The movement of DMS software providers to Systems Integrators

It all used to be so easy!

In the early 1980s, when DMS systems started to become used in dealers, the Internet didn't exist and installing a DMS system was probably the first time a dealership had any computing resources in the dealership.

The DMS systems were proprietary - they didn't connect to anything else, but that didn't matter, because there was nothing else to connect to anyway!

If the dealership needed a computer to do anything, it would be largely guaranteed that they would rely on their DMS system to do it.  Through the 1980s, DMS systems expanded from stock control, accounting and invoicing into Customer databases, Marketing and Sales Quotation systems amongst others.  

This all changed when the PC started to become widely used at the very end of the decade.  The PC was a game changer - a generic computer which once installed could run multiple software packages from different vendors.       Specialist software packages started to be used by dealers - finance calculators and optimisers for example.    Most OEMs started to deliver Pc based solutions for Parts ordering, warranty claim generation etc for which there was some basic integration (eg transfer a stock order from the DMS to send onto the OEM).  

And then came the Internet!

The internet first came to the UK in consumer form in approximately 1992, but it wasn't until the late 1990s that the internet became widely used.   The internet has effectively become a virtual PC on steroids - a place where applications can sit "in the cloud" and where consumers can interact with dealers "virtually"

This has meant that the customer journey has partially moved online - from an online vehicle marketplace, through to online sales enquiries, service bookings, full ecommerce sales and to applications which form an essential part of the consumer interaction with the dealer - eg Vehicle Health Check systems.

It is no longer the case that the basic business process is all taking place in the DMS.

In fact, for many dealers,   the multitude of systems (online and offline) in use has fragmented the business process.  In delivering an ever better service to the customer the risk is that staff are having to alt-tab between systems all the time and copy-paste between them.

Business has got complex!

I recall sitting in front of a Service Receptionist a few years ago when I took my car in for service.   In order to simply take my keys off me, I watched the receptionist go through the following extensive process :-

1. Find my job card on the DMS system and bring on screen
2. Alt-Tab to the OEM system and manually check for any recall work that hadn't been found in the pre-appointment check
3. Alt-Tab to the courtesy car system (which was separate), enter my driving licence details and then print out a courtesy car loan agreement
4. Click onto an Excel spreadsheet and mark which courtesy car I had taken (not quite sure why this was necessary)
5. Click into the Vehicle health check system and mark my car as arrived.
6. Finally let me go!

This kind of process will likely resonate through many dealership personnel, no matter what department they are in.

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and more complex!

The past 12 months has made this sort of process even more complex as more and more processes are moved online.    Most dealers offer some sort of online service booking - convenient for the customer, but inconvenient for the dealer who often need to copy-type the booking from an email to create the job card.       The same goes with online payment, where the online payment still needs keying into the DMS.

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But your DMS should rescue this situation

The DMS is the hub of the dealership, and forms the core part of most dealer processes.  For most DMS companies, the past decade has been a slow transition from being a software application write to adding the skills of system integrator.  We need to integrate these additional systems and processes both online and offline to provide both the customer and dealer staff with a simple, pleasant experience.

Largely, this is done by all systems providing standard APIs which allow different systems to easily interface with the DMS - for example in Navigator we have "Engage 360" which is less of a product and more of a "Scaffolding" to support the interfaces with other systems that are needed.

However, this only provides a certain level of generic touchpoints and generally isn't seamless.

Building Strong Partnerships is Key

It has been necessary for many DMS vendors to work with key-partners such that as many areas as possible the experience becomes seamless.   A great example of this is our own Vehicle Health Check system.     It is powered under the scenes by AutoVHC from Snap-on, but is so tightly integrated with our Navigator solution, that to a casual user the only "seam" is the AutoVHC logo that appears on some of the screens.

This is the future of computing in dealerships and dealers will increasingly migrate to DMS solutions with accompanying products and solutions which provide a mix of the best customer and staff experience through integration of best-of-breed systems.

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