How a dealer earns. A car dealer is an independent business, appointed by the carmaker to sell and service its cars in one area. It earns in several ways:

• selling new cars
• taking old cars in part-exchange, and selling used cars
• arranging car loans and insurance for buyers, for a commission
• servicing and repairing cars, and selling spare parts

Much of a dealer's profit comes from service, parts and finance, not from the new car itself.

The dealer's software. At the centre is the dealer management system, or DMS. It runs the whole dealership: every car in stock, every sale, every service appointment and repair job, every part, and the accounts. A dealer rarely replaces its DMS, because the whole business runs on it. Around the DMS sit other tools:

• a CRM, which follows up every enquiry and every past customer (More on CRM in Market Segment 14.1, CRM software, in Industry Vertical 14, CRM and sales tech.)
• websites, online showrooms and configurators, where a buyer chooses a model, colour and options on screen
• software for the service department, which books appointments and takes payment

The dealer's software: the dealer management system runs the whole dealership, from stock and sales to service jobs, parts and the accounts, with a CRM, online showrooms, service-department software and collision estimating around it.

Repairing a crashed car. After a crash, the insurer and the repair workshop must agree on the cost. Collision-estimating software knows every part of every model, and the time each repair takes, so the estimate is quick and hard to argue with.

Used cars and auctions. A dealer does not keep every old car it takes in. It sells many of them to other dealers at wholesale auctions, now mostly held online. Cars that insurers write off after an accident, because repair would cost too much, are sold at salvage auctions, for parts or for rebuilding. Dealers often borrow to pay for the cars on their lots, and repay each loan when the car is sold.

Where old cars go: cars taken in part-exchange are sold to other dealers at online wholesale auctions, and cars that insurers write off are sold at salvage auctions, for parts or for rebuilding.

Where the market is. The market is led by American companies, and they build a large share of their software in India.

Every company named here has posted software engineering jobs in India. Famous companies that don't actively hire software engineers in India are left out.

This Market Segment has two sub-segments: