“It’s a no brainer. If you’re a multi-site workshop and your current system isn’t giving you visibility across the group, if it’s making you double-handle data, or causing grief with reporting and customers, you need something like Orion.”
Growing up in Tasmania, Mark got his start in the automotive industry the old-school way; helping out at his dad’s two mobile service stations, pumping petrol, mixing two-stroke, cleaning the workshop, and doing puncture repairs. By the age of 13, he was already clocking up 21-hour weekends and earning pocket money the honest way, with his hands dirty, sleeves rolled up, and learning the ropes one car at a time.
When school came to an end (or rather, when Mark decided he’d had enough of it), his dad suggested a mechanic apprenticeship. That led to a gig at the local Holden dealer, then a stint at a Ford dealership in Queensland and eventually back home to Tasmania where he managed, and then bought, his first workshop in 1995, laying the foundations for Cooper Automotive.
What started as a one-man show is now a well-oiled machine. With over 50 employees and multiple locations including six Cooper Automotive branches, City Automotive (a Repco Authorised Service Centre), Tassie 4×4 (specialising in rugged upgrades like bull bars, canopies and suspension), and a battery shop brand, the business had become a household name across Tasmania.
But behind the scenes, things weren’t always running as smoothly as the vehicles they serviced.
As the business grew, Mark and his team found themselves stuck with software that just couldn’t keep up with their growth. It wasn’t able to give them a holistic view of their multiple sites, and financial reconciliation was a complete nightmare. They had to split things up, which meant different stores were running on different versions of the same software. The result? No shared customer or vehicle databases, inconsistent part descriptions and pricing, no easy way to transfer stock between branches, and a mountain of manual work that made running the back end of the business a slog.
The accounting side of things was giving the team at Cooper’s a perpetual headache. Eight bank accounts, eight general ledgers, and eight balance sheets. It was like running eight separate businesses under one brand — all spinning their own wheels, with no real way to track the bigger picture. Stock transfers between stores? Forget it. Everything had to be invoiced and received manually. Expenses had to be journaled across. It was slow, messy, and time-consuming.
Even the customers had some pain points with the disconnected systems. Since customer data wasn’t centralized, they would often get conflicting service reminders from different stores — one offering a deal, the other saying their service was still due after a visit — leading to a confusing and disjointed brand experience. That’s not what Cooper Automotive was about. When you operate under a trusted name, people expect the same high-quality service wherever they go. Mark knew that without a consistent system, that wasn’t going to happen.
Knowing something had to change, he scoured the Australian market for software that could truly handle multi-store operations for independent workshops. At one point, he even hired a consultant to do a global search. Nothing quite hit the mark. They trialed one system that looked good at first glance, but it didn’t integrate properly with their accounting software. Invoices wouldn’t update the general ledgers correctly, which threw off the P&Ls and balance sheets — keeping on top of everything would’ve required hiring someone full time just to mop up the mess.
That’s when Orion came into the picture, and everything changed.
Built by automotive software company Auxo, with over 30 years of skin in the automative game, Orion could walk the talk. It wasn’t perfect out of the box, but it ticked about 80% of the boxes that Cooper Automotive needed — and most importantly, the team at Auxo were more than willing to build-out the rest. Not only were they already rolling out improvements, but they were also listening, taking feedback seriously, and committing to a roadmap that aligned with Mark’s vision. Even from the time it took to go from negotiation to implementation, Mark could see new capabilities and enhancements added to Orion – proving they were good on their word.
The big wins were immediate. With one central system across all branches, the back office became infinitely simpler. They went from managing eight bank accounts down to one. Financials were consolidated automatically. The team no longer had to wrestle spreadsheets or cross-check different versions of the truth. Everything was centralised — from P&Ls to parts inventory. What used to take hours and hours every week, now happened in real time.
And the front-of-house struggles? Auxo stepped in there too, offering their web interface to make it more user-friendly for the reception teams. That meant better quoting tools, easier invoice editing, and a smoother workflow for staff at the counter — with even more improvements planned on the development roadmap.
Training and implementation weren’t a hassle either, despite it being one of Mark’s biggest concerns. Cooper’s team used a test environment to get their heads around the new system before going live, giving the team confidence and clarity before they made the switch. When the big day came, Auxo had support staff on standby, and Cooper’s internal team was prepped and ready. It all went off without a hitch — which is saying something when you’re rolling out software across seven busy locations.
Orion also helped sort out one of the biggest operational headaches — customer communications. Now, service reminders are consistent across the entire group. It doesn’t matter which branch the customer visits; the system keeps track and helps the team deliver relevant messages without overlap.
Over time, Orion has continued to evolve alongside Cooper Automotive’s needs. New features like centralised parts and job kits have further refined their consistency and efficiency, and multi-site integration with Repco Navigator is on its way soon. The Auxo team doesn’t just talk about adding the features customers ask for, they build them.
Mark’s advice for other multi-location workshop owners? “It’s a no brainer. If you’re a multi-site workshop and your current system isn’t giving you visibility across the group, if it’s making you double-handle data, or causing grief with reporting and customer engagement, you need something like Orion.” Orion’s not just a workshop tool — it’s a full-service solution that gets your business running like a well-tuned V8.
After three decades in the industry, Mark Cooper knows a thing or two about what makes a business hum. And thanks to Orion, the future of Cooper Automotive is as clear as a run on the open road — no speed bumps in sight.
