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Creating Departmental Efficiencies

PFW Software: Work Smarter—Not Harder

PFW Password - Winter 2005 Today’s software consumers are looking for something special—that little something extra that gives them a better software ROI and a lower cost of ownership. And that’s where value comes in. Value is the thing that separates a system from its competition. In the case of heavy-equipment dealerships, the value may come from the efficiency of the system during the processing of the many daily transactions that occur in the course of business. As well, dealers need to ask themselves how adaptive the software is in terms of being able to fit all parts of their enterprise.

Software needs to be comprehensive and industry-specific, be quickly adopted via a low learning curve, and be customizable. Today, a sales and marketing software piece is essential, and the system needs to be interoperable and integrated. Finally, the system should provide the ability to perform efficiency tracking and measurement metrics, and possess self-service, or “e-tools.”

PFW software lets you improve both the existing performance of your workflows and business practices, and create new efficiencies. PFW’s solutions address all dealership areas.

Sales & Marketing
Customer Information – With PFW IntelliDealer, users can track salesman-to-customer calls from any computer in the system. As well, customers can be classified by type or associated with an equipment manufacturer [Fig. 1]. The Sales department can then segment customers to aid marketing, create better territory management and improve their account management. PFW eServices allows dealership customers to update their own profiles. As this information becomes integrated with the PFW business system, Sales becomes more informed of customer preferences and can better match customer requirements.

For Ron Barlet of Bejac Corporation, a Link-Belt and Kawasaki dealer in Placentia, California, “The system has allowed for in-depth research of all facets of customer activities due to its drill-down capabilities. It is extremely critical to have an efficient means to extract the information about a customer, whether it is what he owns, what he buys or how he pays you. I personally use this information to get a quick look at our customers, especially just before a customer sales visit or even when handling a dispute. Obviously, knowing as much as I can about a customer and the interactions he has with us is vital to maximizing our relationship.”

Marketing Campaigns – IntelliDealer’s Customer Care allows you to easily create a customer list that forms the target for a marketing campaign. You may, for example, want to market to those customers who have purchased a certain make and model of equipment in a given geographic area during a specific time period, and then advertise a manufacturer promotion by using campaign methods such as fax, e-mail, or letter. Customer Care’s Campaigns takes the work out of this once laborious process, and the returns can be quite significant.

Parts & Service
As Parts and Service departments are areas of high margin potential, the efficiency gains dealerships make in these departments are especially important.

OEM Links – Manufacturer interfaces and manufacturer-based functions help to improve the workflow in dealerships, as seamless links are created to aid common business processes. You can strengthen customer loyalty by providing the ordering convenience and speed that modern consumers expect, and with PFW, you can do it via your dealership management system. Deb Penner of Nelson Motors, a John Deere dealer in Avonlea, Saskatchewan, notes that, “By using DTF receipts we can receive and update POs for JD Parts in one step. There are fewer steps involved and a reduced opportunity for error when receipting parts in the parts receipting screen.”

PFW IntelliDealer IntelliTech – IntelliTech can help co-ordinate your service effort. From the Technician screen, service technicians can log on to a scheduled work order and drill down to a particular work segment. IntelliTech offers the flexibility of defining whether technicians are responsible for the entire job, or segments therein. As well, in situations where job steps are defined and are based on what a technician finds during a diagnosis, the technician can be given the authority to provide a full description of the job step to be performed.

According to Russell DeGagne of Guertin Equipment, a John Deere dealer in Winnipeg, Manitoba, “We are just starting to use IntelliTech and we are already reaping rewards in the form of efficiencies. Our service writer loves the fact that he no longer will have to enter the mechanics’ comments or time cards. The whole process of creating and closing work orders is streamlined.”

Equipment
PFW Quoting System – The PFW quoting system allows dealers to create quick and accurate quotes, and then efficiently convert a quote into an invoice. Then, associated parts and accessories can be added—without having to exit the invoice.

Jeff Lashley of Lashley Tractor, a New Holland dealer in Lithonia, Georgia, says his company is using “IntelliDealer’s flexibility to track quotations sent out to customers, check outstanding invoices, and also notify customers of will-call parts availability, perform daily monitoring of follow-up calls, and review our sales department’s customer interactions.”

Traffic – Dealerships are implementing the PFW Traffic system [Fig. 2] in order to ensure that their evolving equipment records are updated at any point in the shipping process. This allows them to really know the status of shipments, e.g., locate “lost units,” by knowing where they were shipped.

As well, dealerships use Traffic to capture machine hours and capitalize on scheduled maintenance opportunities, and those that are using PFW Rental Counter utilize Traffic to help organize and optimize their rental fleet. Traffic also creates efficiencies in that, with Traffic’s integrated traffic tickets, users no longer need to key multiple receipts when shipping items to the same site.

GPS Equipment Management – PFW IntelliDealer is integrated with QUALCOMM GlobalTRACS and Longview Advantage vShepherd, both GPS solutions, to help dealerships better track their equipment inventory. This helps to hold unit values, leverage service agreement management revenues, and raise customer service levels. PFW customers are using this system to, for example, know what machines are approaching their maintenance-due dates. Once this information is obtained, the service department can isolate which unit is due for service, proactively contact customers, and capture maintenance revenues that may have been previously untapped.

Used Equipment Evaluations – Used-equipment business plays an important part in a dealership’s bottom line. With IntelliDealer’s Used Equipment Evaluations, dealers can protect the value of traded-in equipment, save work by creating a reference-store of “evaluation history,” and ensure that a smooth workflow is created for used-unit processing and review.

Users can create a systematic evaluation where customized sections and steps can be created as per equipment groups. By default, Used Equipment Evaluations contains a default rating scale and also allows for the configuration of custom values.

Finance & Administration
Accounts Receivable – With IntelliDealer’s Accounts Receivable capability [Fig. 3], dealerships have a means to better manage their customer accounts, an ability that can recover a significant amount of “lost dollars,” even over a short time span. As well, Accounts Receivable’s Credit Limit Analysis allows you to analyze credit limits by customer, and then isolate those accounts that need attention. If, for example, a customer has an open work order, a machine on rent, or is approaching their credit limit, then they can be identified and an appropriate dialog can take place.

Online Customer Service
PFW eServices – Through the electronic efficiency of PFW eServices, dealerships are currently:

• branding and advertising their dealership;
• posting manufacturer parts catalogs and enabling parts purchasing;
• facilitating service scheduling and work-order status checks;
• learning more than ever about their customers’ purchasing patterns; and
• keeping the “efficiency ball” rolling by providing online discounts.

As a result of implementing eServices, dealerships feel that their employees are now better able to focus on their core responsibilities.

Dealers using PFW eServices are able to reallocate saved dollars in order to maintain better customer relationships. As an example, your accounting department will spend less time dealing with inquiries, as customers can view online account information and print invoices. Additionally, the sales and service departments can devote more time to improving the quality of day-to-day walk-in business, and view current customer data as customers update their equipment profiles.

IntelliDealer and PFW eServices can also be used to reduce the need for paper documents. This includes creating viewable customer equipment quotes and allowing customers online access to their invoices and work orders.

With PFW software, dealership staff can bypass costly paper-based administration and data storage methods to become more online, automated, and systematic. Information is electronically and centrally stored, and a common, electronic access to these records means that updates are made to a master copy. The impact is that these changes need to be made only once, and all authorized users can subsequently see these modifications.

Regarding the overall efficiency provided by PFW software, Larry Kirschner of Kirschner Implement, a John Deere dealership in Ravenna, Nebraska, sums it up by saying, “There is an excellent integration of the PFW software...there is less human work to be done. We’re a very small dealership, and this integration allows us to continue to run our business with a smaller number of staff, even as our information needs continue to grow.”

As shown here, PFW offers a complete range of solutions that can help all aspects of your business become more efficient. Part of the inherent value of PFW’s highly adaptable software is an implementation that helps heavy equipment dealerships to sharpen their typical transaction processing, and benefit from the use of new efficiency-creating tools. Through PFW’s dealership management system, and its integrated and complementary products, you can help power your effort to become more efficient and, as a result, better position yourself to become more profitable.