DealerTrack Blog » Dealer Management System

Understanding Key Problems with Traditional DMS Providers

admin — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 22:30:41 +0000

Welcome, I’m Allan Stejskal VP and General Manager of DealerTrack DMS. The traditional DMS model was developed in the late 1970s. The original software materialized out of a need to better manage accounting processes and keep track of parts inventory. While the traditional software was revolutionary for its time, the growing needs and demands of dealerships in today’s society have rendered the software outdated and incompetent. Consider, for example, the lack of interdepartmental integration that a traditional DMS system offers. As the requirements of the dealership developed into needing a better way to create deals, sell F&I products, manage vehicle inventory, and run an efficient Service Department, the traditional DMS model evolved by creating multiple databases, causing the need for duplicate data entry and batch processes. Rather than overturning their system and making smart, time-saving changes, the traditional DMS model reacted to change by creating “Band-Aid” fixes and building on antiquated technology. Also consider how the lack of open architecture hinders the efforts of third-party companies to use data stored in the traditional DMS. Integrations offered are cumbersome at best. Typically, the only option when wanting to use additional software providers requires time-consuming double entry. The promise of providing an integrated and efficient software to completely manage all dealership operations has not been reached by the traditional DMS model.

The DealerTrack DMS 10.3 Release

admin — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 18:18:28 +0000

The DealerTrack DMS 10.3 Release will be added to the DMS between August 12 and August 24, 2010. You will receive email notification letting you know the specific date your system will be upgraded.

To learn more about the enhancements and changes coming to your system, review these Release Notes or attend a Free Customer Training Webinar. Free Customer Training Webinars for the DealerTrack DMS 10.3 Release will be held as follows:

· Thursday, August 12, 2010 from 1:00 pm to 2:30 pm MST. To register take this link: http://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/996744753
· Friday, August 13, 2010 from 10:00 am to 11:30 am MST. To register take this link: http://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/945947329

How Do I View My Prospects or Customer List on DealerTrack DMS?

admin — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 17:28:31 +0000

To view all of your Active Prospects, choose the My Prospects tab.
To view all Customers that you have sold a vehicle to, use the Advanced Search tool. Set the Type to “Customers”, make sure your name displays in the Salespersons field, and choose Search. All of your customers will display in this list.

Click here for more information

A Complete Web Based Software Solution For Independent Dealers

admin — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 17:45:20 +0000

Our web-based model uses the internet to deliver comprehensive functionality at a fraction of the cost of traditional server-based DMS systems. There is no server to purchase or install. The DealerTrack DMS provides you with a secure environment for you data, and performs data back-ups, software upgrades and IT maintenance on a continuous basis.

How Do I Assign a New Salesperson/BDC Representative to a Customer Record?

admin — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 16:00:26 +0000

When salespeople or BDC Representatives leave your dealership, it is a good idea to re-assign all of their customers and prospects to a different person. Reassignment will force all follow-up activities to be generated for the new representative’s Daily Work Plan.

New salespeople can be assigned to customer records using the Sales Representatives Reassignment tool. New BDC Representatives can be assigned to customer records using the BDC Representative Reassignmenttool. These tools are accessible from the Customer Showroom Management Application Environment.

For more information, please see the following guides:

Sales Representatives Reassignment
BDC Representative Reassignment

DealerTrack DMS CRM Function: What Do the Symbols Mean on my Daily Work Plan?

admin — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 15:29:21 +0000

– The Blue Circle indicates that the customer is currently in the showroom. When the customer leaves the showroom, click on this icon to remove the notification.
– The Yellow Triangle is for Activity Notification. During CRM setups, the Minutes to Past Due was defined in the Initial Values. The Yellow Triangle indicates that 2/3s of the response time has expired. You must take an action with the prospect, such as Scheduling an Activity or Adding a Note before the notification will be removed.
– The Red Circle with an Exclamation Point is for Activity Notification. During CRM setups, the Minutes to Past Due was defined in the Initial Values. The Red Circle indicates that the response time has expired, and the prospect is considered “Past Due”. You must take an action with the prospect, such as Scheduling an Activity or Adding a Note before the notification will be removed.

All this information and much more can be found on the DealerTrack DMS Support Wiki
More Customer Relationship Management FAQs can be found here.

Announcing New Customer Relationship Management FAQs

admin — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 21:16:21 +0000

The DealerTrack DMS Support Center and Implementation Teams have worked together to generate a list of the most common CRM questions, which are now available on the DealerTrack DMS Wiki.

Use this valuable resource to help answer common questions with the DealerTrack CRM application. Questions/Answers include LetterSelect, entering Prospect information, recording Prospect activity, and more!

Click Here To View

DealerTrack to Host Webinar for Independent Dealers on May 19th

admin — Mon, 17 May 2010 23:40:08 +0000

Maximize Profit Through Complete Control of Your Dealership

DealerTrack will host a free webinar on the profit-maximizing benefits of the DealerTrack DMS for independent dealers.

Independent dealers need dependable solutions to help find ways to cut costs, operate efficiently, manage effectively, and increase sales and cash flow. This webinar will feature an in-depth look at the profitable advantages DealerTrack DMS can provide.

When: Wednesday, May 19^th, 2010

1:00 p.m. Eastern Time, 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time

Reserve your space by clicking the following link:

www.dealertrackdms.com/webinar

Registration is easy and free of charge.

DEALERTRACK WINS TOP 2010 DEALERS’ CHOICE AWARDS IN DMS AND DESKING SOFTWARE CATEGORIES

admin — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 15:35:26 +0000

LAKE SUCCESS, N.Y., April 1, 2010 — DealerTrack Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq: TRAK), a leading provider of on-demand software and data solutions for the U.S. automotive retail industry, today announced that it has received top honors in Auto Dealer Monthly’s 2010 Dealers’ Choice Awards winning their 1st place “Diamond” in two categories:

DMS – The DealerTrack Dealer Management System (DMS) was named the Diamond Award winner for the second consecutive year. The web-based DealerTrack DMS is a flexible and highly cost-effective solution that provides robust functionality and real-time data integration to help dealers streamline their businesses and enhance profitability.

Desking Tools – DealerTrack’s Salesmaker (TM) won the Diamond Award in the desking software category; it had received the runner-up Platinum Award in each of the last two years. Salesmaker is a comprehensive showroom solution that helps dealers to manage their customers and quickly structure virtually any type of deal, including retail, lease, balloon and special finance programs

“We are very pleased that our DMS and Desking solutions have been recognized as top performers in their respective categories by the dealers participating in this year’s Auto Dealer Monthly Awards,” said Raj Sundaram, senior vice president, solutions and services group at DealerTrack. “We remain committed to providing our dealer customers with innovative, cost-effective solutions that streamline their workflows and increase their sales and profitability.”

The integrated DealerTrack Performance Suite is the most complete offering of intuitive and high-value software for the automotive retail industry, enhancing efficiency and profitability with DMS, Inventory Management, Sales, F&I and Compliance solutions.

30 Days on DealerTrack DMS – One Customer’s Experience

admin — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 22:40:52 +0000

One of DealerTrack new Dealer Management System Customer recently gave DealerTrack 3 thumbs up and stated

I give DealerTrack DMS 3 Thumbs Up!

Their employees attitude, willingness to assist, responsiveness on the phone and overall demeanor show that they are a progressive and good group to depend upon.

Below is the full story from www.DealerRefresh.com.

Thinking of changing DMS providers? If so I want to share with the community our experiences in the first 30 days after going live with Dealer Track DMS (formerly Arkona).

First I will start off by saying it is nice for a change to have a DMS vendor who treats you like a customer and appreciates the opportunity to earn your business.

We have gone from driving an antiquated Cadillac with all the features money could buy in 1991 to an 08 Ford XLT with Carpet delete. I mean to say DealerTrack’s system does not offer butt warmers so to speak.

Sales & Finance Managers: They refer to their desking and sales software as Business Office. It sounds like this may be common for dealers somewhat east of the Mississippi River. The desking screens work and are fairly intuitive. Sometimes it seems you have to back out of a deal and go back in to get things to re-calc. Your limited to 1 pick-up payment (differed down). Contract letter spacing can only be moved in whole points and is sometimes hard to line up perfectly. DMV fees are hand calculated now and require valid information from your Accounting Dept.

In a nutshell we work deals out of DealerTrack’s Dealer Management System (Arkona DMS) and the rest is done with custom programming / CRM, i.e. Invoice Books, Inventory Analysis, vAuto for booking and used management.

If you are like me go with the green screen software over the GUI they are promoting.

Service Manager: The fixed operations teams had some adjustments to make. You can not close out pay types individually, You can close Customer pay but when you close Warranty it closes Internal as well. You are given a new pay type and that is Service Contracts, kinda nice. There is no way to force a Hat Tag# as a required field instead it can be accidentally bypassed. Tech Time and Tech Clocking / Dispatching if you use dispatching is pretty underdeveloped.

Parts Managers: This department will have a difficult time. Finding the invoices can be a total headache. Furthermore when you order parts and they arrive and you bill them out you get a new invoice#. Transactions can get lost and there are about three screens you need to look in to find them. Creating returns is fabulous and works better than any system I have been on before (Not that I like returns). Once again Green Screen software in this department is a must. Other areas to be aware of is the inability to place 0 quantity of a part on an RO (Usually helpful with parts availability and requisition requests.) Lost Sales once registered on an Invoice can not be converted to sales, they have to be deleted and re added.

Business Office / Accounting Department: Hmm. I will report on the business office in the future cause after 30 days they are still spinning. Fortunately we have a very talented and bright staff and they have made tremendous headway, however Payroll seems to be difficult to fine-tune. Factory Financial Statements and reporting all works well and have not had any issues related to getting the factory their data.

Data Exchange: Works well and even an idiot like me can set up automated FTP uploads. Love It.

OpenTrack: We are a signed OpenTrack vendor for our own internal software. The price was right and the team behind the OpenTrack initiative are awesome. For those that are interested OpenTrack is a SOAP based integration service for data exchange. ODBC is being phased out and to my knowledge is no longer available.

I give DealerTrack DMS 3 Thumbs Up!

Their product has room to grow. Especially for multi-line stores. I would not recommend a multi-accounting / multi-GL setup if you can avoid it. However their employees attitude, willingness to assist, responsiveness on the phone and overall demeanor show that they are a progressive and good group to depend upon.

Jarrett

Thanks Jarret and DealerRefresh for posting this. We appreciate your insight and feedback as we continually improve the DealerTrack Dealer Management System.