Our DMS appears to be taking advantage of us - WHAT ARE YOU PAYING FOR API INTEGRATION?

[Gene Tilby]

We are setup with Lightspeed EVO (a CDK Global product) for our dealership DMS and over the last month I have been comparing the Lightspeed CRM to others that are available on the market. Part of that comparison involves looking at what would be required to integrate a 3rd party CRM.

I reached out to Lightspeed to see what data can be sent to the CRM through an API and what the cost would be. They replied that it will cost $2000 per location for a setup fee and $175/mo per location to maintain the API. We have 4 locations so we are looking at a pretty hefty sum...$8000 setup and $700/mo. This sounds rather steep to me but wanted to reach out and see if any of you have had experience with this and could tell me if they are just punishing us because we are looking at using a different CRM than what they are offering. Because it kind of feels like they are.

So, what are you paying for your API integration?

 

[derrickwoolfson]

CDK - since they merged/bought ADP - has gone from worse to hateful! They do take advantage of you at every turn. Whether that is the fees for accessing data, or the fact that their product is terribly unstable. They absolutely want you to use their CRM (as you said), and if you do not then it will become a nightmare trying to work with them. Forget calling support, either - it takes *forever* to get a call back, and when you do prep yourself for spending a day on the phones ha! I wish you luck! We are experiencing a lot of the same issues right now - especially, too, since we do not use their - outdated - CRM. Rant. Over.

 

[rollo695]

Gene...you are in for a rude awakening.....
CDK and Reynolds are both charging enormous integration fees for any third party API integration....all in the name of "security". In fact, it amounts to them monetizing your data and access to your data. $175 per month is a good deal. We are going to pay $400/month for DealerSocket integration at a 3 location campus - $1200 per month. DealerSocket says that they are not marking up the fees - but who can tell? Our Reynolds integration fee for xTime recently increased to $465 per month - or roughly 15%. It is perverse. It is also one of the reasons why our 14 Reynolds locations are currently undergoing conversions to alternative DMS providers.

 

[Gene Tilby]

Thank you for the information, after a conversation with the dealer owner it looks like we are far enough into the DMS that we aren't backing out now. After writing this post I had a conversation with a gentleman at VinSolutions who told me of another dealer that has figured out some kind of an automated workaround using a tool called macrotoolworks? or another called Authenticom. They are researching these for me, checking with the dealer they think is using it currently with our same DMS. Have any of you heard of this type of workaround as a way to bypass the costs of an API since they seem to be spiraling out of control?

 

[Jeff Kershner]

Never heard of Macrotoolworks. Interesting. I know Authenticom still has a connection but not sure how or how long that will last. Authenticom is also DealerVault. Check out this thread.

 

[Jeff Kershner]

So, what are you paying for your API integration?

This should really be it's own thread. I have vendors that "say" they are being charged (some pass the charges our way and some do not) $100 and others are passing costs of over $700 - A MONTH. Our CRM bill SKYROCKETED.

 

[yagoparamo]

To go on with @rollo695, I wrote an article about this https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/dms-access-taxation-yago-paramo

Access fees are a reality

 

[Gene Tilby]

Never heard of Macrotoolworks. Interesting. I know Authenticom still has a connection but not sure how or how long that will last. Authenticom is also DealerVault. Check out this thread.

I'm learning that the connection between Authenticom and the DMS that we are using has come to an end. I don't know for sure who initiated it but it appears that Authenticom was the one that backed away.

 

[Gene Tilby]

To go on with @rollo695, I wrote an article about this https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/dms-access-taxation-yago-paramo

Access fees are a reality

Interesting article, it truly is a hostage situation. It will be interesting to see what happens with the lawsuit. Maybe we will all get lucky and DMS companies will just start to play nice.

 

[Mark A Hoffman]

I'll add that in my own discussion with other vendors, there is a certain amount of fear and hesitation amongst vendors to publicly discuss or criticize the fee structure the DMS companies have put in place because they fear being kicked out of the "certified vendor program", or having their applications held up, etc.

In 25 years of being in the technology business, I've never seen such a blatant extortion racket. Even the chutzpah of Microsoft and their attempt to abuse their monopoly and shove Internet Explorer down everyone's throats 15 years ago pales in comparison to this. There is no justification for the outrageous fee structure; their claims of it being about security are laughable at best. The DMS companies have not been able to innovate in over a decade, so they merely leverage their near-monopoly position and setup a toll-both and tax the vendors who can innovate. R&D is expensive. Why bother with all that fuss if you can just force vendors to pay into your protection racket, er, excuse me, vendor program...