Dealership Management System: A Need for a Paradigm Shift

A dealer management system connects OEMs and businesses, distributors, dealers, and customers, resulting in a seamless and enhanced operational experience. It is an ERP that allows dealerships to run their day-to-day operations efficiently.

FREMONT, CA: Dealer management systems have come a long way from their inception in the early 1990s, from decentralized thick clients and supporting heterogeneous systems to centralized Dealer Management System (DMS) applications. They have now become a vital element of the supply chain network.

Pre-sales (lead/inquiry management), sales, purchasing, service/after sales, inventory management, financial accounting, HR, and CRM are all aspects that a typical DMS tackles. It connects OEMs and businesses, distributors, dealers, and customers, resulting in a seamless and enhanced operational experience. A DMS is an ERP that allows dealerships to run their day-to-day operations efficiently.

Many customers will still require additional information from dealerships, which is difficult to obtain online. This indicates that dealerships will be one of the supply chain ecosystem's mainstays, necessitating the use of a digital system to manage them. In addition, multiple and specialized means of communicating with customers and delivering the essential products/services have opened doors as a result of advancements in technology, changes in government rules and policies, and ever-changing consumer behavior. This has caused numerous degrees of problems in the industrial, consumer goods, and vehicle supply chain ecosystems both internationally and locally. These expanding challenges have given rise to the prerequisite of dedicated Next-Generation Dealer Management Systems (Next-Gen DMS). Some current industrial use-cases that highlight the necessity for a Next-Gen DMS are listed below.

Extending network

Since a few years, a major paint manufacturing firm has been using a DMS for their distributors across different nations. The DMS was created for their distributors, but they now want to extend it to the supply chain's leaf nodes, such as dealers and retailers. Because the existing licenses are for different modules, the manufacturer will need to get a new kind and set of licenses. In doing so, the manufacturer anticipates a high cost of licenses, which becomes a major bottleneck.

Functional and Technical Scalability

A chief passenger car manufacturer is already using a DMS that has been in use for a few years. Several changes/improvements are required to meet company needs. Making a modest adjustment in this DMS is difficult (and expensive) because to legacy technology and end-of-life hardware.

Capital Investment

Another leading automaker is still utilizing a ten-year-old DMS and paying a lot of money on recurring licensing. Additionally, the DMS and system software must be upgraded due to usability, performance, and customer experience difficulties.

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