Web-Based CRM Solution for Automotive Dealerships

Phil
Member

Posted 16-Aug-2004 01:56 PM
Hello Jay,

I am looking for the right web based crm solutions to implement whithin an Automobile Dealership Group. I have done my research within the industry, but am not completely satisfied with the quality of the offers due to the simple fact that those companies'applications are in the infant phase; CRM concept has made its entrance in the industry a couple years ago and these companies have not perfected the tools to support a CRM strategy, yet. These companies are divided into two tears.

1. The mastodontes such as ADP, Reynolds & Reynolds, Cobalt who control the market through oligopoly
2. The medium ones who are being swallowed up by 1. such as Cowboys, Third Coast media...

Although I am familiar with CRM solutions within my industry, I am quite blind out of it; The reason for this email to rely on your knowledge and expertise.

In a nutshell, the specific needs are:

• 360 degree view of the customers at every touch points: sales, finance, service, internet
• Leads managementrobust application to support eMarketing campaigns, incoming leads and interaction with propects
• Marketing campaigns: broadcast, permission base, business rules scheduling, build on the fly business rules
• Analytical tools to datamine database wharehouse, identify best customers, clone best prospect profiles

To name just a few, I would greatly appreciate if you could enlight me in pointing me to the right companies who might be able to help.

Thank you for your time and I look forward to your response.

Philippe
773-470-2721

Gwynne Young
Managing Editor, CustomerThink
Member

Posted 24-Aug-2004 08:17 AM
[Posted by Gwynne Young]

Philippe,

You are seeking a CRM solution for car dealers outside the "mastodons." But don't disregard the solutions providers who know the automobile
business and can link their CRM application to Dealer Management Systems. The trend of linking CRM to back office systems is very much with us today. And I understand that ADP has an interesting pricing model...

For non car-specific systems, check out these web-based solutions.

See if Salesnet fits your needs. salesforce.com claims some successes in the auto industry. A very inexpensive web-based CRM system is Salespro CRM , but not
all functions you want are there.

You may also consider web-based versions or hosted offerings of:

* SalesLogix
* Onyx
* Microsoft CRM
* Maximizer

Good Luck!

Jay Curry

Paul Sweeney
Member

Posted 30-Aug-2004 08:40 AM
Jay Curry missed one of the best web-based CRM available: ACCPAC CRM. This CRM package is web-deployed (natively) and can be used as a hosted application or as an in-house installed application.

If installed in-house, you may be able to pull data into ACCPAC CRM from ADP, Reynolds & Reynolds, Cobalt (depending on how accessible their data is.)

Steve Yaskin
Member

Posted 03-Sep-2004 07:50 AM
Also, take a look at the specialized Dealer Support web based package from queplix: it is targeted for manufacturers selling through dealer networks. The best thing about it—it has no limitations because of its platform (J2EE), sells at 1/3 the cost and 1/3 the time of implementing comparing to "mastodonts" and has all of the features of the mastodonts in order to compete with smaller, less established companies. Some of the biggest manufacturing companies like John Deere and HP with vast networks of dealers already deployed it globally.

QueWeb (their software) will pull data natively from any databases or APIs easily, using pre-built links; You can schedule import/export tasks in the built-in scheduler, which can execute any external scripts (SQL, PERL, UNIX Shell, Cron-jobs, etc), capture the log and results back into the QueWeb software.

Best of all—it is targeted for Dealer distributions and manufacturing companies.