Urban Science Reviews

Jama Connect® is an innovative platform for product development that establishes Living Requirements™. It weaves together disparate activities related to testing and risk management, ensuring comprehensive compliance, mitigating potential risks, enhancing processes, and maintaining adherence to regulations. Organizations involved in developing intricate products, systems, and software can now effectively outline, synchronize, and implement their requirements. This streamlined approach significantly decreases the time and resources needed to demonstrate compliance and minimizes the need for rework. By selecting a user-friendly, adaptable solution accompanied by supportive services focused on fostering adoption, companies can confidently pave the way to their success. The platform’s design emphasizes collaboration, ensuring that all stakeholders are aligned throughout the product development lifecycle.

Vehicle Acquisition Network (VAN) is a purpose-built vehicle sourcing platform that enables car dealerships to acquire high-margin, fast-turning used vehicles directly from private sellers—bypassing auctions, reducing acquisition costs, and accelerating inventory turn. Today’s automotive market is more competitive than ever. Wholesale prices are climbing, auction fees are rising, and reconditioning delays eat into profitability. VAN solves this by giving dealers the tools and talent they need to target, engage, and acquire for-sale-by-owner (FSBO) vehicles in their local market with speed and efficiency. With VAN, dealers can: Access thousands of local private-party listings in real time Use AI-powered filters to find the most profitable cars Automate personalized outreach and follow-up with sellers Track communications, tasks, and acquisition progress in one unified CRM Eliminate auction fees, transport delays, and wholesale surprises For stores that lack time or staff to do this work in-house, VAN also offers a Managed Buyer program—a turnkey service where VAN’s expert acquisition team works on your behalf to find, contact, and negotiate with private sellers. It’s like hiring a full-time buyer without the overhead. Whether you're a single rooftop looking for more control or a large group scaling a private-party acquisition strategy, VAN adapts to your dealership's workflow and goals. Dealers using VAN regularly see faster turn times, higher front-end grosses, and more predictable inventory pipelines. Trusted by over 250 rooftops across the U.S. and Canada, VAN is how modern dealers compete with Carvana, CarMax, and other direct-to-consumer disruptors—by sourcing smarter, not just spending more.

Edmunds Dealer Solutions provides a wide range of digital marketing, inventory management, and sales-boosting tools designed to help automotive dealerships connect with car buyers, generate higher-quality leads, and increase sales by leveraging Edmunds' extensive automotive audience and exclusive data. Dealerships can list their new and used vehicle inventories on the Edmunds marketplace, enabling potential customers to access information about pricing, incentives, and available cars, which in turn boosts the views on vehicle detail pages and directs shoppers to dealer websites or contact forms. The platform also includes messaging and engagement features like CarCode, which consolidates customer communications through web chat, SMS, and Facebook Messenger into a single user-friendly interface, helping sales teams to effectively engage with consumers who are ready to buy. Furthermore, Edmunds supports dealers’ merchandising and advertising strategies by showcasing inventory on widely-used platforms such as Facebook Marketplace and various social media sites, utilizing targeted marketing campaigns to enhance visibility. This comprehensive strategy not only attracts more traffic but also fosters improved relationships between dealers and potential customers, ultimately creating a more dynamic automotive marketplace. Overall, by integrating these tools, dealerships can significantly elevate their sales performance and customer engagement.