DealersEdge Professional Forums

We've got DMS@Net and are generally very pleased. We have a DSL plugged into our hub, so the system functionality is just amazing. Anybody here with a PC can get out on the internet at very high speed, which is increasingly important with GM Dealerworld, Subaru's internet-based DCS, and our own management of internet customers and leads, not to mention the fact that the windows-based software means you can do 10 things at once. It's great.

In any event, I've got a "continuous improvement team" working within the dealership to find ways to maximize the effectiveness of all our available technology. They have approached me with questions regarding our EDS systems' capability, both current and future, to handle "e-commerce," and although I did notice that our last software release contains the ability to record e-mail addresses in the common name & address file, I haven't heard about any "vision" for the system as to planned capabilities. It would seem to be a fairly simple matter to have a program like "mail merge" that would do "e-mail" merge and do service and sales mailers for us. Is this on the way?

I guess I'm concerned in general that EDS may be relinquishing what I certainly perceived as a huge advantage in system cost and functionality by not moving faster on these internet-related issues. You guys have (had?) a real opportunity to carve out a chunk of the market for yourselves, and I'd hate to see that window close. My rep tells me that I'm an "advanced user" and that most other dealers don't have a DSL hooked into their systems, or even care about most of this stuff. WHY NOT? Seems like a hell of an opportunity for EDS reps to help dealers to get out front and "build a better mousetrap." Why not partner with a DSL provider (IBM?) and make a little money at it?

I'd love to hear what you think, Matt.

Tim Kelly
Kelly Cadillac/SAAB/Subaru
Chattanooga, TN

Tim, just wanted you to know that I have seen your posting and will be responding on 08/17.

Matt

Tim, first of all, let me say that your idea of having a continuous improvement team within your dealership working to find ways in which to maximize the effectiveness of your IT investment is a great idea, and one that I have not heard of many dealerships doing.

The issue that many dealers (and dealerships) face is that the world of IT is foreign to them and an area where they have a lack of comfort in terms of terminology, usage, and general understanding. This is not surprising, as most dealers have built very successful businesses on the basis of their personal beliefs and intuitions, highly extroverted personalities, and the ability to build one-to-one relationships in a face-to-face business environment. Unfortunately, with the advent of the internet (primarily an information exchange medium) combined with robust and inexpensive communication delivery mediums, consumerism is changing to be less relationship oriented with the balance of power (information) shifting to the consumers side, away from the retailer. When this fact is combined with the fact that most dealerships do not have IT professionals on staff (such as a Dealer Information Officer job description available on our website www.eds.com/arg), they struggle with how to make IT a strategic differentiator versus a tactical day-to-day tool.

I have been on the road for the past 2 years speaking at events such as NADA Conventions, NADAs IT Symposiums, to State Dealer Associations, and to both dealer groups and OEMs about this exact issue how to evolve from the world of the Analog Dealer to that of the Digital Dealership. Inevitably, after every one of these presentations, I am always approached and asked, so o.k., what does EDS have to sell me that will make me a Digital Dealer? The answer is nothing (well my sales team is going to kill me now). The answer is that no one in our industry has an end-to-end solution that can be bought and implemented in one fell swoop. Multiple suppliers bring multiple pieces to the table. There certainly are tools that can help get you closer, like Executive Assistant, however my basic tenet is that becoming Digital and working with the New Consumer is more of a shift in business attitude, business processes, and willingness to experiment with new delivery formats for old world offerings, than it is a systems installation issue.

Now I will get off my soap box.

Several things that EDS is doing to keep us and ultimately our clients ahead of the power curve are;

EDS is serving as a member on the NADA STAR Committee. This elite group of participants representing Dealers, OEMs, and Dealer Systems Providers (DSP) is working to implement standards across automotive retailing for systems integration and communications. Not having a set of standards in place is causing our industry to end up with a jumbled mess of systems and offerings that may offer positive benefits to dealers, but dont effectively talk to each other and exchange data and information easily from application to application, platform to platform. The progress of this group has been slow going (many opinions and options to evaluate), however progress is being made.

EDS has also recently teamed up with Jon Lancaster and his Car America team to look at how to bring full end-to-end solutions to the table that radically change how systems are used, implemented, and designed which will change the ability of a dealership to work effectively with their clients and prospects through all phases of the vehicle buying and ownership life-cycle. Within the past month, as a key member of Jons team, we have signed an agreement with a major Japanese OEM to implement this total solution vision for their dealer network starting this Fall.

Lastly, EDS is working with IBM and will be announcing a solution within the next 30 days that provides the following offering to any dealership, regardless of which DSP they are using: Unlimited Internet Access, Email for the dealership (both internal and external), Firewall Security, Secure Remote Access to your internal network, Ability to create and maintain your own retail internet and intranet sites, coupled with EDS support.

Tim, I hope this answers many of your questions, and would look forward to meeting you in your store the next time I am in your area or when travelling with Bob Christmas.

P.S., Executive Assistant has powerful capabilities in the areas of mail merge and e-mail merge for service and sales. I have asked Bill Stanton from our Portfolio Management Team to provide more details on this capability (as I am aware you already have EA implemented).

Matt Parsons

Tim,

Executive Assistant gives you the ability to pull your requested data, including e-mail field, off the AS/400 and pull it into an EXCEL spreadsheet. From Microsoft Word, you can use their mail merge functionality to import the EXCEL sheet information into a formatted document that you would use to do a targeted mailing.

I am currently researching MS Words e-mail capability, but I believe you can do an automated e-mail campaign from Word. I will let you know the details behind this functionality as I move forward.

Thanks for your question!

Bill Stanton
EDS/ARG Portfolio Manager

Tim,

You can follow these steps for e-mailing your WORD document. NOTE: I am still researching the ability to automate this process.

To send your document directly from Word via e-mail, follow these steps:

1.) On the File menu, point to Send To, then click Mail Recipient.

NOTE: If Send To is not available on the File menu, you must install Microsoft Outlook or Microsoft Exchange.

2.) In the Profile Name box, select Microsoft Outlook or MS Exchange Settings, and then click OK.

3.) Word will add an e-mail header to the document.

4.) Type the e-mail name of the recipient on the To line or select the e-mail name from your Personal Address Book.

5.) Click Send a Copy.