This is a really good conversation.
We use Reynolds for DMS and CRM. The integration is obviously better than anything else on the market but even so, it has its limitations. For example, there is not a corresponding field in Contact Management for every field in ERA. They are changing that in the next release of CM (so I hear). CM has the best customer survey follow up mechanism i have seen and tracking the three main types of leads (phone, internet, walk in) is easy. Sales managers hang out on the desk log and they can see everything currently happening...fresh ups, be backs, internet leads, phone ups, etc. Service marketing, while not perfect, is better than anything i have seen from any other company and that is largely due to the level of integration with ERA afforded to CM. As for desking, Dealer Tracks desking tool is the best i have seen. ePencil is good but was overpriced when i demo'd it and entirely too complex i think. I'd be on DealerTracks desking tool but it doesn't integrate with Reynolds which was a big hurdle for us. I really like the entire DealerTrack suite of products except for their vAuto knock off. eLeads looks pretty good. I know Hyundai is pushing it right now. I liked AVV when I demo'd it. Bottom line is that you really can't tell until you play with it for awhile and get the system implemented into your processes. That's when the bugs really come out. THe other issue with third party software integrating with the DMS is duplicate name file creation which absolutely drives me crazy.
When it comes to these CRM and DMS companies, the biggest thing is support I think. When I am told a product is going to do something, I expect it to do something. If it doesn't then I expect the support teams to fix it. Companies that sacrifice existing product support and troubleshooting for the sake of new product development just so they can be the talk of NADA next year are doing a disservice to dealers. They are counting on the fact that we will get frustrated and forget about the problem so they don't have to fix it. That's not right. We spend TONS of money on this stuff and it should work. Reynolds under Brockman has really stepped up the support side of things and they have made utilization a priority which is big.
I think the major issue for all of us should be the unwavering support of an open data exchange protocol or an "Open Source" environment whereby third party vendors can freely interact with the DMS providers while keeping data secure. I have urged Bob Brockman and his team at Reynolds to continue to support the Reynolds Certified Interface program. Vendors claim its expensive and onerous. Reynolds should make it cost effective while maintaining a set of security standards that are attainable. The certification process should be timely as well. ADP should do the same. We have tremendous amounts of data in our systems at our disposal. Any company with a product that can help us harvest the data should have access to it with our permission if we choose provided that certain security parameters are met.
Bottom Line...i haven't seen one company that can be all things to all people. That's why migrating toward an open source environment is huge so we can have a centralized name file along with sales and service records that are accessible and parsable by all that are given permission to do so in a secure fashion.
