Spring is starting to be in the air (if you squint a bit) and the beginning of March is always a time when I get a little bit reflective.
Why?
You may well ask!
Possibly a bit dramatic, no children were born, no weddings.
"Chain Reaction" by Diana Ross was No 1 in the Charts - I always associate the song with this time of my life.
I was 15.
My father had been writing a new Dealer Management System for a couple of years, and I had been working weekends and holidays from school as a programmer - writing some significant portions of the system. The Parts Ordering Software was all mine, as was much of the showroom system.
March 3rd, 1986 was the "live" date of the installation of the system (It was called "Modems" - "MOtor DEalers Management System).
The "lucky" dealer was Adams of Peterborough - a Nissan dealership in Peterborough
For a few months, my Saturdays and School holidays were spent in the car, going up the M11 from our house in Essex to Peterborough to continual to develop the system - with feedback from the dealership.
This was the pivotal moment.
I had learnt the Motor Trade a s kid... Spending time (and earning pocket money) in the dealership my father ran when I was younger.
I had worked most roles in some way, from Accounts, Sales Admin, Service Reception, Parts (love a good stock take).
My skill was always to work out and understand processes, what made them work and what didn't.
My father would always spend time in each department, and we would have discussions in the car home about how that department could run better. Building a consistent and repeatable business process was his skill...
Which is what led him into Computer Software - he realised that computers could both support, build and reinforce business processes, so that they are repeatable and auditable, time and time again.
The original system was impressive in it's feature list - for 1986.
It "ran" every core process in the dealership, produced all the invoices, managed all the stock, did all the accounting..
Produced Management Reports
We even interfaced with OEM systems - even back then.
Some of life was somewhat different. Parts Pricing files would come from most of the OEMS on 1/2" magnetic tape reels (the ones you see in the old films like strange washing machines in computer rooms!). We would download the file, and make multiple copies on tape which were then posted out to dealers to run!
Data moves around the internet, often in real-time.
But essentially, looking at my description above, not a lot has changed in what a DMS system actually does. Just how it does it!
and I'm still at it.
going to work daily, looking to improve our solutions, to help our customer's continuously drive their businesses forward.
Amazingly, I'm still excited - every day - to get up, and do what I do
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