Technology Newsmaker Q&A: Andrew Rosen, Fuse5 Automotive Software
Earlier this year, Fuse5 Automotive Software announced that Andrew Rosen had joined the firm as director of strategic growth and development. Rosen’s father works for Parts Authority, so he literally grew up in a parts store. He later worked for Parts Authority himself as a district and regional manager. He also worked for Cincinnati-based Smyth Automotive as director of marketing.
What do you see as the biggest technology challenges faced by the aftermarket? As with anything in life, the biggest challenges is the people. People don’t like change. A new piece of technology has been designed, nine out of ten times, to improve workflow, to improve your life, to make your business more efficient. In our industry, people -- and I’m painting with a broad brush – are fairly resistant to change. The owner of parts authority is one of those innovative people who was willing to implement change for the sake of growth, and I learned a lot from him about that perspective.
Where do you see opportunities for technology to help the aftermarket?
Warehousing is always pain point in my opinion, if it’s not run right you will typically have issues trying to fulfill orders. Streamlining receiving processes and cleaning up warehouse management systems will help with efficiency all around.
As the world moves into e-commerce opportunities, zero picks or out of stocks or showing product and not having it – those things will be more of an issue for companies. If their inventory accuracy is not good, they are going to struggle.
A lot of things Fuse5 has in place, and are working on developing, address those issues. My background allows me to have that insight from a functional perspective of identifying those issues and seeing how to correct them.
Out jobs are all in front of computers these days. From the receiving clerk up to the CEO, your job is focused on a computer, so technology to me is the natural future of business in general.
What are your goals for your new position?
My immediate goals are just going through and analyzing the tools we have in place. My title is director of strategic growth and development, so I will work with the team, see what we have, and we know what’s good at this point. I’ll help identify more opportunities in in the automotive aftermarket to develop and add new tools that will continue to help makes those workflows more effective and accurate for our customers.
