After 10 years of Reynolds

[JohnH]

Hey everyone,

Our Reynolds DMS contract is finally coming to an end and after 10 years of using this DMS at our dealership I can truly say I haven’t seen much improvements besides trying to upsell the product with a new GUI. At our dealership a lot of the important managerial reports are replicated through a intranet system which feeds from Reynolds, therefore switching DMS is only going to be a accounting and finance change more then anything else. The entire inventory is managed with vAuto, which can be fully integrated with any other DMS. I have been looking at the available products on the market and one of the main things that I keep telling myself is if I am going to partner with a company it is going to be for the next 8 – 10 years (I do not want to switch DMS every 3 – 4 years) and I need a DMS company that understands our needs and that is ready to evolve with current technology.

The biggest problems I am facing today is the fact that I in Canada and also that I am in Quebec, therefore I need a DMS that is fully bilingual (French + English). Does anybody have any recommendation to any DMS on the market fitting those criteria’s and that is a notch higher then Reynolds? Also I’m also looking to change from Contact management and again I’m running with same issue of language and territory. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Jeff Kershner]

John, you have a huge task ahead of you. I'll get you question out to a few others for some possible feedback.

@Mitch - what CRM are you using?

 

[JohnH]

John, you have a huge task ahead of you. I'll get you question out to a few others for some possible feedback.

@Mitch - what CRM are you using?

Thank you, I appreciate it. I am aware that this is a very unique situation to be in because only dealers in Quebec are going to want a DMS in French. I have compiled a list of companies I am considering, the names are at the office I will post them tomorrow.

 

[ewalraven]

Which systems (both DMS and CRM) have you look into thus far - are there any that you have 100% ruled out? I'll just ramble some off the top of my head ...

ADP, Arkona, Autosoft, Automate, etc - Tried and/or reviewed any of them?

That whole bilingual thing might be a bit of a kicker.

 

[Karen Ann]

We have both Reynolds DMS for over 15 years and CMS for nearly 8! We're also in Canada, definitely not bilingual though -- West Coast!

We chose DealerTrack to replace everything in all our stores: Mazda, Honda and the two Ford/Lincoln stores.
I've no opinion on the accounting, parts, sales or service. I am a bit worried a bit about the CRS as we've spent years perfecting and modding schedules and docs in Contact Manager.

Mazda got DMS first, so they've been using for a few months if you'd like to talk to them?

 

[JohnH]

Which systems (both DMS and CRM) have you look into thus far - are there any that you have 100% ruled out? I'll just ramble some off the top of my head ...

ADP, Arkona, Autosoft, Automate, etc - Tried and/or reviewed any of them?

That whole bilingual thing might be a bit of a kicker.

We have a demo with Arkona Dealertrack this week, I believe the solution they are offering is bilingual, I like the fact that it is a web based DMS and that it can be accessed anywhere unlike Reynolds where you have to use a VPN to access the system. The IT department at our dealership have been performing a couple of case studies to find out which solution would be the best one for us. I truly believe that the used car business will change in the next 5 years and I want to partner with a company that can embrace changes in the business and adapt the software to my needs. In the past, our dealer had to adapt itself around the Reynolds DMS, in reality that is not how software has to work, the software has to adapt to YOUR needs and evolve in time. The biggest problem we are facing the bilingual languages, also would anyone recommend any CRM's over contact management? I contacted iMagicLab, but they did not offer a bilingual solution.

We have both Reynolds DMS for over 15 years and CMS for nearly 8! We're also in Canada, definitely not bilingual though -- West Coast!

We chose DealerTrack to replace everything in all our stores: Mazda, Honda and the two Ford/Lincoln stores.
I've no opinion on the accounting, parts, sales or service. I am a bit worried a bit about the CRS as we've spent years perfecting and modding schedules and docs in Contact Manager.

Mazda got DMS first, so they've been using for a few months if you'd like to talk to them?

In terms of reports, is it easier to extract data from the DMS then it is with Reynolds? I know how to use the query builder on Reynolds to extract data but it is not the best solution. Did you also change your inventory management software to AAX?

Also if I do not find a better solution then I will be staying with Reynolds. I just want to be assured that they will improve on the product for the next 5 years.