Shopping for new DMS....Reynolds to Dealertrack users??

[parts4life]

Hello all,

Our dealer is having us shop for a new DMS.
Does anyone have insight on the current Dealertrack DMS?

We have been on R&R for the last 19 years, and I'm wanting to cover my bases on the pro's and con's of the competition.
We write about 100 RO's per day and have 4 counter staff.
How was the transition?
Did they transfer ALL of your data correctly?
Ease of use for the counter staff? Service writers? Techs?

Any input would be greatly appreciated.

[MSInventory]

I haven't worked in a store with Dealertrack but have done numerous physical inventories for dealers that are on it so what I can offer is just what I've seen from the outside. The largest complaint I hear is the lack of being able to deep-dive into the numbers that make up the dynamics of your parts department. From what I understand, they do offer a "report generator", but I haven't found anyone with it yet. Another big issue is with the handling of special orders. Most stores that I've counted have shown QOH on special orders that have been sold on RO's, yet not relieved from inventory. They show up on the variance report after the count and most PM's are shocked. A few stores have got this down pat and have made it work so I believe it's just an issue of knowing how.

[MSInventory]

Oh, and the lack of an "IO" type "sell only" option sucks. Anything sold must be brought into the fold.

[chuckh]

dealertrack sucks!!!! I hate it..everything about it I hate. stay with r&r or adp...I like adp we had it before dealertrack. the switch was a learning curve to say the lease..DO NOT GO WITH DEALERTRACK!!!

[BINFILLER]

I agree with chuckh, Dealercrack (where did it go too) is pushed on fixed ops because your owners lean towards sales. They are quick to tell about their super sales software. The fixed end of their software is awful. Very outdated and poorly laid out. As far as their high ratings, they send you a email to reply about the customer service every time you call and you will call. So you get fed up answering so you just shortcut it. Hence the high ratings!

[parts4life]

Thanks for the input guys.
I'd love to find a dealer in the Chicagoland area that is using Dealertrack so that I can go see the system in use.

[brparts]

i never used dealer track, i have used insight, UCS, ADP and Reynolds & Reynolds. R&R is by far better than anything that i have used and i base that on 38yrs as a parts manager.the last dealer i worked for switched from R&R to UCS, big mistake.

[havewehitbottomyet]

Keep in mind that Dealercrap will give a big discount to the dealership that you visit to not tell you the truth, which is they suck. I've been on Reynolds, CDK and now Dealercrap since March. I have yet to talk to anybody that likes Dealercrap, both here at our dealership and talking to people at other dealers. Only one person likes it, the one paying the bill, and they don't have to use it. What ever money they think they saved, they more then lose in lost productivity. The gal that does our inventory said if she was a parts manger at a dealer switching to Dealercrap she would quit if that gives you some insight. Look at their special order process, it's pathetic. It has a couple nice features, core tracking and being able to login at home, but it fails miserably at everything else. If it's a money issue CDK is probably your best bet but I'm a Reynolds guy.

[EH427]

I am not sugar coating this.

We went from Reynolds to Dealertrack.
It is a lot cheaper but you will have more jobs to do now.

1. The obsolescence report does not take into account for protected items from RIM, ARO, Parts Eye etc. If you want to use it you will be trying to send back parts that are protected. Your best bet (if you have good excel skills) is to build your own report in DT and then use the protected parts list from your manufacture and remove the protected parts from the list by pasting the protected parts from the manf. to the list you create from DT and remove duplicates.

2. There is no place to receipt to a vendor for outside purchases. Pay close attention when you remove something from a job card that you picked up from another dealer. The only way you can possibly find it is the open purchase list and try and find it there, only problem is if you payables clerk pays off of the po it will not be on the list and worse yet some part numbers do not show up on the report at all. You will also have to think about how you run your department as DT wants you to EP (in and out sale) all outside purchases. If you are a GM dealer, batteries, accessories and tires are all items you stock but do not purchase from GM by creating an order in DT. So we do a negative sale on all of these 3 items (as we have to post them because we stock them) and ep the rest of the outside purchases. P.S. there is only room for 9 digits in the shipper number field.

3. There are a lot of reports that are incorrect, missing data fields or can not go high enough if you are a large dealer. Eg. a counter pad to see oil sales. It can only go 3 digits so if you sell more than 999 per month it will have 3 *'s. Your lifo (parts appreciation) report is incorrect as it will have all cost adjustments that you made when you pick up parts at another dealer. Run this for the last day to the 1st day of the month to get more accurate data. Throw the automated ones you get on the 1st in the trash as they are incorrect.

4. They will really only try to make changes in their DMS if there are a lot of other dealers reporting the same issue.

5. PO's need to match your accounting. You will have to adjust po's and/or train everyone in your department how to do accounting correctly on the po.

6. It will sometimes bill out warranty parts at the wrong price creating the need for journal entries for the warranty administrator. Also some of the three c's from warranty ro's will not push over to the manufacturer.

7. If you have a seperate body shop DMS it does not integrate and will essentially making your body shop a separate store from your dealership.

8. Shop tickets- we print them for every sale as the ticket will disappear (after a set number of days that you can adjust) if you want to try and save one and add to it through the week. The reason they disappear is there is not parts inquiry. You have to create a ticket to get price and availability. If you do not delete the ticket it will be on hold for the same set number of days.

9. In the beginning we had a lot of parts being SOLD AT COST on ro's for no reason. Also watch your accounting. There will be a lot of things that will need to be corrected.

10. If you are in a state that does not charge tax on cores. You will have to go into EACH CORE PART NUMBER and make it non taxable. They will help you with your inventory but YOU will have to do it for every part that has a core that you do not stock.

11. If you change your password for your manf. website you have to get ahold of your I.T. department to have them make it match in DT as you do not have access.

12. Parts to be deleted is a phase out report in transaction analysis that is only ran by quarters so you have to build your own from each report to clean up your bins of unnecessary tags and locations in your computer.

13. If you do a manual order you can not have the same part number listed twice. If your manf. restricts you to qty. 1 order per line for a certain part number you will have to create your orders separately in the DMS (don't send) and the manf. website or create multiple orders in DT.

14. There will be jobs on your screen that do not do anything as they are not set up.


It does do some things better. Factory returns changes the bin back to SPORD and is all most a one click function to adjust qoh and bin location. The same for core returns. Most of the reports are available in excel and you can email them to yourself in seconds. If you have parts in the shop you can build a service labor op report very easily to check all the ro's to make sure there are parts billed out on them. You can work from home, both good and bad .

[Mike Nicholes]

When you think you have found the DMS you want; make sure that every promise and expectation is in writing and signed off by an officer of the DMS company before you cut the deal. It is, unfortunately, endemic, that much is dropped after the deal is done; especially in the arena of the training of all employees on the various parts of the DMS that they will use. Service is becoming a disappearing art form, but it is still there if it is part of the deal in writing. need help on this one? Ask me.
Mike Nicholes