Dealer Management System

A Dealership Management System (DMS) is a bundled system created specifically for car dealerships but also adapted for Boat, RV, and Power sports dealers. These systems often contain software that caters to the needs of the finance, sales, parts, inventory and administration components of running the dealership. One of their functions can be automating tax returns. DMS software typically includes support for all aspects of running a dealership such as:

• Tracking vehicle inventory• Tracking sales• Finance and insurance calculations• Menu Selling Systems• Tracking customers (and customer follow up)• Accounting• Managing dealer website• Calculating employee commissions• Purchase order tracking• Parts inventory• Work order management• Appointment scheduling

A typical DMS installation includes a central server which stores all data, allowing multi-user access for as many as 50 or more client computers. Some installations may include thin clients. Other DMS providers use a centrally-hosted or application service provider model.

Some new car dealerships used to be forced to use a certain DMS by their affiliated automotive manufacturer. This, however, is no longer the case due to the Block Exemption Regulation.

Telecommunications companies want to reduce costs while enhancing their ability to reach end customers. Success depends on maintaining close, efficient relations with dealers. Dealer management capabilities from SAP provide the full range of functions and tools that telecommunications companies need to manage dealer relationships. You can monitor and support your dealers, integrate them into your internal processes, and collaborate with them to control costs and reach end customers – while setting new standards for efficiency and responsiveness.

SAP’s approach to dealer management gives you the full range of functions and tools that you need to manage your relationships with dealers. It draws on SAP® solutions for relationship management, finance, supply chain management, and business intelligence – as well as SAP’s extensive experience with the telecommunications industry. An easy-to-use, comprehensive Web portal enables your dealers to create their own customer contracts and hardware orders, pay bills online, and access a wealth of information about your products and special offers. And it lets you integrate dealer processes and customer interactions with your company’s core processes – which opens the door to new levels of efficiency and responsiveness, while strengthening your dealers’ ability to sell and service your products.

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With the dealer management capabilities from SAP, you can:• Manage incentives and commissions.

You can process and calculate business-case-related or variable compensation schemes for internal and external recipients. You can monitor commissions and payments. You can take advantage of easy-to-use calculation rules based on business needs, and track changes through a clear audit trail. And you can ensure that everyone throughout the channel – including employees, partners, and managers – has clear visibility into both earned and expected incentives and commissions.

• Support and analyze dealer performance. You can plan and analyze the business that is conducted through indirect channels, and use tools for recruiting, profiling, planning, monitoring, segmenting, training, and certifying dealers. Overall, these capabilities help you develop a better understanding of your dealers – what they sell, where they sell, and to whom they sell. And this understanding enables you to help your dealers work more effectively with end customers.

• Support dealers’ operations. You can give dealers access to marketing tools that include personalized product recommendations and catalogs, content and collateral management capabilities, and a sales and marketing library. You can support them with campaign management and sales capabilities, including pricing and contracts, interactive selling and configuration,and point-of-sale tracking capabilities. It’s easy to integrate dealers into your order management system. And you can provide them with service-enabling tools, such as livepartner support and knowledge management, request management, and complaint and return management capabilities.

• Manage the supply chain more effectively. You can work with dealers to perform demand planning, supply network planning, and production planning; to increase delivery performance with available-to-promise capabilities; and to execute supply chain processes. The results: increased automationof processes, enhanced transparency into order processing, more accurate planning, reductions in stock, and the ability to make the best use of resources to meet customer needs.

• Provide integrated, focused information to dealers. With SAP’s highly developed portal technology, you can give dealers easy access to tools for selling and buying, finding and ordering marketing materials, handling online billing and payments, and performing analyses – just to name a few functions. You candeliver targeted content that’s tailored and personalized to meet each dealer’s specific needs. And you can provide 24-hour support and advice while reducing sales support and communication costs, increasing order accuracy, and enhancing dealer effectiveness.

The SAP® Dealer Business Management solution triggers a fundamental shift in managing dealer operations for both OEMs and independent dealer groups.

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Integrated with the mySAP™ ERP solution, it provides support for every function of a dealer’soperation, including:• Customer managementTo optimize existing customer relationships and attract prospects, dealers can make critical vehicle, sales, and customer information accessible to sales personnel. Using integrated office functionality, they can manage customer appointments, record customer comments, and use workflow triggers for follow-up activities. Dealers can leverage data about sales transactions, contacts, customers, and vehicles tocreate targeted marketing activities.

• Vehicle sales and administrationBy linking customer requests and vehicle orders with existing stock at their site, within the enterprise, and in the pipeline, dealers can streamline administrative, financial, and daily operational activities. They can compile vehicle history with data from planning, sales and distribution, and after-sales processes involving warranty claims, service, trade-in, and resale. They can perform tax calculations and satisfy legal requirements bycountry, region, and state.• Vehicle serviceDealers can schedule service, process service orders, and optimize technicians, tools, and parts as well as their deployment and scheduling. With links to OEM systems, they can access parts and job catalogs, vehicle history files, and warranty systems. They can increase service capacity utilization, improve efficiency, and decrease operating costs by monitoring service and expanding visibility into fixed operations.• Parts managementDealers can plan and procure parts, manage inventory, perform cross-location availability checks, and conduct counter sales of service parts. They can collaborate with business partners, such as regional parts depots, suppliers, and other dealerships,as well as monitor and analyze parts operations.

SAP DBM is not designed to support every need of every dealer in every market, which would be a significant challenge for any solution. Instead, it is designed to accommodate dealers’ various specialized needs by being open for integration with third-party systems, such as used-car valuation systems (from EUROTAXX, NADA, Kelly Blue Book, etc.) or a dealership’s existing resource-scheduling system. In addition, SAP DBM is based on the SAP NetWeaver platform, which makes the integration of dealer and partner systems relatively simple. All in all, the solution is designed to provide critical support and integration for dealers, while fitting into their overall business environment.

In addition to accounting, SAP Dealer Business Management supports all the important business processes that occur at automobile dealerships in controlling, spare parts, service, sales, and personnel. All activities are based upon uniform data. Bid proposal management integrated in SAP Dealer Business Management provides information on possible special prices, discounts, or special conditions. The ability to consolidate data

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across several locations enables users to trace every sale or invoice item – in both sales and service. This feature creates a relationship between the selling price and the targeted revenue. Such detailed reporting also forms the basis for calculating the contribution margin for customers and orders, as required by auditors. Dealer can now see how much profit he earned (if any) from each order. SAP Dealer Business Management gives an automobile dealer’s management a tool that supports economic decision making based upon current numbers.

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