket industry.
"[The Lacours] were relentless in their pursuit of success," says Bob Corbin, IAS president. "They both had interests in car dealerships. They are very dynamic people."
IAS, which has multimillion-dollar agreements with 3M Corp., AON Group, Great American Insurance and the National Insurance Crime Bureau, manufactures aftermarket products and software programs that help companies keep better transaction records and provide stronger customer service.
It's a crucial sector for car dealerships. Happy customers lead to invaluable customer service scores, which, in turn, keep dealership doors open to potential buyers.
"Customer protection produces more business," Corbin says.
It was with this entrepreneurial spirit that the Lacours founded IAS in the 1980s, and this customer-first marketing philosophy remains the company's cornerstone secret to success, according to Corbin.
"We have this very simple strategy," he says. "And we simply execute that strategy."
In 2000, IAS recorded $19 million in net sales. Those numbers rose to $32 million in 2001 and a whopping $50 million in 2002, despite an unimpressive overall economy. IAS' average revenue growth in those three years was 59 percent, ranking No. 3 on the Top 50 list.
At a time when automobile sales across the industry are down by nearly 3 percent, IAS is 10 percent ahead in revenue dollars of where it was at this time last year.
In an era of increasing customer litigation against car dealerships over controversial and shaky post-sale transactions, the need arose for closer and more reliable transaction monitoring to check both unscrupulous car dealers and sometimes forgetful customers.
"Our goal is to improve upon the legal aspect of the business and the way the customer looks at the dealer," says Matt Nowicki, IAS director of information technology.
To do this, IAS has developed an array of popular software applications called SmartDealerProducts - SmartTrac, SmartMenu and SmartEye, which are in use at more than 700 dealerships in the nation. More than 2,500 dealers nationwide have a relationship with IAS.
"There are about 20,000 car dealers in the U.S.," Nowicki says. "If we have just 700 of them, we've only just begun."
SmartTrac is a computer-based, state-of-the-art graphic presentation system that dealers use to pitch product information to consumers. The system delivers a virtual tour of the dealership to each customer at the point of automobile delivery.
SmartMenu is menu-selling software that calculates payment options based on finance amounts, loan percentage rates and warranty products purchased.
To ensure proper disclosure and quality assurance, the SmartEye video and audio capturing system digitally records and archives business transactions within the dealership in full-color video for liability protection. Recordings are then simply burned onto a CD-ROM or archived in a searchable database, so when customers call to complain, their claims can be reviewed by recordings of time spent at the negotiating table.
IAS also offers traditional aftermarket products, ranging from Theft Avert Window Etch to GAP Insurance, which helps fill "gaps" caused by an insurance company's decreased valuation of a customer's car in lieu of an accident.
Corbin attributes IAS' continuing success to a cost-effective strategy, using IAS software products to advertise and market its traditional core products and vice versa.
"The carrot was the software, but the only way [car dealerships] would continue to do business with us was with our core products," he says.
Despite the steady dose of success, IAS executives say challenges are ahead.
"Our greatest challenge is to innovate our software so as to stay ahead of our competitors, who are rapidly trying to duplicate what we do," Corbin says. "To continue to succeed, we also have to get the company positioned to handle growth from a marketing and sales standpoint."
If current and past trends are anything to go by, IAS should be on pace to deliver yet another year of solid business, and its top executives expect nothing less.
"We're headed in a good direction and we have all the momentum going into 2004," Corbin says.
REMI BELLO is an Austin-based freelance writer.
About IAS
Innovative Aftermarket Systems (IAS) is the leading provider of F&I aftermarket programs to automotive dealerships. IAS offers a variety of products including, GAP, Invisible Phantom Footprints, Theft Avert, Super Polysteel, The Preferred Advantage, R.O.A.D. InTire, among others. Additionally, IAS' flagship software suite, SmartDealerProducts, provides revolutionary F&I software solutions for dealerships and their customers. IAS' training department, SmartDealerUniversity, provides ongoing training and feedback to ensure continued penetration, ethical presentations and increased profits for IAS dealership customers. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, IAS has hundreds of certified agents throughout the United States and provides technology solutions and aftermarket products for many of the top-100 dealer groups. For more information, please visit www.iasdirect.com.