Maserati has selected an e-procurement platform from online procurement specialist Ebbon-Dacs for all its dealers throughout the country in a bid to increase its presence in the UK corporate market, while supporting its dealer network.

Under the terms of a new two year-contract, the introduction of Leaselink will see Maserati GB to move to a central ordering function, using Leaselink as a hub from which it allocates new vehicle orders to its network of 18 franchised dealers across the country.

Graeme Jenkins, national corporate sales manager of Maserati GB, said the reason for setting up the system in this way was to provide a better overview of all new vehicle orders and greater transparency on where they were being delivered, in line with a new local supply policy.

“Maserati firmly believes that our customers expect a complete, quality showroom experience in the handover of their new cars, at a dealership that is local to them and with whom they can then develop an ongoing relationship,” said Jenkins.

“We therefore wanted to see all new vehicle orders for ourselves and ensure that we could then allocate them to the most appropriate local dealership to that corporate customer. We gave Ebbon-Dacs a brief to design us a new bespoke distribution model using Leaselink as a hub that was completely in line with this local supply approach.

“We also contacted the major companies in the contract hire and leasing industry to ensure they were comfortable with us taking this approach, and the overwhelming majority of them supported this strategy and understood fully our reasons for adopting it.”

To ensure all the Maserati dealers fully understood how to use Leaselink, which is used to source and deliver around 140,000 vehicles a year, Ebbon-Dacs introduced a training program for all Maserati dealer staff across the network who would be using the system on a regular basis.

The company is now forecasting continued growth in new vehicle orders in 2015, led by the Ghibli saloon, with sales predicted to increase from over 1,200 sold in 2014 to around 1,800 by the end of this year.

“We see the online ordering of our vehicles as a significant development in the evolution of the network as we continue to grow our presence in the UK corporate market,” said Jenkins.