Tag: Dealertrack DMS

How to Bring your DMS into your Dealership Strategy

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A business strategy is a company’s high-level plan for executing on its vision. Many businesses, including most automotive dealerships, know what they want to achieve, but don’t have a plan for how to get there. A vision and a plan must come together to form a business strategy. Running a dealerships means you need to consider which tools your team will use in their businesses and how they will use them. And in today’s automotive retail environment, no tool has the ability to influence strategy more than the DMS. Here are three ways that you can leverage your DMS in the development and execution of a strategy.

Become Better, Faster, Stronger

Most dealership strategies call for the company to improve, enhance, or add a certain skill. Whatever that skill may be—customer service, transaction time, F&I sales, inventory turn time, or something else—your DMS is probably connected to it. That’s why it’s so crucial to utilize a modern DMS that promotes efficiency through better workflows and intuitive, easy-to-use interfaces. The right DMS can help your dealership get better, faster, or stronger at whatever it is you’re trying to improve.  As an added benefit, intuitive, easy-to-use systems enable dealerships to easily hire and retain the right people to execute on their strategies.

Gain the Freedom to Choose your Own Path

Your dealer management system functions as a technology hub and a central point of access for all other dealership technologies. Because it controls the flow of data between your dealership and its tools, it is a crucial component of your dealership strategy. In order to execute on your unique strategy, you need the freedom to choose your own tools. Many DMS platforms restrict third-party integrations and limit the number of vendors that you can work with. Restrictive platforms limit a dealership’s strategic options and make it difficult to achieve meaningful differentiation. Open platforms, on the other hand, let dealerships decide which third-party software systems best fit their strategic objectives.

Tracking, Reporting, and Metrics

In order to be successful, a dealership strategy must include a plan for tracking and reporting on metrics. Generally, a good strategy will require a company to set benchmarks and goals for improvements. Dealer management systems can provide both of these functions, allowing a dealership to track progress and adjust tactics accordingly. However, not all DMS platforms are created equal—modern systems provide real-time data allowing you to make better, faster business decisions.

Dealerships become successful by developing and executing on effective business strategies. Those strategies involve both a vision for success and a plan for achieving it. Because they touch almost every aspect of a dealership, DMS platforms can play a key role in the development and execution of dealership strategies. As you develop, refine, and execute on your strategy, be sure to evaluate your DMS and its ability to help you achieve success.

To learn more about how your DMS can better fit your dealership strategy, download our guide, “Was your DMS built for the digital age?”

A Dealer-Focused DMS

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Original article written by Paul Whitworth, Senior Vice President of Dealer Management Systems at Dealertrack

What does it mean to be a dealer-focused DMS?

Two years ago, Dealertrack DMS reframed its strategy to focus on being the High Tech, High Touch DMS. So what does that mean? In short, it means that we are focused on the client. Our customers—dealerships just like yours—are at the center of the way we develop technology and the way we offer our services. Of course, we don’t believe that dealers are regularly raving about their dealer management systems, any more than we expect our neighbors to tell us about their amazing washing machines. In a way, the DMS is an appliance. Dealers count on it to be there and to perform its function while they focus on building and running their businesses.

So, in addition to providing a full set of capabilities, what does a High Tech, High Touch DMS do that is special? How is our focus on our dealership clients apparent in our products and services? There are four main things that make us different.  Our DMS is open, intuitive, and easy to use. Finally, we aim to be easy for dealerships to work with.

Dealertrack DMS is Open

Automotive retail has become very competitive and, increasingly, innovative technology is being used by dealerships to differentiate themselves. Our open system allows dealers to work easily with a broad range of solution providers. Dealers pick the solutions that they need to win and can count on Dealertrack DMS to integrate those solutions into the rest of their systems. We want you to do business your way, not ours. Dealertrack DMS is giving dealerships the freedom to pursue their own unique strategies rather than forcing them to do things just like everyone else.  

Dealertrack DMS is Intuitive

Similarly, a client-focused DMS doesn’t become a central issue in dealership personnel decisions. With employee turnover at an all-time high and the traditional dealership workforce getting older, dealers need more freedom to hire the best people for their business. Dealers need to be able to select candidates based on their skills in the areas of customer service, selling, technology, and management. Too often, however, they are forced to make hiring decisions based on prior DMS experience. To remove the need for prior experience, Dealertrack DMS has developed an intuitive user interface that employees, regardless of background, can learn quickly.

Dealertrack DMS is Easy To Use

Beyond our intuitive interface, Dealertrack DMS is easy to use across a number of dimensions. The platform is fully web-based and works across all types of devices. The system features simple navigation and thoughtful design, limiting the number of clicks required to complete an action. Finally, the system aligns dealership tasks into natural workflows so that employees don’t need to jump between screens or enter the same data twice.

Dealertrack DMS is Easy To Work With

Perhaps the most important part of our High Tech, High Touch approach is our commitment to become a true partner. By definition, a client-centric DMS must make it as easy as possible to do business and to leverage technology. We believe we are the clear leader in this area. Here are just a few examples of things we are doing to put the dealer at the center of our product and service offerings:

  • We offer simple upfront pricing with no long-term contracts.
  • We are deploying DMS 360—an online community and user portal to get our users the answers they need to do their jobs quickly and easily.
  • We provide Performance Managers: proactive coaches to help clients better use our software and improve their businesses.
  • We introduced DMS Edge virtual user conferences and DMS Controller Conference.

When it is time to upgrade your business, be sure to examine the goals and objectives of your technology partners. Look for a company that puts dealerships at the center of its operation. And, please take a look at Dealertrack DMS, the only High Tech, High Touch dealer management system.

Paul Whitworth, Senior Vice President of Dealer Management Systems at Dealertrack, has been at the forefront of automotive retail technology advancements his whole career. Paul graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and has held positions with J.D Power & Associates, Accenture, Hyundai Motor America, and Cox Automotive as well as leading several start-up companies.