The firm's founder, Brian Doherty, has embraced aspects of IT that are easy to implement but effective in driving his business forward. The company website, www.bpcars.ie, has been crucial in enabling the business to make such rapid progress, and its easy-to-use content management system (CMS) has enabled Doherty to keep information up-to-date with little difficulty.
Revving up
The company website was developed by web design firm Webbery around three years ago. The site was created with a CMS that enabled Doherty to update it himself and to ensure the information on cars and other vehicles for sale was always current.
Although Doherty's expertise is in the area of car sales and not IT, he had no trouble getting up-and-running with the CMS. "The site was my own idea and design; Webbery delivered it. I told them what I needed and they installed a CMS so I could put up information whenever I wanted," says Doherty. "I do most of the updating myself. It's easy to use and it's straightforward enough that my [teenage] children can help me with it if I'm busy."
The firm's website uses a simple layout that is easy for customers to navigate. The site contains images and basic information on all vehicles that are for sale. Potential customers can find out about the price, age and mileage of vehicles, as well as see a range of photos of selected cars and vans -- in greater size and detail than a newspaper or magazine ad would allow.
Online and offline
While B.P. Cars' website offers a means to see cars in greater detail than print media, the firm still uses offline advertising to attract business. That said, the primary aim of its print ads is to entice customers to visit the website so they can learn more about the vehicles on offer.
"We run weekly newspaper ads and we have ads two or three times each month in Auto Trader magazine. A lot of people read the newspapers and then go online to learn more before making a visit [to the premises]," says Doherty. Indeed, cars have become one of the top items researched online by consumers before making purchasing decisions.
The use of search engine optimisation has also helped draw traffic to the firm's website. SEO helps websites get noticed by search engines such as Google. "B.P. Cars comes up very high in rankings on search engines," says Doherty. The site is the top result in a Google search for the term "commercial vehicles Donegal".
The website has helped draw in business from as far afield as the US. "We had an enquiry from someone in New York looking for a van. He was coming to Ireland and setting up a carpentry business in Meath so he found the van on our website and then bought it when he arrived in Ireland," says Doherty.
Sharing information
In addition to attracting online enquiries from consumers, B.P. Cars uses ICT to better communicate with other businesses. "We criss-cross emails a lot with our contacts in the UK," says Doherty. "We might get a query about a car or a van from one of our contacts in the UK. I can pull up the information on our system and see if we have it. Likewise, if a customer contacts us looking for a specific vehicle I can source it online and see if one of our UK contacts has it."
Speed bumps
While B.P. Cars has embraced technology in order to develop its business, the Donegal-based firm has until now been somewhat limited in its ability to make the most of online commerce. "We don't have broadband where we are based and as a result it can be time-consuming trying to maintain the website," says Doherty.
Help is at hand though and the firm should soon be able to make strides online due to improvements in the local communications infrastructure. "We're in the process of getting broadband and we hope to be broadband-ready in a few weeks."
The B.P. Cars founder says using broadband will make it easier to reap the benefits of his CMS and website. He advises other firms to look into the opportunities offered by CMS software. "If you're not using it you're missing out. It can help any business to keep customers informed," he says.
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