Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
HomeNet Automotive wins tech award
East Whiteland company makes photo software
A company that makes photo software was recognized by the Chester County Economic Development Council at its recent Tech360 conference.
HomeNet Automotive makes the SnapLot Photo Capture App that provides car dealers with the ability to update the inventory it displays on their websites. A tech team from the company, based in East Whiteland, upgraded the technology to improve its ease of use for dealers.
The Tech360 Technology Team of the Year Award is given out by the Innovative Technology Action Group and the Ideas x Innovation Network, initiatives of the development council.
The award was established to recognize a technology team that has made an outstanding contribution to its business, employees or community.
“HomeNet is honored to be recognized for the 2016 Tech360 Technology Team of the Year Award,” said John Hensman, gen-
eral manager at HomeNet Automotive. “We are so proud of the SnapLot product, our product and technology team members at HomeNet, and their continued dedication to create greater efficiencies in automotive dealer operations.”
HomeNet Automotive in April held a grand opening of its new offices on the
third floor of a building in the Valley Creek Corporate Center.
The added space was needed because the company has added 50 employees in the area in the last two years and plans to add another 60 in the next three years. It now has around 160 employees in Exton.
The growth has come since HomeNet, founded in 1996, was purchased in 2010 by Cox Automotive, a company spokesman said in April.
Russ Daniels, senior manager of product marketing at HomeNet, said Thursday the product judged for the development council’s contest is a new version of SnapLot.
By using Samsung Galaxy Cameras, the SnapLot app provides a simple-touse, high resolution image capture solution, he explained. Photos of vehicles can be wirelessly uploaded to the dealers’ inventory online pages and automatically synced with their existing vehicle data, dramatically
decreasing time to market and increasing vehicle turnaround, Daniels said.
The app is currently in use by dealers nationwide, as well as at Manheim Auto Auctions with the possibility of expanding with Manheim into Europe, the company said in a statement.
The new version is an improvement in several areas.
“A couple of years ago the photo quality wasn’t what it is today,” Daniels said. And, before SnapLot, dealers took photos with regular
cameras, plugged them into their computers, downloaded them to their computers and then uploaded them to their websites.
“This is a huge time saver,” Daniels said, “and the photo is right where it needs to be.”
The SnapLot Team that was recognized is a subset of HomeNet’s larger development team. It was represented by Mike Cosgrove, product manager, and Tony Dong, software engineer.
“Tech360 and the Technology Team of the Year
Award help highlight the innovation and emerging technologies here in Chester County ... as well as highlight the current trends, people and companies in our area,” explained Marianne Stack, project manager of Ideas x Innovation Network (i2n) and Innovative Technology Action Group, or ITAG.