Who’s Driving Your Technology Choices – You or Your DMS Provider?

Adapting to Thrive, Not Just Survive

If one trait has defined businesses that have survived, and even thrived, despite the events of the past year, it’s their ability to be nimble. As the pandemic played out with varying and highly-localized impacts, and as customer behaviors shifted, each dealer had to quickly adapt. A dealer’s “tech stack” – all the technologies a dealership uses to support selling and servicing vehicles – had to adapt, too.

There were trends – for example, the need for tech that could enable more contactless vehicle purchase and service experiences – but adapting a tech stack wasn’t a one-size-fits-all exercise. What was the right tool and the highest priority for one dealer was often different for another.

While the dynamic nature of the pandemic event magnified the importance of being nimble when making tech decisions, having flexibility and choice when selecting the software employed at your dealership has always been a powerful catalyst for business growth, particularly in regard to your ability to differentiate by creating a modern, frictionless experience for customers.

But as a dealer, who’s really driving your technology choices – you or your DMS provider? All too often, dealers find their choices stifled by their DMS when working to assemble the best-in-class tech stack that’s right for their dealership.

In some cases, DMS providers have acquired other software and encourage its use through data access fees and policies that make it costly and cumbersome to integrate with a dealer’s preferred third-party solutions. Traditionally, third-party providers pay for DMS data access, resulting in cost passed on to dealers. More recently, some DMS providers are pivoting to a new model: transactional fees, where each time a dealer’s data is pulled/pushed through the provider’s API, they pay “tolls” that quickly add up.      

There’s also the single ecosystem model, where a DMS attempts to build all adjacent solutions a dealer requires, resulting in loss of focus on advancing the core DMS, and mediocre products that reflect being a “jack of all trades, master of none.”

So how, then, can a dealer ensure they remain nimble and have the very best tech, based on their own unique definition of “best?”        

Creating Choices, Not Constraints

In contrast, DealerBuilt’s DMS solution is built to empower dealer choice and enable a best-in-class technology approach tailored to each dealer’s needs.

DealerBuilt’s modern API platform enables secure, real-time integration with our DMS. Dealers can leverage DealerBuilt’s robust partner network comprised of leading and up-and-coming dealer tech providers or, choose to integrate with any solution they determine to be the best fit for their business –without paying DMS data fees. This smooths the way to quickly introduce new technologies and ensures the dealer, not the DMS, is in the driver’s seat when it comes to building out a tech stack that best supports their vision for their dealership.

At the foundation of it all, DealerBuilt clients can rely on a well-proven, enterprise-class DMS solution that’s designed, delivered, and supported by a company with true DMS specialization – not a jack-of-all-trades – bringing unique expertise and dealer-centric focus to the relationship.

Undoubtedly, the events of the past year have prompted dealers to re-evaluate their technology and accelerated their need to seek out new and more modern ways to meet their customers when and where they are most comfortable doing business. As the backbone of your dealership’s operations, a DMS can either constrain these efforts, or provide a flexible platform that empowers your choice of technologies and bolsters your ability to successfully adapt and thrive.    

To hear from DealerBuilt DMS clients about how we empower dealer choice, visit our Resource Center on dealerbuilt.com.

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