Switching from ADP to Arkona

[bfree]

We are a GM store and switching from ADP to Arkona, what are common pitfalls in the switch over and how would you recommend us to minimize those? Thanks

[Richard]

What are you switching FROM?

As with any switch, keep 2 things in mind.
1) Training- you get out of it what you put in it. If you don't go, or don't pay attention, don't blame the DMS vendor. Make sure any and ALL employees attend every training session.
2) W-I-P - don't let it exist. Close everything you can prior to the switch.

Next, go in with an open mind. Whatever system you are on now, the new system will NOT do things the way you do it now. In the long run, you'll learn how to use the new system in ways that you couldn't use the old one. And, your dealership will be saving a LOT of money over ADP or R+R.

I see you're not too far away, feel free to contact me, parts "AT" Wilsoncountymotors.com.

[This message has been edited by Richard (edited 08-18-2008).]

[bfree]

Thanks. Did you get your parts sales history to go over to Arkona properly? I wanted to see how to get the 12 month sales history by month by part to go over to Arkona so we could evaluate the RIM order properly.

[tsalmon]

Hold on to your shorts as our conversion was a huge mess. If you do wholesale, clean up and condense price codes as the conversion to this is messy. Have accounting take all customer names that have charge credit limits and remove the credit limits or they will be set up as wholesale parts customers. In Wisconsin we have a 17 digit tax resale number, Arkona only pulled 9 over.
Parts sales history is poor. After the conversion, my 12 months no sale went to zero. They offer nothing in the way of RPG or ENGLISH so get ready for a step backwards. Price escalation is a joke. There are no special order cards or a ways to print them. We have to use screen prints of ROs for this.
My list goes on and on so call me and I can warn you of the pitfalls. Mostly we had a lousy week on trainer that knew nothing. Many of our setup were done wrong and we are still fining error 6 months later.
Support is lousy, many people that try hard but dont know anything. I can give you a few names that may help. There were functions promised when we singed up for the system that still have to been resolved.
All in all this conversion was worse than I could have imagined. Good Luck
Tim Salmon
Hall Chevrolet Milwaukee WI
414-778-1500

[Richard]

Because we came over from EDS our parts sales history came over fine. Our service history, however did NOT pull over 100%. It pulled over the basics, but no detail such as part #, tech #, and work actually done. It pulled over complaint history, service writer, and basics like totals.

Yeah, ARKONA isn't R+R or ADP, it doesn't have simple ENG or code operations, but the information is there, you just have to dig a little to get to it. We were on ARKONA for the year before we went live on RIM, and we actually were able to reduce our OBS using the Phase-In/Phase-Out.

[This message has been edited by Richard (edited 08-21-2008).]