From 19 minutes to 2: how Group 1 Automotive took the double keying out of parts orders
Group 1 Automotive is one of the world's largest dealer groups. In the UK it supplies genuine trade parts for more than 20 brands to independent bodyshops, MSOs and mechanical workshops. With Partly, its trade parts teams now process a repairer order in about 2 minutes, down from 19.
Customer stories
Supplier
“Partly has created significant operational efficiencies for us and reduced our time to process an order from 19 minutes to 2 minutes.”
The challenge: genuine parts, lost on friction
Trade parts is a high-volume, low-margin business. Every minute a parts adviser spends on one order is a minute they can't spend on the next.
Before Partly, most trade orders at Group 1 arrived by phone, WhatsApp or email. Each one meant the same routine:
- Take the order down from a call or message.
- Look up every part in the manufacturer catalogue to check fitment and availability.
- Type it all into the dealer management system again.
On a busy day one branch could handle more than 400 individual parts, much of it keyed in twice. Its largest bodyshop customer sent more than 10 orders a day for a single brand. Complex collision orders took the longest, and every wrong part meant a return, another van run and a repairer waiting and a fractured relationship based on level of accuracy.
That friction costs dealers more than time. When genuine parts are slower to order than aftermarket, repairers go elsewhere, even when the genuine part is the better one.
“It's also meant far fewer phone calls and emails from repairers, and Interpreter AI has substantially reduced the time we spend validating parts.”
The solution: orders that arrive ready to process
Group 1 connected its UK trade parts branches to Partly. Repairers now order genuine parts in the workflow they already use for their jobs, and the order reaches the right Group 1 branch without a phone call.
What changed for the parts team:
- Most parts arrive already checked. Interpreter, Partly's frontier AI model that understands repair, matches each part to the vehicle by VIN, resolving supersessions and fitment before the order lands. Parts it validates get a green tick; anything it can't confirm is flagged for the team to check, so manual checks are reserved for the exceptions.
- No double entry. Orders come in structured and ready to process, with no copying from calls, texts or emails.
- Orders route to the right site. Partly sends each order to the correct branch by make, while billing stays consolidated at group level.
- Connected to the DMS. Partly links to Group 1's Keyloop dealer management system, so orders flow into the systems the team already runs.
- The network brings repairers in. Group 1 branches have asked Partly to onboard their own bodyshop and mechanical workshop customers, and Group 1 is connected to MSO networks already ordering through Partly.
The results
- Faster orders. Order processing time dropped from 19 minutes to 2, roughly 90% less. On a branch handling dozens of trade orders a day, that frees hours of adviser time every week.
- Quieter phones. Repairers can see and order parts themselves, so the call and email volume that used to fill the trade counter has fallen sharply.
- Less time in the catalogue. Interpreter AI has substantially reduced the time spent validating parts. The team checks only the items it flags, and spends the rest of its time selling and dispatching.
- A growing repairer base. More than 80 repairer sites now order from Group 1 through Partly, and many buy from several branches.
What's next
Group 1 is extending Partly beyond collision into service, maintenance and repair (SMR), so that independent specialists can buy genuine parts from its branches as easily as bodyshops do.