Mercedes-Benz India has partnered with Zoho to launch SKYLine, a bespoke Dealer Management System built entirely in India over a two-year development period. The platform, now operational across all Mercedes-Benz dealerships in India, replaces legacy infrastructure with a decentralized digital system designed to enhance customer service operations.
Built on Zoho CRM and implemented by Zoho’s Enterprise Business Solutions team, SKYLine digitizes the complete service lifecycle, from booking to delivery. The system enables real-time service tracking, digital estimate approvals, and automated customer communication through integrated workflows.
“SKYLine represents a significant step towards managing our customer service operations, being a key lever that will significantly enhance customer’s experience,” said Santosh Iyer, Managing Director and CEO at Mercedes-Benz India. “This bespoke DMS is built by Zoho for our dealer partners, making it seamless and highly integrated into our global systems.”
The platform operates on a multi-instance architecture, with each dealership running its own dedicated Zoho CRM instance. This design provides dealership-level autonomy while maintaining centralized governance and compliance with OEM standards. SKYLine integrates with Mercedes-Benz’s European headquarters systems through a middleware layer developed using Qntrl, Zoho’s workflow orchestration platform, supporting multiple legacy protocols including REST, SOAP, and file-based communications.
“When Mercedes-Benz India came to us with a vision that had no off-the-shelf solution, we saw an opportunity to build something truly unique,” said Mani Vembu, CEO of Zoho. “Together, we have built a decentralized platform that empowers each dealership with autonomy, while maintaining central control and real-time HQ integration.”
SKYLine manages service booking, digital check-in, vehicle inspection, job card creation, technician assignment, and quality control processes. The system also handles courtesy car management and pre-owned vehicle operations. Customers access a unified portal displaying service history, invoices, and campaign information.
The deployment involved over 5,000 man-days of user acceptance testing and 3,000 man-days of training across the dealership network. The platform incorporates AI-driven analytics and embedded dashboards that provide operational insights to both dealership managers and OEM stakeholders.
Mercedes-Benz India operates over 140 touchpoints across more than 50 cities and maintains a production facility in Chakan near Pune. Zoho, headquartered in Chennai, employs more than 18,000 people globally and serves over 130 million users across its 55-plus business applications.