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Several upgraded DMS packages offered

If you’re looking for a better way to track your dealership’s financial performance, you’re in luck. Several new packages offered by industry leaders such as, ProQuest/Lightspeed and Softek Software were introduced at the 2003 Dealer Expo.
ProQuest, long known for its heavy-weight Lightspeed program, introduced a new management software for smaller dealers called Discovery.
Discovery is designed to manage the parts and service departments in dealerships that have one to three users. According to a ProQuest representative, Discovery has many of the Lightspeed features in a scaled down package that’s affordable for small or single-line dealers doing about $1 million in annual sales.
After nearly 20 years in the software development business, ProQuest felt that the core processes of invoicing, generating a repair order and looking up part numbers could be packaged in a smaller version that could be made affordable for smaller shops, says Laurn Rice of ProQuest.
Discovery integrates with many ProQuest products, but not with the Lightspeed dealer managment system. However, as a dealership grows and needs to integrate sales and accounting functions, the Discovery package can be upgraded to the more sophisticated Lightspeed system, says ProQuest.
Discovery is sold in parts and service modules at $2,500 per module. Discovery packages are available this month.
One other interesting feature: training is Web-based and is easily downloadable.
Meanwhile, Softek Software was demonstrating the new Version 9.0 of its flagship product, Business Assistant (TBA). Version 9.0 strengthens the system’s accounting, includes convenient set-up wizards and allows dealerships to combine counter, catalog and Internet sales into one central system. High end features in 9.0 also include shipping and receiving functions that reduce order processing times by 2/3 compared to the closest competing systems, says the company.
The Business Assistant is point-of-sale (POS) software that handles sales, service, and parts and related accounting features. TBA is the program of choice for the entire Vespa Motorscooter franchise, and is the second most popular DMS package behind Lightspeed among Polaris dealers, notes Softek.

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