Dealership Management Systems for Accelerated Distribution

A Dealership Management System (DMS) is a software platform used by automotive dealerships to manage day-to-day operations such as sales, financing, customer relationship, parts and service, inventory, accounting, reporting, and analytics. The goal of a DMS is to provide a unified, single source of truth for the entire dealership network and to support manufacturers and dealers in maximizing their sales and productivity.

By using a robust dealership management application, manufacturing companies can solve a lot of issues that include:

1. Inefficient Manual Processes: A DMS automates all manual processes from start to finish, reducing the time and effort required to complete them and the risk of errors. It also provides real-time reporting and analytics capabilities through automation, enabling businesses to track their dealers' performance and identify areas for improvement.
2. Inadequate Data Management: By creating a centralized data repository that updates in real-time, automobile manufacturers get 100% visibility into every dealership's operation. They can now instantly access the data and validate its accuracy with a few clicks.
3. Lack of Customer Insights: With a DMS, manufacturers can easily integrate customer data from multiple dealerships and touchpoints, providing a comprehensive view of customer interactions and market demand. By correctly understanding the market demand, they can tailor their products and supply to meet customer needs.
4. Inability to Scale: As automobile companies grow in size, manual management of communications and order placement channels becomes increasingly complex to sustain. In most cases, there are constant disruptions and errors, which lead to delays and losses that could totally be avoided by digitizing dealership channels. This provides scope for limitless scalability and automation required to support dealership network growth.

How Grid accelerates Product Distribution with its Dealership Management System

Efficient dealership management cannot thrive in isolation from the processes like accounting and logistics, and this is why Grid's DMS consists of multiple components that combine to form an end-to-end solution. One of our customers used Grid to do just that, from the initial step of onboarding dealers to the final objective of being able to track multiple operations at once with thorough statistics. They were able to upgrade their Electronic Vehicle (EV) dealership network within a month's time by digitizing the following:

1. On-boarding and Operations Workflow for New Dealerships: By end-to-end, we really mean right from the start where you sign up new dealers and onboard them onto your network. Grid standardizes this process with a customizable 4-step onboarding process that starts with an Automated Dealer-Code Assignment, followed by digital KYC completion, and finally the Legal Documents and Agreements Generation. Every step takes place on the mobile app with specialized forms that collect all the onboarding data for multiple dealerships and aggregate them on your company's centralized database.
2. Library Creation and Management of Legal Documents and Agreements: Grid's Dealer Management features also include the creation of standardized libraries for new dealers to easily access. The libraries contain documents that walk dealers through all company and industry-specific regulations and compliances, standard workflows, and dealership protocols. All documents and agreements generated during onboarding are also managed here, with an automated notifications system alerting managers and dealers with incoming renewals.
3. Purchase Order and Approval Channel b/w Dealers and Zonal Managers: Grid not only empowers you with monitoring and tracking abilities but also with the digitization of actionable processes like creating purchase orders and approval of quantity. By streamlining the channel between dealers and company zonal managers, communication is instantaneous and faultless. With purchase orders from all over the region organized in a single table, the zonal manager can then take the most efficient decisions.
4. Customizable Dealership Performance Dashboards and Reports: For business owners and upper management, accurate analytics and reports are precisely what makes the difference. It is not feasible for them to go through tables of data and manually extract relevant indicators to measure their company's performance. Grid's Dealership Performance Dashboard and Reporting System provides them with not only real-time automated business intelligence but also a tool that they can personalize to meet their specific needs in a matter of minutes. All they need to do is drag and drop the type of charts/graphs they need to visualize the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) they want to take a look at.
5. Systematic Vehicle Dispatching by Factory Managers: With digitized and unified communication channels between factory managers and dealerships, vehicle dispatching can be carried out systematically without any delays or disruptions. With all purchase orders carefully stacked and organized in the cloud database, manufacturers can dispatch vehicles on-time w.r.t the market demand. Users can also monitor transportation and logistics in real-time, thus giving them a full view of the dispatch till it reaches safely at the dealership.
6. Goods Received Note (GRN) Flow Management along with a centralized QC Ticketing system: Despite Grid's accurate tracking, a GRN is still required to validate the inventory arrival as per norms. Companies cannot rely on WhatsApp or phone calls to carry out this process, as it becomes impossible to keep an accurate record of all GRNs. This, combined with any complaint/issue raised by the dealership regarding the quality, means you're losing time and money managing all these communications manually. This is why it's essential for companies to migrate all their workflows to an operations management platform like Grid, which can create and deliver detailed GRNs and QC tickets within a minute. The best part is, you no longer have to worry about keeping records.
7. Inventory Tracking across Value Chain: All forms of inventory, whether it's the vehicles or the spare parts, can be tracked down to a single unit with Grid's end-to-end inventory tracking system. By setting up Grid at multiple data collection checkpoints, the entire value chain can be monitored in real-time, with no hassle. In fact by value chain digitization, you eliminate all the trouble caused by manual management of the process, which cannot be fixed because of the lack of transparency.
8. Manufacturing Planning as per Market Demand: By integrating all dealership data onto your centralized database, Grid users get instant access to reports that evaluate the vehicles' market demand along with unique parameters that can shed light on consumer trends. You no longer have to rely on external sources to figure out generalized market trends, when you have extremely personalized consumer insights right on your Grid app. It becomes much easier for companies to then forecast and plan the manufacturing process so that they utilize their resources and capital in the most optimal way.

Why do companies shy away from Dealership Management Software?

A single application on Grid holds the power of digitizing eight essential processes for a vehicle manufacturer and its dealership network. Businesses might find the idea of transforming these workflows and eventually themselves from the ground up daunting, despite years of settling with older tools and technologies. But in actuality, SaaS platforms for manufacturing carefully keep in mind the process of migration and design their products to make it as easy as possible. This is why Grid works on no-code technology, to aid digital transformation in the easiest way possible out there. This was proved by one of our clients who completely shifted onto Grid in less than a month, and was able to see a 30% improvement in manufacturing planning thereafter! Let's address some fears that we have seen companies face, and how Grid precisely works around them:

1. Integration: Grid seamlessly integrates with your existing applications. But most importantly, Grid itself provides all of the functionalities required to manage your sales network, from accurate data collection at every touchpoint to automated collation and management, to the generation of detailed reports and analytics with personalized KPIs. This way you don't ever have to worry about managing multiple software when all of your needs are addressed in a single place.
2. Personalization: With traditional software, you have to restructure your entire operations to fit into a rigid pre-designed system. Many a time, this results in businesses compromising at the expense of their specific needs. But with Grid, you get access to the power of citizen development, which allows you to personalize your entire application as per your business requirements.
3. Learning Curve: A lot of businesses worry about the learning curve that accompanies the migration from pen-and-paper or Excel sheets or legacy applications, to a new-age SaaS platform. A frontline operations platform like Grid is designed to be used mostly by end-users who work on the factory line and are not tech-savvy at all. With consistent drag-and-drop functionalities, a dedicated tutorial library, and an accessible knowledge base, our users have mastered the application in no time. Everything on Grid is achievable with a few clicks.

Now that you know the importance of a fully digitized Dealership Management System, and how easy it is to set it up on a no-code platform, it's time to get the best results out of your operations. If you’d like to know more about how Grid can help you set up a DMS that tracks your sales network across multiple locations, standardizes operations, and gives you unprecedented insights into your business, speak to a Grid expert and we’ll get you started.

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