Many manufacturers are currently focusing on “professionalizing” their dealership networks, and have set up formal programs through which they share best practices, train dealership managers and staff on these practices, motivate dealers to achieve implementation, and in many cases require dealers to do so.
In general, these projects are achieving excellent results: dealers become more profitable, organized and efficient; customer satisfaction increases; and overall results become more predictable.
The one thing missing in most of these projects is the software backbone that allows dealers to record and track what needs to be done as part of these manufacturer initiatives.
We’ve worked with manufacturers on many joint projects, so that their dealers can have the capability within Autologica DMS to do the specific things that manufacturers require of them.
Here are some of the things we can do:
Manufacturer interfaces
Our clients benefit from interfaces between Autologica DMS and manufacturers, in order to optimize the sending and receiving of data between the two. Data is sent quickly, automatically, and error-free.
Integration with other applications
Some manufacturers want their dealers to use other standalone applications, and sometimes these are web-based.
We can integrate Autologica with third-party applications to provide a seamless experience for dealership users.
Manufacturer specific features
We sit down with manufacturers to understand what they want their dealers to do, and how they want them to do it. Then, we configure Autologica so it works in exactly that manner. When necessary, we can develop manufacturer specific features into the software.
Best practices
Many manufacturers recommend, or even require, dealers to implement their “best practices” in the different departments, with a focus on aftersales operations: Parts and Services.
We help by setting these best practices up within the dealer management system upon rollout, and also do this on an ongoing basis as manufacturers are continuously initiating improvements.
Standardized reports
Many manufacturers want their dealers to provide them with monthly reports prepared in a specific and consistent fashion. In most cases, this means dealers must work outside the DMS, in a spreadsheet, to prepare these reports.
We work with OEMs to include these reports inside Autologica to make things easier for dealers, reducing time and error, and ensuring exact compliance with manufacturer standards. And we do this continuously as part of our lifetime relationship with manufacturers.
We can even provide electronic filing of dealership reports to the manufacturer to make things even easier.
Standardized indicators
Manufacturers may want dealers to track specific management indicators. We can work with OEMs to set these indicators up in Autologica, to ensure consistency across the dealership network.
Of course, dealers can additionally set up their own specific indicators if they wish.
Dealership evaluations
More and more manufacturers are evaluating dealers based on OEM-specific criteria, and awarding benefits and penalties based on these results.
We help by setting up manufacturer-specified indicators within Autologica so that dealers can track how they are doing, and plan improvements accordingly.
Training
In many projects we provide joint training together with manufacturers.
In these courses, manufacturers show their dealers what they want dealers to do, usually in the form of best or recommended practices, and our trainers then show dealers how they can do it within the Autologica DMS.
This is a very successful practice and a great way for manufacturers to ensure that dealers implement new procedures, because dealers now know what to do and how to actually do it.
Benchmarks
Autologica can compile data from dealerships on a regional or national level into one big database. Manufacturers can then analyze individualized and consolidated reports, view overall and departmental performance, drill-down to see lower level data, and analyze benchmarks among their dealers.
