LSH Autos has been a well-renowned car dealership offering exceptional service for 45-plus years. Throughout its history, LSH Autos has prided itself on the “LSH promise.” This promise revolves around an ethos of providing an industry-leading service for its customers.

It operates over 140 Mercdez-Benz dealerships globally and has 6 UK branches. These aim to embody the LSH promise of continuous improvement. Part of this ethos is using the best tech to provide customers with the best possible experience.

With this in mind, LSH Autos started working with Darwin to find a new telecom solution for LSH and improve its cybersecurity systems. The project was a success, and LSH was able to introduce new systems.

However, given LSH’s autos ethos of continuous improvement, they weren’t looking for a temporary fix. LSH Autos needed a partner who could continually provide the expertise to develop their tech infrastructure, improve their internal processes, and ultimately provide a better customer experience.

LSH saw its competitors innovating and recognised that staying stationary simply wasn’t good enough.

What Were LSH Autos Looking For?

LSH Autos was looking for a technical partner who would focus on more than just implementing a solution to a one-off problem. While a structured and organised procurement process was the bare minimum, LSH needed solutions to evolve and support its business.

They needed a partner who saw their technical evolution as an opportunity to develop and grow their company internally and externally, not just as a box for them to tick.

LSH knew there were opportunities to improve, like the cost-efficiency of their mobile platform and improvements to their physical security solutions. They also wanted to provide opportunities for their staff through the next-gen CIO program.

The problem was they needed a partner who would go through the process with them.

What Was The Solution?

Given Darwin’s previous work with LSH, they knew that Darwin could provide the expert consultation needed to achieve their goals.

Darwin worked in a consultant role with LSH to translate their goals into real short-term and long-term solutions. However, they also kept solutions realistic and sustainable.

“I was surprised by how Darwin is able to both monitor and understand our limitations, change is essential for growth, but manageable change is essential to avoid failure.”

Chris Gensmantel, CIO of LSH Autos.

In practice, this meant understanding that sometimes wholesale change isn’t always the answer and advising on tech solutions that could drive LSH forward without delivering them with unnecessary processes that would weigh their business down.

Ultimately, Darwin put the relationship first to help maintain LSH Autos’ position as an industry leader in the UK.

Outcome

By working with Darwin, LSH introduced a new infrastructure platform that was fast and reliable and, most importantly, developed a base for future innovation.

LSH and Darwin are now working together to find new and innovative solutions that can improve the effectiveness and speed of their operations, both internally and externally.

Similarly, LSH has now been able to begin implementing Deloitte’s Next Gen CIO program, allowing their employees to develop and take advantage of their in-house talent.

More importantly than any one solution, LSH Autos has developed a true working relationship through its work with Darwin. With expert advice, it can drive forward without worrying about being sold tech it doesn’t need.

“Working with Darwin as an independent consultancy took a lot of pressure off us, as we could just focus on our needs.

It’s nice to have the advice of someone that’s not trying to sell you something when you’re making these decisions, and Darwin have a breadth of market access that would take me or my team weeks to research.”

-Chris Gensmantel, LSH Autos UK

If you’d like to chat about Darwin’s consultancy services, please get in touch at +44 (0)7802347987 or email us on DeclanMcKee@Darwin-Tech.com