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CLIFTON PARK, NY (April 21, 2008) – Bill McBride Chevrolet/Subaru in Plattsburgh, New York has reduced advertising costs by 10% using Auto/Mate’s Dash/Mate, a management dashboard that helps the dealership drill down into expenses and revenue.
“Dash/Mate gave me the ability to focus in on detailed advertising data and see, across all departments,” said Brian McBride, the dealership’s general manager. “As a result, I immediately saw areas to trim and more effectively spend my money.”
The advertising cost savings was an unexpected benefit of the management dashboard, which McBride installed several months ago to reduce time spent generating Dealership Management System reports.
“The main problem with any DMS is getting information in a timely fashion,” said McBride. “Depending on the system you have, you can spend a half hour or more trying to generate a report.”
Management dashboards are software applications that lie on top of corporate information systems, such as a DMS. The dashboard pulls information from the company’s database, and displays it in easy-to-read visual layouts such as graphs, charts and gauges. It gives executives an at-a-glance overview of business performance metrics in a wide variety of areas including sales, finance and operations.
For years major corporations have used management dashboards to display, view and monitor the key performance indicators (KPI) of their companies. They were typically custom built and usually cost thousands of dollars to develop and install.
It is only recently that management dashboards such as Dash/Mate, which was designed as a special add-on feature for Auto/Mate’s Automotive Dealership Management System (AMPS), have made an appearance in the retail automotive industry.
“Within 10 minutes Dash/Mate gives me a graphical view of my daily operating reports and dealership metrics,” said McBride. “By getting quick access to my data, I have more time to sell vehicles.”
Dash/Mate updates data automatically as the day goes on. According to McBride, because the metrics are so easily accessible, instead of pulling reports once a day, he can update himself on dealership operations multiple times throughout the day.
“Dash/Mate does my legwork for me. With one click, my dashboard pulls all my relevant data together in one strategic view,” said McBride. “The greatest surprise was that I could maneuver around within my dealership data like a seasoned office manager!”
Auto/Mate Dealership Systems is a leading provider of dealership management system (DMS) software to retail automotive dealerships. Its Automotive Management Productivity Suite (AMPS) is a user-friendly, feature-rich dealership management software in use by more than 900 auto dealers nationwide. Auto/Mate offers the best customer service in the industry; the company received top satisfaction rankings in NADA’s most recent DMS provider survey.
Auto/Mate’s employees have more than 300 years of combined experience working in auto dealerships – the foundation of its “Designed by Car People, for Car People” slogan. For more information, visit www.automate.com, follow us on Twitter @AutoMateDMS and subscribe to our blog at https://automate.com/blog/.
Priti Sharma
Solera Communications