What are your thoughts on this DMS? Likes, dislikes, experiences?

How about I give you questions to ask? So as to not unfairly pick on R&R, ask any DMS vendor and see how they do. R&R's answers won't be much different than the others.

1) Parts inventory subledger is a free floating concept and not a true subledger. It runs as a separate system and entries posted in it may or may not be posted in the accounting system (and vice versa). It is like this because way back in the dawn of time parts was added after the accounting system was built (or maybe it was the other way around). The only time a dealer really knows how much parts inventory he or she has is when they do a full count and reconciliation. In 2007 this is a horrible internal control and material risk (Sarbanes-Oxley?) around one of a dealer's most material assets.

2) Batch processing... come on... parts invoices and service repair orders "post" to accounting each night... this is 2007 and DMS is a lone island of batch processing in 80+% of its customers. How does your DMS do it?

3) Accessories + reconditioning on vehicle inventory... can't tell you how many dealers have written off thousands and thousands of dollars because once again the vehicle subledger and accounting costing are two independent systems. Mix in we-owes and miscellaneous open RO items, PO's and licensing differences and nothing short of extreme vigilance by a very dedicated controller keeps this in sync. Ever had that problem?

4) Parts Inventory Management... street rumor is R&R is better. If you are a Ford dealer, UCS is even better than that (they do have really cool workflow and reports around unique Ford programs). Not surprising, UCS used to be Ford's DMS system before they sold it to its current owner. Take your manager with you to another store during consideration of a competing DMS. Have him or her study the daily workflow of the competing systems. Don't go with my street rumor... I'm just directing you to where you might want to look.

5) Reporting... again street rumor has ADP has the edge over R&R and UCS here. Ask every manager + service advisor, cashier and warrant clerk in your building to study how easily they will get their reports on the new DMS.

6) Repair Order write up... is it inflexible, unintuitive and linear? Miss a step and need to back up and you are starting over on the write up? Take your service advisors with you on a tour to a store using the DMS you are considering.

7) PO's required to be centrally issued vs. Point of Sale where they are needed... and really not tied in to accounting properly. Can you double pay an invoice because match one to a PO and do a demand check for invoice? For that matter, are demand checks checked to payables and PO's for duplicate entries?

8) Multiple dealership & multiple franchise ownership (dealer groups)... consolidation is a pipe dream at a meaningful operational level. Most significant groups use a high end solution (Hyperion?) to aggregate, transform to GAAP, but this destroys the ability to tunnel down to root level variances. If presented "branch accounting" or "consolidated accounting" examples by your sales rep, really dig in at a store that is using it to really understand what you are getting (and are not getting). Really study the mechanics and discipline as well as the info it produces. A factory financial statement that has "other new vehicle sales" is not what I need to run my business.

9) Allocation entries... set up a standard distribution for any of your accounts. Now post an entry to it to distribute it across your various departments. Want to understand what was posted afterwards? Do you have to add up each individual part. Is there an audit trail through the distribution account? Is this fun to do if you are a controller?

10) Database design... if a vendor talks about integration between their own system databases then it is a collection of systems and databases. That is not how properly built applications work. Integration is for external systems. Legacy systems cobbled together are not one system even if the marketing department uses a wheel, a circle or fancy words like holistic to promote it. And good luck integrating using API's when the data is transformed between the input screens and the db's... how do you ensure data pushed in is able to be used back up that chain?

Strengths...

I could list a 100 simple, repetitive things that these systems do really well.

No one ever got fired for selecting R&R nor ADP.

Of course you won't likely get promoted either. Lots of the status quo here. Unless you have a really good reason to change (poor service, lousy rep) the change will disrupt your store for some time. We are talking about the primary system most of your staff use all day long. If you are really good, you can negotiate a great deal from them.

If you can work ADP, you can work R&R. Makes it easy to hire + train staff able to quickly and easily get productive on simple, repetitive tasks. Everyone drives a Yugo on the information superhighway.

A DMS does a LOT of things beyond what I've written about above. Don't underestimate how much you may not know that you don't know.

Are you really such a power user that you can appreciate good workflow from bad for every user in your store? Good screen design from bad?

Factory integration is NOT equal. You can easily enough get exact info from your OEM as to each DMS company's integration point status.

And speaking of Factory integration... STAR (STAR - Standards for Technology in Automotive Retail) has defined 64+ data integration points for a dealer with their DMS and (primarily) its OEM to exchange data around. There are great operating efficiencies for both parties in them. That means people you won't have to have on your payroll. Still stocking in vehicles manually and maintaining your model + option tables? Try adopting "vehicle invoice" as a data integration point. As a dealer you can't do it by yourself. You need your manufacturer to get the DMS vendors to do it. Still $199/mo is a lot less $$$ than a person on your payroll.

Then how about an automated bank reconciliation program? Human intervention for follow up only around exceptions. At the last Chevy store I worked at this was almost a full time job to do manually. I'd pay $299/mo for an electronic solution that did most of it.

Ditto for parts vendor suppliers. Ditto for my open account with my OEM.

Choosing a DMS is not black and white. It is shades of grey, wrapped in a whole lot of you don't know what you don't know.

And that's before you get in to contract terms, length, conditions, control + ownership over data, hosting, environmental controls, etc.

I hope this helped.

These are all personal opinions based on my real world dealership experience.

If it was my dealership, I don't know what I would do. I honestly don't. The choice is not between R&R, ADP, UCS, Arkona, PBS, Quorum, DDS, Auto/Mate, ACS, AutoSoft, NeoSynergy or MPK, etc. and an ideal system. It is a choice among existing alternatives. Okay, I'm a little biased since I was a co-founder of Neosynergy (NeoSynergy, Inc. | Revolutionary Web Applications That Connect Auto Buyers and Dealers Online.) and while I still have what is now a minor non-voting stock holding, I have been entirely gone from it for 2+ years and in no way am associated with its continuing operations...

I do know that I prefer software vendors that are responsive and accept my input into their product roadmaps in near real time.

I do know that I am more excited about eCommerce (BUY vs. Inquire/leads) in automotive (Dealers: Let consumers buy cars online from you. eCommerce enabled by Artificial Intelligence rules! - Home) than I ever was about DMS. Its value innovation is far higher and better understood by those writing the checks (the dealers).

Best success.

Wow, very good post!

In my opinion, the reynolds 6910 is better than ADP's ENG statements. Is this what you are talking about? What do you mean 'the new DMS'?
It seems that STAR has not had a very big impact on the industry. STAR is not equal to car dealers as TREND is equal to real estate agents.
If I were a dealer I would certainly shun away from terminal programs and 10+ year contracts. Fortunately many DMS providers are offering web based applications.

By "New DMS" I was writing as if the reader was considering switching DMS's.

STAR has had an impact in 2 ways... it has paved the road for adoption which is still mostly to come. OEM adoption varies, so don't judge its success by any one OEM. Some are being quite aggressive about implementing the standards. Others lag. Has also been a primary driver in getting decent quality internet connectivity into nearly all dealerships... that's a huge plus.

To my knowledge, there is nothing terminal about either R&R, ADP, UCS and their 20+ year DMS's. They are old, but none of them has a next gen product they are replacing them with.

As for the contracts... caveat emptor

Ah, I didn't know STAR was involved with dealer internet connections. That is good. In the same respect then why is a dial-up modem still standard as an outside connection to the DMS? Some have VPN's but the majority only has an old modem.

By terminal program I mean reflections and eralink. They are the opposite of a windows application.

What about ADP Websuite ?

STAR is involved in every aspect of dealer to OEM (and 3rd party) integration:

• data fields included + format
• connectivity, including infrastructure
• transport, failure protocols, acknowledgements, etc.

STAR - Standards for Technology in Automotive Retail for more. Adoption varies widely by OEM and even after the OEM adopts, dealer signup + installation takes time to work thru the channel too.

Most OEM's have some manner of High Speed Internet Connection in place.

The dial up modems are mostly in place for the convenience of the DMS companies having a secure back up method to connect for support.

There is nothing wrong with terminal connections (they actually enable some useful functions like using a PC & data extracts). They just don't fix the fundamental underlying architectural & design limitations of the DMS (multiple databases, weak internal controls outlined in the prior post, insufficient management reporting for multi-franchise dealer groups, etc.)

ADP's websuite is like R&R's (forget the name). They are terminal connections with some nice dashboard reports pre-built. Believe both will allow allow for a hosted model (ASP), but still the same 25+ year DMS w same limitations running underneath it.

I only deal with the parts side primarily. We use R&R, the system for the most part is good and it runs fast which is a definite plus. A few minor complaints I have are the CAPS lock, after all this time, they can't write out of the programming the necessity of CAPS lock. I have to turn it on and off all day, it doesn't sound like much but it's a huge annoyance, now that we use the internet more and more to purchase and even look up parts and have to login to various websites all day, I can't just leave CAPS lock on. The other complaint I have is in the PO system. If I write a sublet to an RO and whomever wrote the ticket gives me the wrong RO#, but it isn't noticed until days later, it can't be reversed once it has posted to accounting, our Office Manager has yet to find a way to unlock it. This has caused many headaches especially on warranty tickets. The customer service tends to be lacking, and some of the reps are a little rude and lack customer service skills. They are foaming at the mouth to sell you the latest and greatest whatever, but after the sale, they don't have a clue how to support it. We're running around like chickens with our heads cut off trying to integrate all of our current hardware with whatever we bought from them and it always ends up costing a ton more money in the long run. Also don't do like we did and lease or purchase your PC's through them, you'd be money ahead to just buy new PC's every year, for the money you pay them for machines and then "maintenance" fees.

cville1987
fix for caps lock issue can be found here ERALink Tips
any problems feel free to email me

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Rich Schultz

Well, it does appear to work to a point. It will force the caps lock back on when I go back to ERA, but it seems after some time, it stays on when I go back to Internet Explorer. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't but I suppose it's better than it was. Thank you.