Dealership data management systems collect and maintain mountains of data about your operation, your customers and your market. There is no doubt about the value of the information contained in those systems in enabling you to make the best possible decisions for improving your sales, retaining your customers, and increasing your dealership’s profitability. But what confounds many dealers today isn’t an issue of having data… it’s how to ensure the data is accessible, accurate, and is presented in such a way that it allows you to focus on the areas of your operation that need your attention. No dealer would willingly give up the data his dealership holds, because he knows it is absolutely vital to knowing what’s going on in the dealership and how effectively that activity is driving the sales it needs to sustain the operation.

But if you can’t get to the information you need, when and how you need it, it’s not going to help you drive maximum sales, efficiencies and profitability in your dealership. When you consider the implications of this across multiple locations with multiple systems, the problem seems almost insurmountable without hours and days spent compiling all this data into useful reports.

So you’re hearing about automated dealership data management and think this may be the solution to a big chunk of your problems. And just so you know, I’m a huge proponent of using smart systems to get a handle on all this information, especially when it gives me an out-of-the-box reporting solution that will help me spend my time managing intelligently, rather than creating spreadsheets and seeking out and inserting the data I need to put into them. But how do you know if you’re ready to take that leap? Here are a few thought-starters to help you determine if you’re ready… and to consider the risks if you don’t.

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