ADP buys Dealer Solutions

[Kevin Kavanagh]

Since we have had conversations here in the past about computer vendors and specifically Dealer Solutions - ADP on May 11, 1999 announced they had signed a definitive agreement to acquire Dealer Solutions Inc. (DSI)subject to approval by DSI's stockholder.

What does this mean for DSI clients? The good news is since ADP is already an approved vendor for just about every manafacturer's DCS, these approvals should now be improved or initiated quickly since only platform approval of the software will be needed. This also should create opportunties to receive additional manufacturer information such as warranty guides, etc.

For ADP users your investment in ADP Millenium platform should be safe and you will be positioned to move to the other software when ADP is ready.

When will ADP actively market the DSI platform? The verdict on this will probably be out for a while. ADP won't make this software go away and they will most likely try to completely web-enable the software which was something DSI needed to do anyway.

It will be interesting to see what R&R will announce in the future. Changes are coming fast to the computer side of the business and if you would like to discuss any of this with me please send me a message.


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[sallen1]

I hope this IS good for ADP dealers. My past experience with ADP-purchase of competitors has not been good. There was the Service Advisor computer write-up system that was to integrate 'seamlessly' and we are still waiting for the release that allows for the Hayes-Ligon service estimating program to work with the service-writeup function. There is also the body shop estimating system that ADP purchased several years ago: We have to run it separately (although it will run on our 8800) because we are required to upload photos, etc. to the insurance companies. These are functions that should open and write RO's without alot of duplicate entry.

Perhaps our system is outdated and we have a weak sales rep. but when I was very involved in ADP's product development 5 years ago, the items mentioned above were going to be written into the release levels PS/PT-620/920. What happened?

[Kevin Kavanagh]

The PS/PT 620 (for 8800's on AC580)/920(for 9000 series on AC900) release does have the Hayes-Ligon or Service Pricing System (SPS) integrated and it is in general release. They have done a number of other things to improve communication between parts and service also.

The body shop piece will probably never be all the way there and the newest release of Super Service Advisor is much more integrated that before although there are still a couple of ERO kinks.

Any other questions let me know.

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[daponik]

Let's just hope the the DSI software doesn't go the same route as the CARS Dyatron software did when ADP bought them out.

[Michael White]

When is ADP and R&R going to get up to speed and use PC, (windows) based systems that could allow extreme flexibility? They charge us so much money for sytsems that are really 10 years old in design and functionality. To get changes made takes forever. Both companies, like all other dominant companies, will buy out any start up company that looks like it could be a threat. I think there should be a groupd of 10-15 dealers get together, with a venture capitol person, and map out system in terms of functionality and look for a builder. If it works, you would be gaurenteed to make millions because one of them will buy you out.

Mike

[Kevin Kavanagh]

Mike,

What you are suggesting sounds like Dealer Solutions! Unfortunatley the Dealer Solutions example shows up how difficult and expensive this can be. They worked for almost two years developing the system before the "went public". In the two years since they have sold some 25 systems. ADP & R&R average about 100 boxes a month in sales! Dealer Solutions also had to deal with the manufacturer issues. Getting a new vendor approved by the manufacturers is not a quick and easy prospect. Some manufacturers have stated in the past that they will only do business with ADP, R&R and UCS. You might remember reading about Volvo saying notot UCS and UCS challenging them in court.
This market is clearly ready for a new player but remember that PC's alone are not the solution. They are only the tool. The key to success with systems, including what you have today, is a process that allows the tool, the computer, to be effectively used. Even though the systems out there are not perfect, dealers generally use less than 50% of the capacity they have! Our computer consulting group spends 72% of it's time helping dealers improve their utilization and return on investment. Until a new choice comes along your best option is to increase your utilization and maximize the return.

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[Chuck Hartle]

In response to Michael White and and PC based system, it really already exists. I have mentioned this before but it bears repeating. With the new ADP 9200 or 9300 system, you can use PC's to interact with your mainframe. Rather than use "dumb" terminals that can only do 1 multisession, purchase PC's and an immulation program that will allow as many sessions as your port configuration allows. While this is not a 'true' PC based environment, it gives you the ability to create a Peer to Peer environment with your PC's or attach an NT server to the PC's along with your ADP mainframe. It is possbile and it is happening today. At least in this stage of the game, you can have the best of both worlds without trying to come up with one box does it all solution. There is absolutely no reason today that you can't connect all your systems together that you already have in place with TCP or Telnet. In the dealership I was recently with we had the following network:
1. ADP
2. Bell + Howell Cataloging
3. Bell + Howell IMS
4. Data Consultants
5. Chrysler DCS (2 of them)
6. 32 PC's
7. NT Server
We had all of these connected and the PC's we able to literally talk with any one of the systems. Put your money into connecting what you already have instead of wishing and hoping for the next "Dealer Solution" DMS. You might have to upgrade your DMS to ERA-Link or the new ADP box, but you can certainly save some money by purchasing low end PC's and immulation packages and lose the monthly maintainance fees on most of your video hardware. Just be sure not to short yourself when it comes to ports. The way I calculated our port needs was to multiply all the employees in the store using ADP times 3 less the technicians and the printers to come up with enough ports to satisfy our productivity.
If you can imagine this scenario: A service writer having 4 ADP sessions, a IMS session, a DCS session, and a connection to the internet, and Microsoft Word open with a "thank you" letter open all with several keystrokes and all open and ready to use. This isn't wishful thinking, it is reality today!

[This message has been edited by Chuck Hartle (edited 05-28-99).]

[This message has been edited by Chuck Hartle (edited 05-28-99).]

[Gerry Laughlin]

I have to agree with Chuck on this one. We are currently running 40 clients on our system, through the use of three routers, each PC has access to ESI, Prospec, the internet, GM's Intranet and any other software we wish to run. As far as true interconnectivity between the in-house DMS and GM no matter what you go with it will still be somewhat lacking, but this isn't R&R or ADP's fault. Look at how often GM has changed VOM's, ESI, and Prospec, how is anybody supposed to write software to truly interface with these programs when the program changes every other month. Also, in the long run ADP may be ahead of the game by sticking with UNIX, look at what gains are being made in the LINUX operating system. For anybody that doesn't know what LINUX is, it is the first OS in recent memory to give WINDOWS a run for it's money, primarily because the price is right, FREE. It runs on PC's (just like Windows). I believe that we are going to see some huge changes in Dealer Management Systems in the next five years, I just don't think now is the time to make the change from the stability of a UNIX Server to a instability of a Windows based Server.

[jwstrickland]

We also have 30+ PC's w/ a seperate server connected to ADP, connected to GMAccess, connected to the internet, etc. The problem is .....How do we give the service writers the many other phone, fax, cellular, beeper #'s, etc. along with other helpful info (ie. spouses name, kids name, birthdays, etc) & maintain only 1 database? If the service writers had another Contact Database (like ACT!) available we could keep all the needed info however, it would be impossible to keep both databases updated. Either the ADP or the ACT! database would get updated but not both. Then before long neither of the databases would have update adresses, #'s, etc that is necessary for staying in contact with your customers.

I have heard that ADP's newest update, Elite or Elite Plus would offer many of the fields necessary to do the above, I have also been told that it wouldn't be able to do this. Does anyone know? It would be nice to do this without ADP. Imagine getting mutliple answers.

Also, has anyone found how to retreive the info we are sending to GM thru the GMAccess new vehicle reporting feature. It would be very useful to be able to retreive who purchased under GMS/GMO, who bought GMPP's, etc.

Suggestions appreciated. Thanks

[This message has been edited by jwstrickland (edited 06-26-99).]

[This message has been edited by jwstrickland (edited 06-26-99).]

[David Cates]

ADPs Elite Plus is a PC-based application designed to make navigation throughout the system easier and faster, using a mouse and icons. There are also some standard reports, which will be a part of the software. Elite Plus Professional will give dealers the capability of downloading data from the DMS to various databases. To my knowledge, ADP has not mentioned providing any extra fields to put additional demographic information in. This is currently a problem for several of my clients as well. Even finding a field to input an email address is not easy. Hopefully this problem will be addressed in a software update in the near future.

It is currently possible to download data from your ADP system into PC applications such as Excel, Word, and ACT, using Reflections 6.0 or the old PC-Connect (which is going away). This new release (6.0) gives you the ability to download report information using either an English statement or a report set up in RPG (Report Generator).

I am currently working with a dealership that uses an ACT database for their marketing purposes. They were manually inputting all of the ADP information into ACT (prospects, vehicle sales, and service RO information). Just the service information alone was taking about a day of their time. We have cut this down to about 5 minutes a day by setting up a download from ADP to ACT. Once you get the information from ADP to Excel, for example, it becomes relatively easy to import to other PC applications. ACT is an easy to use and easy to maintain contact management application and the mapping to import data from external applications is relatively simple.

Hope this makes sense.