Tag: DMS

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.

Margin Compression Solutions: Process Improvements

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Overcoming Margin Compression with Digital Sales

The age of margin compression is forcing auto dealers to think creatively about traditional car sales. Making a profit requires cutting costs and emphasizing other areas of your business, like fixed ops and F&I sales. But, it also means rethinking your approach to the very foundation of your business. As dealers know all too well, simply selling an automobile has become too expensive to keep many dealerships afloat. If margin compression has found a way to cut into your bottom line, it may be time to shift focus toward digital retailing.

 

Digital Retail as a Solution to Margin Compression

In the face of shrinking profits, the move to digital sales makes sense. In terms of overhead alone, it eliminates many of the costs of a brick-and-mortar dealership, including expenses associated with inventory, facilities and showroom, employees, and lot property. However, selling cars entirely online is a big leap for many of today’s dealerships even though the industry and its customers are moving in that direction.

It’s no secret that today’s car-buying customers prefer to do research online. Oftentimes they already know exactly what they want to buy (and how much they’re going to pay) before ever setting foot on an actual lot. In that respect, moving sales and purchasing activities to the internet allows dealerships to align with the preferences of modern consumers. But, the move isn’t all about the customer. It can have major benefits for dealerships, too.

By allowing customers to browse inventory, explore features, and even obtain ballpark pricing online, dealerships can cut costs and preserve precious margin. And, when the customer finally arrives on site, top dealerships run a name search to find out how much of the sales process has already been completed, improving efficiency and helping salespeople close deals faster. In fact, many dealerships have already established separate “internet departments” to facilitate this kind of experience.

Conclusion

The irony of margin compression is that the traditional way of selling cars is driving dealerships out of business. It’s time to think outside the box of auto sales and move toward a more online experience. The industry and your customers are demanding it.

 

If you’d like to learn more about generating profit through digital sales, and other ways to combat margin compression, download our free guide, 7 Solutions to Margin Compression: Strategies for Preserving Dealership Profit Margin.

 

Operational Efficiency Gains from Dealertrack DMS

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After switching DMS platforms to Dealertrack, dealer groups report consistent satisfaction in several dimensions of operational improvement from streamlined data processes to better performance data.

Efficiency Gains

Personnel across dealerships report that switching to Dealertrack makes their lives significantly easier. “The deal flow is easier for sales to track,” Comptroller, Jennica Krebsbach of the Van Horn Group says. “The deal flow into accounting is a lot easier. Once the service department understood the system completely, it was all OK.”

Assistant General Manager, Brett Henkel says that some of Big Two’s  personnel had to adjust to Dealertrack DMS’s graphical-user interface — its digital look and feel. “We had to explain that Dealertrack wasn’t going to look like their old system and why we were OK with that,” he says. “The big thing was that Dealertrack didn’t look like the old screen looked. But a couple of weeks in, everyone was relaxed about it. And then it was amazing how comfortable they got with it. Frontline employees picked up Dealertrack amazingly quickly as far as being able to write up a ticket or get it through finances.”

Overhead Savings

Krebsbach says that since switching to Dealertrack, the Van Horn Group has added seven more stores to the enterprise — but hasn’t had to add any accounting staff to handle the extra dealerships. As part of expanding the company, Van Horn also centralized its intra-company accounting. Relying on Dealertrack, the company has been able to cut in half its 40 administrative positions even while adding several dealerships. “There’s no way we could have done that with the legacy system,” she says. “We didn’t understand how much overhead we were going to save. But there has been huge payback.”

In addition to reduced overhead, new Dealertrack DMS customers are also seeing net profit growth in the first year. Sisbarro Dealerships reported a tripling of net profit in its first year with Dealertrack and credits a major portion of the growth to the DMS transition.

Reporting Advantages

One thing dealership managers appreciate about Dealertrack is the many extra types of data the DMS provides compared with legacy systems.

“We’ve got some unique advantages in reporting,” Bickerson says. “For example, in people performance data. We can show a service manager how each of his people is performing, in terms of their effective labor rate and gross percentage. That can spot problems. We can show, for example, if one employee’s effective labor rate has been dropping over the last couple of months. This is where we help managers spot opportunities for improvement.”

Henkel testifies to the vast improvement in this area for his company under Dealertrack compared with a legacy DMS. “The ability of managers to drill down and get information,” he says, “is incredibly better. Why are expenses up? You can scroll down to what went where, and why. That was something we used to call ‘the mystery.’ You’d have to call the bookkeeping office to figure that out. But now managers can call in from wherever they are and look at that information on their iPad or Surface Pro, in real time.”

Enabling Customization

Unlike legacy systems that are likely to charge dealerships for each new form or change order, Dealertrack specializes in accommodating special situations as part of the routine of satisfying its dealership customers.

Motorcars of Cleveland, for instance, is a unique operation that depends on delivering an extraordinary customer experience, and Dealertrack helps it succeed.  Its service center is open until 3 a.m. on weekdays, and valets note the license number of every car that drives in, relaying it to the service team so each customer is greeted by name. But the key to their success is a revolutionary quick-service “assembly line” comprised of six service stations, which allows customers to follow along with their car, observe the work and even ask questions — all while being in and out in about 30 minutes. To make that kind of enterprise work, Motorcars must use multiple outside vendors and applications that tie together all their business units and also must make it easy to use to maximize employee efficiency.

Dealertrack DMS has been a huge partner in Motorcar’s effort because of its Opentrack feature, which gives customers simple, secure third-party integration with dozens of other software platforms that can serve specific functions within the multi-faceted world of an automotive retailer. In the salesroom, for example, there has been a proliferation of quote-building software platforms that representatives use to help lure buyers. Many dealership groups have written their own software for this purpose. Dealertrack easily integrates with these programs so that the dealership can execute the final deal on its DMS, process the paperwork and ensure information about that valuable customer is either entered for the first time or updated, to help the company deepen and maintain the personal relationship.

For Motorcars, Dealertrack’s flexibility provides the freedom to choose the third-party vendors that work best for its unusual business model. “If we didn’t have this feature, it would be extremely difficult to find people who could work with us because of the astronomical access fees so many DMS providers charge,” Manager, Trevor Gile says.

Closing Quickly

Dealertrack enables Motorcars Group to close its finances each month in just one and a half to two days compared with 10 or 12 days under its legacy system. “That’s a huge benefit to us,” Gile says. “We not only can close the month faster but we can hold our end-of-the-month meetings faster and get a leg up on what’s happening. We never feel like we’re running behind. We can keep up or move faster than we ever thought possible.”

Shearer, an employee at Motorcars, agrees with her boss that she “wouldn’t want to go back” to closing under the legacy system. “I probably should just get a Dealertrack tattoo which says that. Dealertrack has so many great functions that make it so easy. If someone asks me if I would go back to the same DMS even if it costs less, I would say absolutely not.” Webb Automotive President, Kelly Webb Roberts agrees.  “I wish I would have switched earlier, for the entire group,” she says. “DMS shouldn’t be such a burden as it was. In the past, it has bogged people down. I wanted our staff to be able to have a system there to support them and make them efficient, where we can focus instead on customer interactions.”

For more information about the benefits of switching to Dealertrack DMS, check out our guide — DMS for a Digital Age.

Infographic: Is Your Dealership In the Cloud?

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Today’s dealerships are leveraging cloud technologies to improve the profitability of their businesses. Web-based DMS platforms can be especially beneficial because they allow managers to monitor key dealership metrics anytime, anywhere.

In our infographic, Is Your Dealership in the Cloud?, we explain seven specific ways that your dealership can benefit by using a cloud-based DMS, including:

  • Fewer costs associated with buying and maintaining server equipment
  • Improved security through storage on remote, redundant servers
  • Improved reliability and decreased downtime
  • Convenience or remotely-accessible, real-time data

Download the Cloud Cover guide to learn more about the benefits of a web-based DMS platform.

May the 4th (and Force) Be With You: Four Ways Auto Retail is Kind of Like Star Wars

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There may not be light sabers involved (one hopes), but when it comes to Star Wars and the technology that drives auto retail, we can make a few fun comparables.

After all, the last thing any sales manager or dealership controller wants is to get stuck on a virtual outpost, searching for solutions like a desert scavenger. The sunset might be nice, but that outpost is no place to find cutting-edge workflow technology. So in the spirit of the day, and the pursuit of connected retail, here are four ways auto retail technology is (kind of) like Star Wars:

1. Jumping to light speed is like using Accelerated Title.

When it comes to title release, Accelerated Title gets you from start to finish 70 percent faster than the industry standard* — a time that’s sure to be quicker than any old Imperial TIE fighter. It’s technology that streamlines payoff quoting, release, and even tracking and reporting.

2. Using the force is like integrating F&I Compliance into your workflow.

It’s so much a part of process that you barely notice it’s there…until you need it. Then it becomes a powerful way to protect and defend your dealership from ID fraud, potential audits, and more.

3. Droids are a symbol of advanced technology – with a smart human touch.

The concept is like our Menu Selling solution: technology that helps build engagement and improve the aftermarket experience. F&I products like GAP, warranty and maintenance options are presented in a friendly and consultative way — thanks to the use of personal technology.

4. Sometimes, what you need is a simple, fast, and effective Podracer to get the job done.

More than that will slow things down, when the most important thing is a fast and efficient finish. Keep that in mind when it comes to your Reg & Title operation. Simple and powerful functionality such as an accurate calculation of taxes and fees, as well as automated error-checking, help ensure that this final step in the process meets the customer’s expectations.