Jun. 2, 2008 – New unit inventory info straight from the DMS

The idea of sales personnel being able to identify whether a particular new unit model is available at another dealership straight from their ADP Lightspeed dealer management system has up to now been just an idea for the powersports industry.
That’s about to change as ADP Lightspeed is scheduled to unveil a new program this month that will provide instant new unit and parts information from one dealer to another, company officials recently told Powersports Business.
“Our dealers have told us that this is a big need of theirs,” said Dave Johnson, ADP Lightspeed’s manager of manufacturer solutions. “We’re really excited about launching it and filling that gap.”
Starting this month, ADP Lightspeed NXT users who update to 3.8.0 SP2 will be able to access “Parts and Major Unit Locator.” The new program allows dealership personnel to look at other dealers’ inventories to determine if they have a specific model — regardless of brand — or part number.
No on-site work on a daily or weekly basis will be required by dealers to get their inventories displayed on the new service.
“They don’t have to execute anything to send the (inventory or parts) information,” Johnson said. “We have automated that service to make it as easy as possible.”
That means providing a program with the NXT software that will — once given dealer consent — automatically upload inventory on a nightly basis. So, the system will be updated so often that service users can see if a new unit has a hold on it due to a customer down payment. Preowned units also will be displayed.
Dealers who have the Lightspeed NXT version 3.8.0 SP2 will be able to view the Parts and Major Unit Locator at no cost. A fee of $20 per month is required for dealers who would like their inventory to be part of the service.
“The value of this is when we get more and more dealers on there,” Johnson said. “One of the things we’re doing to help kick this off is giving some incentives up front.”
Dealers can receive a 90-day free trial to post their inventory.
ADP Lightspeed is already working with dozens of dealers to have existing inventory available on the system when it launches sometime later this month.
“We obviously see the potential with partnering with OEMs and giving them access to that information,” Johnson said. “There are a lot of different avenues where we could take this.”
For further information on the new ADP service, contact Dave Johnson at dave_johnson@adp.com.