I am always curious to understand what corporate process on earth can take a decade to be rebuilt. It can be complex but not that complex. Particularly something like car dealership. We are not talking about some super diverse supply chain and interfacing with lots of different hardware, etc.
The key point in the GP is nobody really understood how it worked anymore. No matter how accessible the domain generally might seem, once a system becomes a mysterious black box sans documentation or continuing expertise then no CIO is prepared to sign off the migration, for fear of missing a business rule or special case.
I've been the guy that left taking all the knowledge with him, years later learning that they've lost the documentation & the source code but the system is still running.
I've seen this occur in other domains (finance and education sectors) and basically the black box hangs on until either the unit, or the entire business, ceases to exist.
I did see one project that attempted a like-for-like reimplementation via a carve-out process and it was a decade-long gigadollar boondoggle that has basically crippled the enterprise that tried it.
I think you'd be surprised at what goes into running a dealership. The software is complex with a lot of dependencies.
You have a full parts/warehouse inventory system and invoicing internally and to other mechanics. A service system (including rosters and timesheets) and it's own invoicing system to customers. You need a vehicle module to manage all the local laws and taxes as well as interfacing with manufacturer systems for models and options (which are God awful undocumented weird binary formats over long dead networks - sometimes hardwired through parts of the phone companies that even they don't know they have anymore) so you can sell to customers.
So that's 3 different invoicing systems to start. It all needs to be underpinned with an extremely flexible accounting system in the back end because every dealer does stuff differently but all of those things are related. The parts department sells to the service department at a discount; the service department prepares new vehicles for sale (called pre-delivery) and bonuses and rebates occur through each step.
You need to import a lot more data covering log book service information and parts catalogs. And lots of reports for those car companies and online sellers and more.
Some of that isn't exactly a programmers problem but the breadth of the issue and lack of generalised knowledge sources (and how every car manufacturer does things completely differently), it's a minefield to keep one going let alone building a new one.
Consequently most of the world runs on only 2 or 3 systems and they're all ancient and generally the companies that develop them are awful and treat customers like garbage. There's a lot of vendor lock in and manufacturers fighting each other.
Car dealerships have a tough job. Also their accountants are near God level skills wise.
Anyway I don't think I answered your question. Yes I also don't know exactly what happened but yeah it was a disaster that only happened to work out because of millions of dollars. Once it WAS ready though money started flowing in because dealers are desperate to get away from the existing awful vendors. On the other hand each wanted so much custom functionality that it led to work pipelines planned years in advance by the time I left - and that doesn't make for happy customers either.
It takes a minimum of 7 years to design from scratch, develop, test then settle in a "simple" customized order and inventory processing system, sans a WMS and picking component.
The "services" people subscribe to when setting up some kind of shopping cart on their Web site are neither complex nor highly customizable. Most importantly, they offer no opportunity what-so-ever to purchase a guaranteed delivery + guaranteed execution service.
When an order from a dealer (doesn't matter what automotive area) leaves their Business System, it is no longer their responsibility. It is the responsibility of the badge (Freightliner, Harley, Toyota, etc.) That order, which can be hundreds of thousands of dollars each and every day, must completely pass through the badge system, routing out to warehouses, vendors, distributors and manufacturing schedules, without ever being lost no matter what fails.
This is a completely different business model than Criminal-Net sales where people complain about the billions of dollars worth of "abandoned shopping carts" each year. By and large these are not "abandoned shopping carts." These are the symptom of a poorly designed system built with feeble tools. Something FAILED and the consumer went to a different site to place their order.
Blade and rack mount servers are built with inferior hardware. Their entire premise is the swarm principle.
Many will die, but some will survive.
Each and every time one of the many die, the customer leaves. Some sites have tried to "fix" this problem by sending you emails every few hours for days about the things "you forgot in your cart." This isn't a fix. This is an alcoholic refusing to admit they have more than a drinking problem.
