How Document Management Tools Transform DealershipsHow Document Management Tools Transform Dealerships

Dealers are always interested in protecting their data and attendees at the National Automobile Dealers Assn. show had ample opportunity to hear about technology designed to help do that.

One way is to digitize that data and store it safely. Document management provider One View delved into that topic, focusing on its cloud-based document backup software.

“Our product is a data repository for dealerships,” Travis Peterson, One View vice president of product and services, tells WardsAuto. “We have become the digital file cabinet for dealerships.”

Storing data and documents in a “digital file cabinet” owned by the dealership is appealing, Karl Brauer, executive analyst at iSeeCars, tells Wards Auto.

“It seems like a smart option as it gives dealers more control over their documents versus being at the mercy of an outside (dealer management system),” he says. “If a dealer can cost-effectively convert existing DMS files and paper files into digital assets they fully control, it addresses multiple challenges.”

Paper files can be difficult to access quickly. And if a dealer owns the data, changing DMS providers is easier. If the dealership is sold, transferring data to the new buyer is seamless and free if a dealer owns it.

Data Conversion for DMS Transfer

Document management software allowing dealers to securely store documents in the cloud and easily organize and access them is One View’s most popular product, Joe Green, vice president of operations, tells WardsAuto

“It is all about organizing the documents,” he says. “Dealerships have to be able to get to documents very quickly.”

However, One View’s data conversion product, which allows a dealer to easily transfer data to a new DMS, is growing the fastest.

In 2024, business in the data conversion area grew 26%, Green says. While the CDK cyberattack from last summer caused some dealerships to change DMS providers, in general, One View sees increased DMS movement, Green says.

Dealers “are not staying in those long-standing relationships with DMS providers,” he says. “They are more open to transitioning. That is a component of what we offer that is helping make that transition.”

Handy During Buy-Sell Activity

Fernando Falcon, the former owner of Champion Chevrolet and Champion Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram in Indiana, began using One View to organize his dealership data to provide a better customer experience, he tells WardsAuto.

“One View provided us the opportunity to control our data,” he says. “Just as important, having quick access to that information so we could better serve our customers was huge. My parts and service, operations, everyone in the dealership all had access to One View. They could pull information even if it was from three years ago and not have to go look through a box.”

The dealership was even able to provide information to the Federal Bureau of Investigation when someone it was seeking had bought a car from one of his dealerships, Falcon says.

 Falcon also knew he wanted to eventually sell his share of the dealerships. Having control of the data saved money because his DMS provider would have charged him and the buyer to transfer the information, Falcon says.

“Also, I have the necessary info in case I get audited,” he says. “I have everything in the cloud.”

VendorView, another One View product, also came in handy during the buy-sell transaction, Falcon says. VendorView stores vendor contract information including cost and renewal date.

In a buy-sell transaction, one of the first things a buyer wants is vendor contracts, Falcon says.

Having the ability to “press a button and send all those contracts to a prospective buyer is significant, especially if you don’t want your General Manager to know you are selling,” he says.

Data stored in the cloud also provides dealerships with protection against customers denying they signed a contract, Falcon says. The contract “is scanned and in a (digital) file and it comes right up,” he says. “You can even check it at home.”

As dealerships generate increasingly larger volumes of documents and data, storing that information as physical documents is no longer safe or feasible, Green says.  

“Dealers want to maintain control and have a better way to manage data and documents,” he says. “The concept of doing it the way they have the last 40 years is no longer tenable.”