IT IS a long way from mainframe computers with their big reel-to-reel systems, buffering, key-punch cards and circuitry containing millions of dollars of recoverable precious metals to arrive in the world of today where server farms across the planet talk to smart devices out of thin air.

These servers have an electric appetite the size of a small city and perform in nano-seconds  the 24/7 miracles of processing and storage in what everyone now refers to as the cloud.

This is the journey just travelled by Pentana Solutions which celebrates its 50th birthday this year.

Computer room old tape drives

The company has chosen this milestone to reflect on its role in the creation of the world of the digital dealer in Australia where bits and bytes have replaced paper Daily Operations Control (DOC) sheets that once tracked on-going business operations by eraser and lead pencil and sat front and centre on the DP’s desk. 

There were blackboards in the sales offices tracking sales, prospects and sales performances (not even whiteboards or sticky notes then) with index cards controlling each car in stock and its progress through the sales process. There were paper forms everywhere. In parts and service there were manual repair orders and invoicing whereas now service is booked online and payments are made by SMS. Completely paperless.

Over five decades Pentana Solutions has played a role in modernising dealership management by bringing vital information to management’s fingertips and has ushered in a new era (pun intended) of operational control in dealerships.

In doing so it has maintained its market leadership in the face of the cut and thrust of robust and innovative competitors. 

2001 Pentana Directors

The CEO of Pentana Solutions, Steve Kloss, told GoAutoNews Premium: “A big system used to have 16 users connected to one server; whereas today our largest customers run over 6000 users from one server.

“Consider running a dealership today with no internet, no email and manual stock cards for each new and used vehicle – through to internet kiosks, digital showrooms and people purchasing vehicles through digital demonstration with electronic contracts. 

“Back when we started ‘a cloud’ was a thing in the sky. Today it is the engine room that drives all of our products and services. 

“Think for a moment about only telephone-based leads, showroom walk-ins and newspaper advertising – compared to innovations we have delivered as the originator of carsales.com, CRM lead management and centralised business development centres. 

“Being at the forefront of every one of these innovations has truly shaped the way our industry operates and has helped provide us a first-to-market competitive advantage,” Mr Kloss said. 

These days Pentana Solutions  maintains a global presence spanning Europe, Asia, and Australia. It operates in 13 countries and serves more than 54,000 users. In the process Pentana Solutions has become a clearing house of innovations to its worldwide customer base. 

The company says that it has a presence in more than 80 countries and this enables it to track trends in the various markets and apply them where they could make a difference in other markets.

Mr Kloss said: “We are at the forefront of what is driving the automotive industry in each one of these countries. Therefore, the trends that are operating in the Italian market; or the momentum shifts that are influencing Thailand, the Philippines or Indonesia; or the way parts are traded in the Middle East, are all centralised by being a Pentana Solutions customer. 

“When we deal with a distributor in the United States, we get the opportunity to understand the role technology is playing for them whilst ensuring that all these influences form part of the Pentana Solutions innovation family. 

Pentana Solutions is a privately held company. The original shareholders – Wal Pisciotta, Greg Roebuck, Grant Taylor, Rod Dux, Peter Aitken – are still involved with the business today. 

Geoff Brady and Wal Pisciotta

The company put down its roots here when Holden wanted Computerised Automotive Reporting Services (CARS) out of Birmingham Alabama to bring the CARS Management Accounting system to Australia for GMH dealers.

Data was transmitted to the ICS-CARS mainframes for overnight processing of daily operating control reporting for dealers. Within a couple of years CARS installed its first mainframe in its Melbourne head office offering bureau services to its Australian customers. Pretty soon it was managing the pulling of parts for dealers.

Names came and went. CARS became the Dyatron Corporation and then US-based Reynolds & Reynolds bought Dyatron and, out of all that, what became Pentana Solutions today ran for 15 years under the Reynolds & Reynolds brand (This arrangement ended when the rights to use the Reynolds name expired).

Dealer management services were added along the way, the most notable of which was Carsales.

In the mid-1990s, in a bid to automate a link between internet stock listings and dealer management system stock controls, the solution devised by Greg Roebuck was rolled out as Carsales (now Cars Group) which is a multinational internet-based corporation with a current market capitalisation of $12.4 billion.