Putti rebuilt Auction Online's vehicle auction platform, the marketplace where franchise dealers, wholesalers and private sellers across New Zealand buy and sell cars. The old system had become hard to run and harder to change. The new one runs auctions in real time, handles each type of company the way it actually trades, and does the paperwork automatically.
What was the problem with the old platform?
Auction Online was running its business on a platform that had fallen behind it. It was difficult to manage day to day, difficult to upgrade, and its interface confused the dealers and buyers who used it every week. For a business where a missed bid or a wrong invoice costs real money, that's not a cosmetic problem.
How did Putti approach the rebuild?
We started by reviewing the existing platform end to end and mapping what a rebuild needed to carry across. Then we planned the upgrade path and added the requirements that would make the team's daily operations easier, not just reproduce the old system in a new coat of paint.
The goal was two things at once. A back office that Auction Online's staff could run without workarounds, and a modern, clear interface for the dealers and sellers on the other side of every auction.
What does the new platform do?
Real-time auctions sit at the centre of it. Buyers bid live, and when an auction closes its vehicles stay visible for an hour so everyone can see the results before they drop out of the live view.
Different companies trade in different ways, so the platform does too. Some can only sell, some can only buy, and some see a restricted view of the market. Company admins manage their own users, and what each person can see and do follows the rules for their company.
The money side runs itself. Buyer fees are set per auction rather than per user, invoices are generated automatically when a lot sells, and when a vehicle doesn't reach its reserve the platform handles that outcome properly instead of leaving staff to sort it out by hand. Notifications go out to buyers and sellers at the moments that matter, from new auctions to sold results.
How was it rolled out?
Every change is tested on a staging environment and signed off before it goes to the live platform, so dealers never meet an untested release. When the new platform went live in September 2026, Putti migrated Auction Online's existing user list across and sent invitations to every user, so the switch-over didn't depend on dealers finding their own way in.
Putti's Auckland team continues to support the platform after launch, fixing issues as they come in and releasing improvements the same staged way.
What's the result?
Auction Online now runs on a platform it can manage, upgrade and grow, with a clearer experience for the dealers and sellers who use it. We'll add measured results here once the first months of live trading are in.
If your business runs on a platform that's become hard to change, talk to us about what a rebuild would involve, or read how we approach legacy system support and re-platforming.