DealersEdge Professional Forums

It seems like the fun is never ending....

Our contract is up at the end of the month with Snap-on for the EPC and two standalones and a printer. We pay $544/mo out the door for everything currently.

New contract for the same 5 year term with new machines and a printer and usb updates went up to $515/mo plus tax so about $550/mo out the door.

These current machines run ok, but were new at the time of our current contract five years ago. We upgraded the hard drives in both about three years ago. They're a bit bitchy and slow when you first start them up, but once running they're fine. My concern is what do I do if one of these computers shits the bed partway through our contract. Do we go buy a PC on our own and then install the catalog ourselves?

We don't really need a new printer, the one we have does what we use it for most of the time. So that drops the contract to $410 a month for two catalog licenses and no machines. We would continue to use the existing equipment that we have now. I'm thinking that is for a 5 year contract.

I'd rather just pay Snappy the money and make it their problem if their product fails on us, but we're evaluating everything due to the fact that business is slow and we're facing an GM plant closure in about a month, business is going to get even slower.

Is snappy the only game for a GM parts catalog? I kinda feel like they're breaking it off in our ass....

MicroCat

They were good when new but after 5 years they would randomly shut down on us. We had out IT get us new Dells instead of those crappy no name snap-ons. With windows 7 phasing out at the end of this year you will need to get windows 10. We originally had a server and only had to update that with the discs. Now I do have to update individually but its a lot better with USB.We strictly use the online version because its much faster and I can use the zoom to enlarge the whole screen unlike the standalone that you can only change the font. And yes you still have to have a license even if you only use the online version. Make sure you spec largest hard drives possible and have USB 3

We gave up using Snap On equipment a long time ago. We purchase our own PCs and run on the software only license. It is rare to have a problem. We do purchase business grade computers. The last time we purchased an HP workstation (a "heavier duty" computer not classified as a PC, but still is) running the latest i7 processor. It didn't make a lot of difference compared to an i5 PC until after they aged a while. The workstation has maintained the speed a little better but that may be just the chip difference.

As for printer - we just print to the CDK laser and don't worry about a catalog printer.

FixedManager wrote:MicroCat

Do you use it? What has your experience been with MicroCat?

bentwrench54 wrote:

FixedManager wrote:MicroCat

Do you use it? What has your experience been with MicroCat?

I just called MicroCat and they DO NOT offer a GM Parts Catalog.

Thank you for that information.

Looks like Snappy it is...

*grumble mutter cuss*

Parts007 wrote:

bentwrench54 wrote:

FixedManager wrote:MicroCat

Do you use it? What has your experience been with MicroCat?

I just called MicroCat and they DO NOT offer a GM Parts Catalog.

I wasn't aware of that. I will have my employees stop using it immediately

We are most likely going to just upgrade our existing computers to windows 10 and sign a contract for licenses only.

The computers still work fine, so we will keep them in place for now. I'm testing windows 10 on them now.