“Moving forward,” CDK mentioned, “we expect to enable insurance service providers to provide insurance solutions in a more scalable way via our broad network of independent software vendors (ISVs) and our open platform.”
A non-public firm since late 2022, CDK didn’t disclose what number of jobs, if any, had been affected by the choice.
CDK’s transfer to wind down Salty comes as the corporate pursues its ongoing “fit and focus” technique to reorganize and increase effectivity. That has included job cuts and a call introduced in March to outsource an undisclosed variety of its workers onto Genpact, a worldwide enterprise course of firm.
CDK acquired Salty in late 2021, gaining a Salt Lake City firm that permit customers purchase auto insurance coverage digitally whereas additionally shopping for a car. The thought was that auto insurance coverage might change into a brand new income stream for auto retailers, giving them further methods to attach with clients as soon as they purchased a car. A 12 months in the past, CDK CEO Brian MacDonald mentioned he was “fully supportive” of Salty, an organization based in 2019.
In 2021, Salty labored with simply over 500 franchised dealerships and mentioned it will accomplice with Asbury Automotive Group Inc. to incorporate Salty’s insurance coverage expertise inside Asbury’s Clicklane digital retailing platform.
Automotive News couldn’t instantly attain Asbury in regards to the standing of that mission.
Jim Maxfield is Salty’s former chief gross sales officer, whose Purple Insurance merged with the startup earlier than CDK acquired it and he departed. Maxfield mentioned Salty’s demise is no surprise.
“The notion of embedded insurance … is proving not to be successful in retail automotive,” Maxfield informed Automotive News. “The idea of taking a customer through the car-buying process and getting them to land on payment and then having the dealer say, ‘Oh, by the way, there’s more money involved called ‘car insurance,’ I think it gets in the way of selling a car.”
Source: www.autonews.com