System Admin.

[Scannh]

With dealerships becoming more and more high tech, I'd like to ask the following questions.
Who is the System Admin. for your dealer?
How large is your dealer?
And what other positions does the Admin. hold if any?
We have over 30 Techs. 6 countermen, and 2 sites.
Between Era, Access, DSL, T1, Fiber Optic feeding 3 buildings, Docvantage, Partsvision, CCC Body Shop Estimating, DCS over 30 Pc's and a Meridian phone system it seems like the admin. position is becoming somewhat overwhelming and probably needs to be a full time position.

[Doug]

We faced the same dilemma. Regular staff became overwhelmed with the tasks at hand. We tried an outside "on call administrater".....I wouldn't recommend it.

We threw in the towel and hired a full time systems admin. Our only regret is that we didn't do it three or four years ago. His *only* job is to keep all our different computer systems up and running and to keep the dealer webpage current.

Our size? We have 5 carlines. We normally have about 120 employees, sell 150-180 new/used per month, 800 fleet per year, and write about 1100-1300 service and b/shop RO's per month.

If at all possible within the size/budget of your store, I'd strongly urge you to NOT pollute the system admin's job with other miscellaneous duties.

Cheers,
Doug

[jargonaut]

I think with the advent of all this technology more and more dealership workers find themselves overburdened with the tasks and feel it is a wise investment to have a full time systems person when your dealership needs it. The question is when does a dealership need it and how they identify this need since cost factors are all too often taken at face value by many dealers and never looked at as long term investments for a smoother running more profitable in long run outfit. Here in NYC area Ive seen just a few dealerships with full time administrators for systems and those few stores had excellent running computer systems and never waited for outside vendors. Its money well spent when done right in my opinion. What is funny and made me reply here in Parts forum was my last full time job at a dealer as a warranty administrator was where the parts manager was the de facto system person and we all looked to him for answers.


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Alan The Warranty Guy

[joe r]

Our systems administrator was a sales person at our dealership at one time. He just kind of evolved from minor computer repair and phone maintainence into a full time administrator.

He does all equipment purchasing, changes to the telephone system, installation of computers and liason with the vendors.

He also has a photographic memory for numbers which is invaluable. His time is so spread out we went now schedule his time through the business manager. He also goes to the DMV and the bank.

When he is on vacation (like this week) I get to remember what it was like to call in my problems and wait on hold.

We are a meduim sized Chrysler/Jeep/Mazda
dealer selling about 160 - 200 new and used monthly.

Joe R

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[This message has been edited by joe r (edited 06-29-2001).]

[This message has been edited by joe r (edited 06-29-2001).]

[Richard]

Easy Answer, I am the Parts Manager, and the defacto Sys Admin. Someone else holds the title Sys Admin, but I get to fix anything that breaks, spec out new equipment, work with any outside services needed, ect. We have a full-time internet person, but he can't fix anything.

GM Dealership; selling approx 100 new per month; 50 employees, 35 pc's on 5 locations.

[Hawk]

Small dealership....24 employees and 45-50 new and used a month. I, as Dealer Principle, am the SA only because I am the only one who knows how. I have grown to like it up until now. We have 11 PC on the GM Access P2P network, half of which are emulating ADP terminals. Even for our business it it getting to the point that we could use some outside help. I would say 12-15 PC's in the dealership, you should start looking for some kind of outside help.

Tom Hawkins

[This message has been edited by Hawk (edited 07-02-2001).]

[ScottM]

I would encourage you to talk to your R&R Account Manager. R&R can provide a "one call does it all" support for phone lines, T1, Internet, 3rd party networks and more. It has been really great to have a source where a single entity can rap their arms around an issue and eliminate the finger pointing and provide support for all of these leaving me to only supplement what they can't provide. You will be surprised how much they can do.

[dantana]

A system admin can be an invaluable asset for a dealership organization. With today's technology environment, it's extremely difficult to stay abreast of the IT issues and requirements just from the manufacturers themselves, not to mention properly administering your own network and in-house system. Also, consider your admin being able to increase your staff's utilization of EXISTING computer resources to increase your efficiencies (we could all use more time these days); no dealership is using all that's currently available to them. There is much to gain from having someone who is dedicated full-time to your technology issues - and depending on the size of the organization (and the number of franchises you have), one person may not even be enough to handle the load.

[This message has been edited by dantana (edited 07-06-2001).]

[This message has been edited by dantana (edited 07-06-2001).]