Benefits of a PDS certified DMS

In my October blog post, I touched on the introduction and initial rollout of Powersports Data Standards to our industry. This post will focus on the current data standards available for certification and how these specific data standards will ultimately benefit dealerships.

The establishment of PDS (Powersports Data Standards) was the result of a need for standardized powersports data, which paved the way for the development of integrated dealership management systems that increase dealership efficiencies and improve the customer experience.

In general, dealers receive the benefits of automated tools and processes that lead to simplified ordering, greater parts availability and increased support for their service technicians.

At this time, OEMs and dealer software providers are able to become PDS certified for 4 interfaces: Parts Inventory, Parts Locator, Vehicle Specifications and Dealer Information Product Line Master. What benefit do these interfaces have for dealers?

Parts Inventory

Parts Inventory data standardization allows dealers to be more efficient with maintaining parts inventory levels. Through integration, parts inventory is provided by the dealers to manufacturers. The inventory data is analyzed to identify trends and improve forecasting, ultimately helping dealers maintain their parts levels. Dealers are also able to search parts availability from other dealerships using the Parts Locator.

Parts Locator

Using a real-time parts locator, dealers are able to search the parts inventories of manufacturers and participating dealers for parts availability. Dealers can better service their customers by providing more accurate service repair time estimates. They’ll also be able to more effectively schedule service tech time.

Vehicle Specifications

Dealership software solutions that are PDS certified for Vehicle Specifications provide dealers with a Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) lookup for access to a unit’s factory specs. The availability of this data can ensure the validity of spec information on units added to inventory. Acquired VIN data can also help service techs provide efficient, accurate vehicle service.

Dealer Master

PDS certified DMS vendors will be able to obtain OEM-specific information for each dealer, which will enable them to properly configure and optimize the DMS-OEM integrations for each dealer based on their active product lines. As OEMs create new features available for integration, PDS certified DMS vendors will be able to seamlessly integrate new functionality for dealers.

Overall, dealers benefit from the tight integration between OEMs and DMS providers who have achieved PDS certification. Dealers will gain efficiencies and access to OEM-specific data, resulting in improved customer experience and greater profitability.

Kim Rocco is the director of Marketing for DX1, the complete dealership management platform for the powersports industry. DX1 gives dealers access to everything they need to manage and market their dealerships, including DMS, website & online marketing tools. Dealers save time and eliminate frustration with the efficiency of one login, one dashboard and a single database where customer and inventory data is stored.

Website: www.dx1app.com