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Inventory Management Software

Well well well, Inventory Management comes alive on DR. I am curious to hear who does what nowadays. I'll start off by saying I am NEEDING to change what we do. Comments and suggestions are very much welcome.

NOW:
Trade Appraisal - vAuto

Trade or Purchase entered into DMS.
DMS---> vAuto for pricing analytics.
Dealers Specialties comes to picture my inventory AND uploads to D/S backend.
vAuto Pricing ---> D/S backend
Once Pics and Pricing is matched cars are SLOWLY distributed online.

If a car is priced in vAuto prior to being "found" in D/S we get hung up in a que and it takes days to fix. We currently use Dealer.com as our website/CRM provider.

So the options are:
1) Continue with flawed system because that's the way it is (y'all know the definition of insanity)
2) Use vAuto for everything Used Cars
3) Use Dealer.com as our hub for everything with pricing influence from vAuto
4) None of the above (fill in the blank)
 
Agree with Doug! We are piloting Max and testing their integration with Vauto and our vehicle listings.

Grant, my question is why wouldnt you run everything out of VAuto?

We've been running everything out of VAuto for about two years and its tremendously helped get information syndicated much quicker with tremendous accuracy. The feed between VAuto and Dealer.com is strong and I've never had missing photos, wrong prices etc.

Vauto feeds everything including NEW and USED to our website, third parties, dealersocket and our hang tags..

My only complaint is its not instant....I hope VAuto is working on minimizing the delay!

Feeding issues are no fun!!!! Let me know if I can help.
 
Well well well, Inventory Management comes alive on DR. I am curious to hear who does what nowadays. I'll start off by saying I am NEEDING to change what we do. Comments and suggestions are very much welcome.

NOW:
Trade Appraisal - vAuto

Trade or Purchase entered into DMS.
DMS---> vAuto for pricing analytics.
Dealers Specialties comes to picture my inventory AND uploads to D/S backend.
vAuto Pricing ---> D/S backend
Once Pics and Pricing is matched cars are SLOWLY distributed online.

If a car is priced in vAuto prior to being "found" in D/S we get hung up in a que and it takes days to fix. We currently use Dealer.com as our website/CRM provider.

So the options are:
1) Continue with flawed system because that's the way it is (y'all know the definition of insanity)
2) Use vAuto for everything Used Cars
3) Use Dealer.com as our hub for everything with pricing influence from vAuto
4) None of the above (fill in the blank)


You can set up the process a bit better:

NOW:

1) Trade or Purchase entered into DMS.

2) DMS---> vAuto for pricing analytics AND to data collection company (data posting). The data company can leave the data raw as it comes from the DMS or it can auto decode. For auto decode we use Chrome which is a pretty safe bet (very few errors) then enhance when photo guy touches the car. Auto decode can also pull the factory codes for new cars if you enter them in the DMS and get all factory packages. You can fine tune this a lot for very little money. You ca either have a very nice 'photo coming soon' or use a system that color matches a stock photo (new) with the car until you get real photos/videos.

3) "Dealers Specialties comes to picture my inventory", car has been already in their back end for several days without photo and it is marketed from day one.

4) vAuto Pricing ---> D/S backend. vAuto has been updating the price on DS or other system's back end all this time. Not having a photo doesn't stop vAuto from starting to market your vehicle.

5) "Once Pics and Pricing is matched cars are SLOWLY distributed online." Car has been online without photos. Most companies can feed multiple times per day. It shouldn't be slowly anymore.
 
We've been running everything out of VAuto for about two years and its tremendously helped get information syndicated much quicker with tremendous accuracy. The feed between VAuto and Dealer.com is strong and I've never had missing photos, wrong prices etc.

If you ever need assistance, vAuto has the best customer service in the industry.
 
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Well well well, Inventory Management comes alive on DR. I am curious to hear who does what nowadays. I'll start off by saying I am NEEDING to change what we do. Comments and suggestions are very much welcome.
Grant, Thanks for your patience - we're working with you to find the best possible solution. As you note, there are a LOT moving parts involved in getting an inventory feed working optimally.

Every situation may need a little different solution, so I avoid ever making blanket statements.

You can set up the process a bit better:
I'm not the best person to give advice on this subject, but I think your vAuto Performance Manager may be - I'll leave this in his able hands.

If you ever need assistance, vAuto has the best customer service in the industry.
Doug - Thanks man, we sure aim to be the best!
 
GrantG,


2 little things I forgot.

For new cars some states requires that you only show "for sale" what you have physically at the lot. You can add a delivery date in the DMS and bring that into the website.

If your data system allows it, you can have a different image for incoming than missing photo.

For used, some states don't allow to advertise cars that the tittle is in process (recent trade). You can easily adjust the status in the DMS and automate that process too.
 
Grant, can DS load your pics into vAuto? I had MAX (we grew with them for 3 years)- I really miss the comment writer. We just got vAuto and I love the reporting tools in vAuto they're great. The support team has been great, but it's so vast, training feels like freshmen year of college or building a house with a union crew. We used DDC about 3 years ago for a short bit trying to leave VIN and it didn't go well, but I think they have something different as it was a homenet system pass thru of sorts before. VIN worked well enough...ahh the days of the .5pxVINcam!
 
So the predicament I currently find our store in is having multiple providers handling the same service. We have AAX for used car tool appraisal and pricing tool. We use Homenet for inventory management and export feeds. Then we have the full tilt eLead Package which essentially manages all of the above at a fraction of the cost and is super user friendly, is 100% fully integrated into our ADP and Dealertrack and runs super smooth. Oh and did I mention it's a FRACTION of the cost of the others? To top it all off eLeads customer service is absolutely Top Notch! Well I can at least speak for one rep in particular but the guy is the cats meow and has helped me basically master the software in no time. He told me he now uses our store to train their employees because ours is so clean. If it were up to me we would have ditched our other providers and saved the 60,000 a year we pay for them and streamlined the whole thing at the beginning of May when I finished setting it all up. UNFORTUNATELY, there are higher powers in my store who struggle to realize how much simpler their already cushy job could be and how much more TV they could be watching from the tower while burying me in data and paperwork to the likes of which they will never understand. LOL seriously though I have used quite a few systems but from my own experience eLeads1 is more than you could ask for and I would take their Customer service any time any day over anything else I have used.

Disclaimer: I in no way represent eLeads1, Homenet, JMS AAX or any other provider. Especially not eLeads. But hey, Every good company deserves an ambassador and I will proudly be theirs eLeads1!!!! :)
 
Matt, couple ways you can get the ones you dont need out of there. If the guys in the tower are paid off the Net of the sales dept show them how much it will put back on the line when they go buy buy. Or tell the owner point blank he is paying for things yall dont need and show him.

I will admit this is the first time I have heard ELeads boasted as a good inventory mgt/Appraisal tool.