VDS Automotive Group Launches Application in 3 Months with Mendix and AWS at the Wheel

VDS Automotive Group helps customers import and export cars to and from the Netherlands. However, moving vehicles from one country can be complicated, as all cars must be inspected and taxed based on local jurisdictions. For many years, VDS relied on spreadsheets and emails to track documents and the status of each customer’s vehicle. But that approach lacked a centralized view of all vehicles that all departments could access. Aiming to digitize its processes, the VDS team turned to AWS Partner Mendix to accelerate its software delivery and used AWS services to augment its solutions. In just three months, VDS launched its first application with Mendix—an online portal.

As a small company, VDS has made a big name for itself as an automotive service provider that addresses customers’ import, export, and wholesale needs. Based in the Netherlands, VDS has operated since 1999 and worked with countries around the world. While the company accrued many satisfied customers, VDS leadership sought to modernize its processes to deliver a better customer experience. Historically, VDS used spreadsheets to track the progress of each vehicle as it was registered in a new country then shipped. Aspects such as make, model, and mileage were recorded, but different cars often required unique documents or notes. Because everything was handled manually, details were sometimes omitted, making it difficult to confirm the location and status of a vehicle, or whether work had been invoiced. “With spreadsheets, if you type in a vehicle identification number wrong, it’s a big mistake,” said Jay Cadogan, Mendix developer at VDS. “And we were typing that number into several different applications.”

When VDS set out to digitize this process, the team looked for a solution that could handle speed and complexity. “We needed a system that was flexible enough to keep up with our daily changes,” said Lourens Akkerman, IT manager at VDS. “Being able to integrate with other parties was also a factor.”

The VDS IT team looked at off-the-shelf systems and building something in-house using PHP, but after seeing AWS Partner Mendix and Amazon Web Services (AWS) in action, they were sold. “When I first saw Mendix, I was very much impressed,” Akkerman said. “We could tell it would be easier for us to make changes quickly.” As a low-code application development platform, Mendix enabled the IT team to build their first application—an import portal—in just three months. Mendix was such a hit that the IT team built several subsequent applications and has more in the works.

When VDS launched its import portal, the application transformed back-office processes as well as the customer experience. The portal now manages the entire import process—from initial price quotes to the end invoice. It also communications with the vehicle registration department in the Netherlands and integrates with the company’s bookkeeping solution. “Now we have insight into the complete process for all vehicles,” Akkerman said. Before, customers had to reach out to VDS through a web form and wait for a response. Or they called and spoke with a sales representative to check on the status of their vehicle. Now, customers simply log in and find the information they’re looking for—whenever they want, in seconds.

As usage of the portal grew, the IT team began looking for more robust document storage options and decided on Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3). “We launched our application in the Mendix Cloud and pretty quickly we had documents piling up,” Akkerman said. “We needed to archive them for tax purposes and by storing them in Amazon S3, we can keep our application lean and mean.” Using the pre-built AWS connector for Amazon S3 made the integration easy by turning it into a low-code experience.

Following the success of the import portal, the VDS team went on to create more applications using Mendix, including a BPM tax calculator. This application calculates the BPM import tax that customers need to pay when bringing a vehicle into the Netherlands, and how much they receive when exporting vehicles. “Using Mendix, we built an application in just a few weeks that gives customers a fast, accurate tax calculation,” Akkerman said. “They don’t have to call the tax office or type in a lot of information.” For a streamlined experience, the VDS team used Amazon Rekognition. Customers simply take a picture of their license plate, then the application merges that information with public data to calculate the BPM tax.

And finally, the VDS team is also using Mendix to build a custom enterprise resource planning (ERP) system that spans all internal processes—from purchase to shipping. The application includes a customer relationship management (CRM) system that captures sales and invoicing information. For logistics, the application will track shipment of cars and use Amazon Rekognition so that staff can take a picture of the truck’s license plate to confirm its location. If the car undergoes maintenance or repairs, any work orders will also be logged, and the application will use Amazon Textract to pull data from PDF documents. “Mendix allows us to build our custom ERP and integrate modern AWS services like Amazon Rekognition,” Akkerman said. “With this new system, we’ll be able to automate a lot of tasks we’ve always done manually and bring together systems to help grow VDS.”