Why is GM really getting into the DMS business?

[MHirn]

I will cut right to the chase and let you all know that I am a current employee of the Automotive Retail Group and have supported the Saturn business for more than 12 years.

It is unfortunate that the Saturn DMS business was recently awarded to the folks out of Dayton, but at the same time I also understand business decisions like this take place everyday to ensure you are providing the best products and/or services to your customers. My only concern is that the Value proposition to a retailer has changed multiple times since the original announcement was made.

The current Saturn DMS (CSRS) is very unique and the most robust by far to the rest of the DMSs in the market today as it relates to OEM Integrations. At last count there was well over 100 unique integration points with the OEM that are not currently offered across the rest of the GM Brands. Some of these touch points are what I would call nice to have and others that have reduced the necessary staff count required to run a Saturn Facility vs. a typical Chevrolet Store (ex: parts employees, warranty clerks to name a couple)

As mentioned by SATURN01 in previous posts these unique integration features will be replaced (or not) with the various GM Workbenches down the road. My only question is the timing of each. The workbench conversations started over 4 years ago and to date only 3-5 have been completed out of a total of roughly 25. SATURN01 also states that the service workbench will be rolled out next year (2007). I recently attended a GM DSP meeting on March 28th 2006, pertaining to the topic of GMs Global Warranty Workbench (service workbench) and the dates provided during this meeting as it relates to pilot and general release in the US were sometime in 2008. The last I heard the Saturn migrations are to start in fourth quarter of 2007 through 2008. I think there may be an incorrect dependency attached to the current GM project plan.

[drapp]

Yesterday I spoke with one of the "smaller / newer" DMS providers. The account manager asked me about a rumor she had heard. This rumor was that General Motors is considering (or has approved) charging dealers that use non IDMS equipment a fee. The fee within the rumor is $1500 per month.

Anyone else heard of this?

[JKcars]

Are any other Saturn team members experiencing this....the local Reynolds guy keeps calling us wanting to set-up a meeting to walk through our store and do an analysis. In addition, they keep sending me a template that they want me to fill out with all our department managers name, and contact information, our gross sales figures, vehicles sold, RO's per month, number of system users, our CRM vendor and our forms vendor. I think this is a bit presumptuous on their part. We haven't signed any agreement with them yet. I am hearing it may/will be years before the systems are changed out. Seems like these guys act like we have signed some contract with them already. In addition to the Saturn stores, they want the same data for the other stores.

I am back burnering this thing until somebody shows us how it is going to make us more money and sell more product.

[Matt Parsons]

Jkcars, being that your current contract for your Saturn stores is not between you and ADP, you may have no choice but to comply. I assume a contract has been entered into for your business, and it is between GM and R+R.

Hope this helps.

P.S., it does seem a bit early to be collecting this type of data (almost 18-28 months in advance of GM's stated roll-out schedule), but who knows why they need it now.

[saturn01]

JKcars Matt is correct, Saturn has signed an agreement with R&R, Retailers will sign an agreement with Saturn for the system as per the Saturn Franchise Agreement.

With the change to begin in 3rd qtr '07, R&R is collecting data on Saturn's behalf for planning. Check with your field rep.

[JKcars]

My dealer just attended a meeting where the head guy from Reynolds was speaking. His name is something like Finbar O'neal. At the meeting, the subject of Idms came up and he said that he would not expect that an Idms system would be less expensive then a similar based system. He also said there was no unique integration to GM, but that Reynolds would receive the information first from GM so they should be first to market. Sounds like we are finally getting to the truth. I now see no reason to jump on this thing at all. Looks like we are right back where we started, making decisions about computer systems (except for Saturn) based on what works best for us and what we think we can afford - and I guess that is the way it should be.

[JKcars]

I just saw an ad by Cobalt in Digital Dealer magazine featuring Saturn of Marietta, and it made we question...will we still be able to use the Cobalt CRM package with the new Saturn system? I know Reynolds keeps telling me they have their own but we like Cobalt. If we can continue to use it, will Reynolds charge us anything to integrate to it just the way we do today?