ADP--NOT AGAIN !!!

[DPLAUTO]

Read these comments on the Parts Forum and thought they might be relevant to this discussion. Good points.

Here it is:

I have been in the industry for over 20 years selling technology solutions to Dealers. I do not work for either UCS or RR but I have intimate knowledge of both systems and business practices. Both systems will run a dealership nicely. Both systems have their share of positive references and customers that will attest to the benefits of their product over the competitors.
RR strong suit is its relationship with its customers and its marketing aptitude. It has not however been a successful development company. All of its internal efforts to build a new system from scratch have failed. It has purchased most of its technology from other sources and meshed this together to create its current offering. This is not all bad though it does limit its ability to upgrade its product continuously.

UCS, on the other hand, has a poor reputation from a customer service and relationship standpoint. It insists on long term contracts and takes advantage of dealers during negotiations by exchanging contract length for upfront monetary concessions.

Dealers often find themselves trapped in contracts that start at 7 years and have been rumored to extend over 20 years (hard to believe but true) This leads to much bad mouthing especially during buy-sell's and expense reduction modes. They will not let you out.

UCS's does however have a pure advantage in its software features. The best and most comprehensive system without comparison. UCS is a development company and has built and reengineered its own software to adapt to the changing industry. The question is do you need everything that they offer.

My suggestion to you is that you make a list of all of the features that are important to your operation. Ask both companies to add features that their system performs but is not on your list. Combine the list and verify these features and functionality at one of their references sites. Do a cost justification on the extra features and then evaluate vendors for price and terms.

Good luck,

Industry Expert

ps: Watch out for price increases on monthly support fees. Tie these to no greater than CPI. Also, negotiate terms for extra peripherals, memory and disk storage up front. Software changes may force you to add memory and disk and if you negotiate too good of a deal upfront then they will get you on the add-on.