Autodeals

Dealer management systems (DMS) are often touted as the dealer’s version of an ERP, making effective dealership operations possible every day. Before the existence of the DMS, dealerships had to rely on several different applications to support each of their business departments. Even today, most traditional DMSs being on-premise fail to meet dealers’ expectations as they are forced to run multiple instances of a DMS for every remote location. Moreover, with legacy DMS software that is either platform or machine-dependent, dealers end up paying hefty monthly sums for maintenance and backup. In today’s connectivity age, dealers need a complete cloud-based DMS solution that serves their every business need without compromising on security.

Enter Autodeals, a comprehensive dealer management system that accomplishes everything with one cloud-based platform where most dealerships require three or four applications to perform. “Autodeals offers the complete solution from CRM to dealer management, accounting, payment solutions, service center, and full digital retailing in the market today,” says Patrick Wyer, President of Autodeals. A cloud-based DMS solution provider, Autodeals offers a fully mobile DMS that works across all devices with solutions including dealer management, accounting, auto-collections, electronic signatures, Lender Hawk, messaging and CRM, websites and leads, service center, and wholesale dealers. “With our DMS’ fully integrated digital retailing features, dealerships do not need to handle several different applications for separate tasks,” says Wyer.

Autodeals’ fully automated DMS offers a complete backup of cloud-based data and allows the movement of that data through data centers and out of the cloud. Ensuring no downtime, the application enables dealerships to access their information remotely. The DMS solution allows dealers to activate a new location in 15 minutes, after which all of the procedures, processes, documentation, contracts, and everything will be immediately available.

ENABLING DEALERSHIPS TO GO WORRY-FREE

As the DMS is built with integrated payment solutions, Autodeals designed the SaaS with a level of security in mind. “In line with our business continuity thought, we have established modern security controls in our DMS, enabling dealerships to go worriless about the data,” says Wyer. Equipped with role-based access control to ensure a high level of security, the system enables other locations to operate consistently. In terms of data management and security controls, the company has built the application considering what the government or large corporations have to enable other businesses

With the dealer management software as its core solution, Autodeals provides a base CRM alongside the SaaS offering.
The software can be enhanced with the messaging CRM and the other digital retailing features such as accounting, payment solutions, and more as addons.Autodeals can size the software based on its usage, from a single location with three users up to a multilocation with many users.
On the dealer management end of the software, Autodeals’ supports every deal type, from ‘buy here, pay here’ to finance, cash, and wholesale, to ‘lease here, pay here.’ With the company operating primarily in eight states, its software is built with the documentation to support all 50 states in the U.S. in finance law contracts, including registration fees and taxes, among other dealership services. “We have over a thousand forms in our DMS software that help dealerships in their risk management tasks or in carrying out business deals,” says Wyer.

A common challenge that dealerships face is collecting stipulations such as driver’s licenses, insurance cards, and payroll information. Autodeals’ eCRM offering enables dealerships to communicate with customers through their phones or the software’s messaging system to send or receive documents instantly. The eCRM provides automatic scheduling, a highly developed lead-handling system, and a messaging library that Dealerships can leverage to manage communication with customers.

Additionally, Autodeals has an international messaging partner that enables the guaranteed delivery of messages to customers via phone or email. This allows the company to deliver contracts as well. “The days of dealers sending documents via email in an insecure manner should be over with Autodeals,” says Wyer. Unique for its comprehensive offering for regional independent dealerships, Autodeals provides a lender portal and e-contract offering for local auto and non-auto dealers to connect and carry out financial B2B transactions securely.

For robust dealer management, Wyer stresses the importance of having expense management. The accounting system in Autodeals’ DMS can automate upto53 percent of the accounting transactions, handling both payment receipts and expenses in a beneficial way for both dealer operations and back-end accounting. The company offers a true transaction accounting system that powers a comprehensive profit and loss and balance sheet to keep dealers’ books balanced 24/7/365.

DRIVING SUPERIOR BUSINESS RESULTS

To demonstrate Autodeals’ prowess in the realm of dealer management, Wyer mentions a dealership with 100 cars in inventory across three locations. Each location was running with a stand-alone dealer management software. Each location operated differently, reported information separately and had inconsistent business results. The management was frustrated with the operating results, staff turnover, inventory turn, and constant fire fighting required to keep the locations running. That was when they circled in on Autodeals, who helped them establish a streamlined operations process from customer lead to accounting after the sale. Upon signing, all three locations were activated the next day, their data was migrated, and the Dealership was up and running. Now with location P&L, consistent business practices across all stores, and visibility to their business 24x7, the owners have the peace of mind and confidence to look to the future for growth. The dealer can drive superior business results and pinpoint trouble conditions much earlier through a fully mobile, cloud-based solution.

Focused on expanding its geographical footprint to operate in all 50 states of the U.S. successfully, Autodeals hones its business expertise by working with different bureaus of motor vehicles and DMVs around the U.S. They also plan to develop their regional lender relationships and grow the dealer-to-lender B2B transactions. As the company develops, Autodeals aims to move forward with a variety of business intelligence capabilities that align with its SaaS solution to provide additional features that further address the challenges of how dealerships operate.