Autodistribution turns to SQLI for the management of its digital assets

Autodistribution is the leading independent distributor of spare parts for cars and HGVs in France. It also runs the biggest French network of multi-brand garages and body shops. SQLI has assisted Autodistribution since 2012 and is now becoming one of its business partners to help manage and develop the group's digital assets.   

A partnership built on trust

SQLI has worked with Autodistribution on various digital projects since 2012:

• Overhaul of its corporate websites (ad.fr, autodistribution.fr and autodistribution.com);
• Creation and third-party application maintenance of garage pages on ad.fr (referencing of garage owners and information about garages);
• Third-party applications maintenance of several applications, such as Superref (data aggregator and catalogue production) and Autodoc (catalogue of data for spare parts and vehicles).
   

Having demonstrated a high level of service quality and great commitment from its teams, year after year, SQLI was selected at the end of 2018 to assist Autodistribution with the digital roadmap for its B2B and B2C applications. It has also been entrusted with the management of all its digital assets.

"The key to our partnership is a relationship of trust. SQLI fully masters our technology environment and applications, and it understands our business and technical challenges equally well," Yann Gagnepain, EBusiness Solutions Director
 

Autossimo: a first challenge successfully met

Autossimo is a strategic application for Autodistribution. This B2B e-commerce platform enables the 10,500 member garage owners to order spare parts on a daily basis, with the guarantee of being able to identify the correct vehicle and spare part, as well as receive several deliveries per day.

SQLI's teams in France and Morocco took over management of its suite of applications at the end of 2018 and now support the brand's growth objectives. SQLI ensures the platform's reliability, quality and performance with an agile approach and technology solutions such as:

• (automated functional tests)
• (code quality tests)
• (performance monitoring)
• Gitlab CI (continuous deployment)
   

SQLI has also worked on improving the quality of code and clearing the technical debt: "We now have a robust and secure application. It is perfectly suited to our clients' needs, providing them with a fast and reliable response to their requests, thanks to a very efficient search engine," adds Yann Gagnepain.

Autossimo's performance is reflected by significant sales growth (12% increase in 2019 and 16% by the end of September 2020), as well as a 14% increase in the number of user clients, despite the months of lockdown due to the Covid-19 crisis.  
 

New projects on the horizon

In addition to its operational support and technical competencies, the SQLI Group brings Autodistribution a technology and business vision, so that the brand can transform and adapt to the future challenges of its market. The services provided by SQLI's teams also include agile and UX support, in order to enhance Autodistribution's digital experience.SQLI is currently working on new projects:

• An overhaul of the technology (eZ Platform CMS) and graphics of its website cora.auto.fr
• A new version of the website ad.fr
• The creation of a site factory for the Group's brands