What to Look for When Choosing a Dealer Management System

What’s a DMS?

Simply put, a Dealership Management System (DMS) is the central hub of your dealership that integrates all the functional areas like Sales, Accounting, Service and Inventory together in one system. The right DMS should provide insight into how your business is performing in real time, unlock efficiencies in your day-to-day processes, and turn data into profitable growth in a trusted and secure platform.

A well-functioning DMS software solution is the best way to bring order and ease to the complex workings of a dealership. Perhaps you’re after a basic system that simply tracks documents and customer communication through the car-buying process. Or maybe you’re looking for something more robust, like a DMS that provides your customers a fast and easy way to schedule appointments online with your Service department.

Whatever your needs, here’s what you should be looking for — at a minimum — when it comes to selecting a DMS provider.

A Fully Integrated Solution

A good DMS facilitates information sharing between the departments, from Sales and F&I to Service and Fixed Ops. Everything is in one place, which lowers the likelihood that documents will be misfiled or lost. This can alleviate frustration, as customers won’t need to provide their information multiple times to different departments, and departments won’t need to quickly key in data (increasing the risk of errors) to stay on pace or soothe the customer’s agitation.

Staffers who work across multiple departments won’t have to learn how to use different systems or spend valuable time switching between platforms either. Get rid of the swivel-chair motion and consolidate their experience into one screen.

Moreover, a DMS should enable direct and secure communication between the dealership and the OEM(s) you support, so your system has up-to-date information about new vehicles, parts availability, recalls and more.

A System That’s Customizable to Your Needs

Whether you have one dealership or many, there’s a DMS solution out there to fit your needs and your budget. Providers offer different features at different price points, and a small outfit likely won’t have the same needs as a multi-store dealer. It’s best to look for a system that’s flexible, allowing you to add or remove functions as you scale up or down.

A User-Friendly Interface

It should go without saying that any DMS should be intuitive to use. Look for a platform with clean-looking, easy-to-navigate pages. If the system allows you to eliminate fields you won’t use, all the better.

The data-entry process should be the same for each department and across tasks. For instance, action items — such as buttons to get to the next screen or to return to the last — should be located in the same place no matter the page.

It’s also smart to find a DMS that adopts common user experience practices, such as including a hamburger menu in the corner so users can surf between pages. An autosave function is also an important feature, especially with a system that regularly updates figures in real time, that can access the system on various devices, including phones and tablets.

A Secure Platform

Data security is critical when dealing with sensitive customer information. So your DMS should incorporate robust security measures, such as a cloud-based solution backed by 256-bit encryption. In addition, the platform should require users to regularly change their passwords (adhering to a certain level of password difficulty) and employ multi-factor authentication when signing in. Nothing is more important than the protection of your dealership’s data and the data of your customers. That’s why it's important that your vendor partner have a comprehensive data protection protocol that follows the NIST framework, which involves working with leading third-party industry experts and utilizing their security technologies.

Make sure the system automatically and frequently sends data to the cloud, too, as a precaution. Should the dealership lose power or a flood damage your computers, you’ll appreciate having an internet-based backup, as it’ll allow you to quickly recover information from another location or device and shorten any period of downtime.

Continual Support and Maintenance

Your DMS vendor should be a partner, helping you achieve success by setting up the system, training your staffers how to use it, and addressing issues as they arise. Your point of contact should be a customer care representative, not just a sales representative, and said person should be willing to provide training when updates come out and advice on how your dealership could best use the software.

The CDK Dealership Xperience Platform

After decades of providing a class-leading DMS, CDK introduced the CDK Dealership Xperience in 2023. It drives digital transformation for auto retailers by unifying workflows across the dealership for increased operational productivity and enhanced consumer experiences. The Foundations Suite is at the heart of CDK Dealership Xperience platform, which extends the ability for dealers to operate their entire business on one platform while increasing guidance over the consumer’s retail journey digitally from start to finish. It includes:

• CDK industry-leading DMS technology paired with highly sought features that modernize the Front Office with digital retailing, e-signing and a desking solution that'll shorten the deal process for dealers and consumers.
• Powerful Accounting capabilities, digital document archiving, and AI-assisted business management to strengthen overall dealership operations.
• Online Service scheduling, digital service recommendations and faster, more-accurate receiving with parts scanning to maximize efficiency in Fixed Operations.

The CDK Foundations Suite also seamlessly integrates with four new, additional advanced solution suites — the CDK Modern Retail Suite, the CDK Fixed Operations Suite, the CDK Intelligence Suite, and the CDK Vehicle Inventory Suite — to expand dealers’ business potential while further accelerating performance.

The new platform reflects the company’s belief and investment in the dealer model and is available to dealers in the U.S. and Canada.