Significant software options available for tire dealers

Creating efficiencies is a significant goal for any business, and embracing technology is a key component to that objective.

Whether it is using a point-of-sale (POS) system to pull up pricing in real time or better order management, aftermarket tire and automotive service dealers alike are turning to software providers to facilitate the best ways forward.

Many options are available in the market today. Here's a look at some of the solutions offered by four, well-known software providers.

MAM Software Inc.

One of the latest innovations from Blue Bell, Pa.-based MAM Software, which specializes in software for small to large tire and automotive businesses in North America, is CarSide, a cloud-based auto repair management solution that helps shops perform digital vehicle inspections.

"The (CarSide) solution educates vehicle owners about their auto repair tasks by updating them with the latest videos and pictures," John Fischer, vice president, sales and marketing, said. "These multimedia files can be sent to customers by email or text."

Additionally, CarSide enables technicians to perform vehicle inspections using mobile devices. Users can shoot video, take pictures and add notes.

"The solution also provides workflow management tools, which allow all team members to view the status of each work order and expected actions during the day," Mr. Fischer said. "Service writers can update the status of jobs and send notifications to technicians informing them if the order is approved or parts are available."

On the agenda for 2019 is the debut of MAM Commerce, a suite of connectivity and catalog solutions that enables businesses in the tire and service supply chain to collaborate and transact online with reduced costs and greater efficiency, Mr. Fischer said.

Built on MAM's OpenWebs e-commerce and Autocat catalog platforms, the system's open architecture provides users with one solution for all connectivity requirements, from online inquiries and ordering, to secure trading and accounting functions.

MAM, whose solutions include point-of-sale (POS), dealer website tire selection, digital vehicle inspection, customer estimates, inventory management and purchasing, is creating a cloud-based version of its VAST POS software for single- and multiple-outlet locations.

"VAST Online has a modern user interface," Mr. Fischer said, that maintains a workflow users are comfortable with. It will operate on a desktop or tablet.

Mr. Fischer said software updates and backups occur automatically in a secure data center.

"With its seamless connectivity to MAM Software's e-commerce solution, shops can instantly see part and tire availability at participating suppliers and place hot-shot orders directly within a work order," Mr. Fischer said.

"We have many customers that want to perform all of their business operations within a store totally on a mobile device, similar to the user experience at an Apple store," he added.

While some dealers are embracing technological advancements, some aspects are left behind.

Digital inspection is a relatively new, but growing technology, Mr. Fischer said, but only a minority of dealers are using it. Dealers that have deployed CarSide, he added, have reported on average repair order increases of 15 percent when vehicle digital inspections have been performed.

Dealers should embrace electronic business because millennials want to conduct business electronically, Mr. Fischer said. Dealers need to employ technology more effectively to reach this segment, he said.

"They're in the business of selling tires and service and are not technology people. Smaller dealers do not have the resources for an IT department, so they really need help from companies like us."

Steve Sweat, general manager at Atlanta-based Midtown Tire, said his company has been using VAST for several years and began using CarSide a little more than a year ago.

"Software can be a blessing or a curse. VAST has been good for us although not without its challenges," Mr. Sweat said.

"The ability to integrate with QuickBooks and Goodyear National accounts (is) crucial for us. We can track our profit daily with extreme accuracy, which is key to running business properly."

He said better CRM tools and reporting would be helpful in the future, as well as improved online scheduling. Midtown Tire operates seven stores in and around Atlanta.

Josh Porter, managing director at Oahu, Hawaii-based Lex Brodie's Tire Co., is another VAST user looking to add CarSide. He recently added online quoting via OpenWebs and is looking to deploy CarSide at the dealership's five locations in the next year.

He said using this software has made it easier to make and provide repair estimates. It looks more professional to customers, he said, and it offers more control of how work orders and invoices appear.

"On software, I just can't imagine one that does absolutely everything that I would want. There will always be something, rather big or small that I am looking for that doesn't exist," Mr. Porter said.

"The key is having a good enough relationship with the provider to talk through these items and look for something that makes sense and works for all parties. With MAM, I have that."

R.O. Writer

TBC Corp.'s R.O. Writer, a shop management software provider, recently released R.O. Writer 2.4 — which automatically updates as new releases become available — and is enhancing its mobile app for digital vehicle inspections (DVI).

Richard Forness, vice president and general manager of R.O. Writer, suggests that since each software provider focuses on various factors — such as workflow, reporting, technician tracking, accounting, profitability, tires, quick lube and general repair — shop owners should determine a software provider that best matches his or her business practices.

Does the owner prefer locally installed or cloud-based software?

R.O. Writer focuses on automating the most common daily practices, he said, with features such as Smart eCat parts and labor catalog, which checks pricing and availability from 10 suppliers in 10 seconds, on the same screen, at the same time.

"Plus, our Smart Matrix automatically sets the sell price to your needed margin," Mr. Forness said. "Smart eJobs automates building common repair jobs by using a 'wizard' to walk the service writer through the estimate."

The Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.-based company said R.O. Writer 2.4 incorporates updates with end-user efficiency in mind and includes new features such as centralized management. Scheduling software upgrades helps multi-shop owners schedule, manage and run cloud-based updates for multiple shops at the same time.

"We've also added direct catalog punch-out connections to both Federated Auto Parts and AutoZone, along with new connections to both of these suppliers in our Smart eCat parts and labor catalog," Mr. Forness said.

The company continues to enhance its Smart eCat parts and labor catalog and soon will add features such as Smart Fluids.

R.O. Writer also is releasing a digital dashboard for DVI that enables shop owners to track the effectiveness of their digital inspections.

While software works to improve business practices, communication is key, Mr. Forness said, and some dealers are still missing out.

"The more successful shops are using technology to communicate with customers via texting and (DVI)," he said.

"Today most customers prefer texting to phone calls or emails, and using texts to keep the customer informed during the repair process helps build trust," he said.

"And you need texts multiple times during the repair process, such as when the vehicle is first brought into the shop, when the inspection is started, when the estimate is ready, to when the repair has been completed."

Mr. Forness said he realizes that many dealers struggle with the cost of technology, including software updates, anti-virus protection, firewalls, repair data, reputation management, etc.

"But it takes this type of investment to have a successful, profitable business," he said.

Mr. Forness credits the Smart eCat and Tire Quote module as improvements in productivity for dealers.

Brian Beers, owner of 11 Midas franchised locations in Philadelphia, agrees.

"The Smart eCat, the ability to view all of our vendors in real time with price and availability is huge," he said.

"We used to have to pick up the phone and call to get pricing, … You'd have to spend a ton of time on the phones, but now we don't call parts vendors ever unless it's something we can't buy electronically.

"The control we have on the backend, as the owner, to set our matrixes of how we mark them up, I have a lot more power there of how we price things."

Mr. Beers likes the Smart Labor pricing, which has a linear labor rate.

"It's incremental profit," he said. "The concept is that ... it takes a more skilled technician to do a five-hour job than a one-hour job."

He also uses Tire Quote, which assigns every tire rack a serial number, and the dealer can assign tires to that location. Tires do not have to be put in numeric or size order.

"We when sell a tire, we know it's in A1A or B2B. It's like a grid system," Mr. Beers said.

"We can put the tire pretty much where ever we want, and the system keeps track of it … . If we didn't have it, keeping the inventory organized and straight would be a lot more difficult."

Mr. Beers noted he'd like to have some more insight into technician performance in the future. "But overall, it's pretty powerful," he said.

"We've seen a greater car count because we can get the estimates built quicker than the old way we were doing it. We can increase gross profit from the different ways we can control the mark ups and the scale labor rates."

MaddenCo Inc.

Evansville, Ind.-based MaddenCo., which provides integrated software systems to the independent tire dealer and truck service centers, is unveiling a web-based software application as well as adding features to several of its vendor interfaces.

MaddenCo's President Jay Adams said even though dealers are using technology better than ever, they still could improve, especially by taking advantage of bar-code scanning.

"It just saves so much time, especially when taking a physical inventory," Mr. Adams told Tire Business. 'There's a lot to be gained, even considering the capital outlay for good scanners."

He said implementing new software, which can provide for more efficiency, auditing controls and customer interaction, may cause difficulty for dealers.

"A customer that is only a couple of weeks or even months into using our software will probably not like us very much, frankly," Mr. Adams said.

"However, with each passing day/month/year, customers become comfortable with our product and become our biggest advocates. A large percentage of our new business is via word of mouth, and that is the result of having many satisfied, long-time customers."

One long-time customer, Toledo, Ohio-based Tireman Auto Service Centers, was the first customer outside of Evansville to buy the software, around 1981, and the dealership has been using it ever since..

"The software is full-functioning, so we track our inventory, our sales, we actually run our warehouse off it as well, along with the back office, such as accounts payables, receivables," Tireman Vice President and Controller Bill Gase said. "It's all encompassing for us."

Mr. Gase said Tireman's biggest technological change occurred five years ago, when it switched to MaddenCo's APS server.

Mr. Gase said the company initially resisted because it wanted to have access to the code within its building. But that meant the dealership would have to hire an IT expert to manage it.

" ... Since then, they've allowed us a lot of unique things," he said.

That includes featuring inventory on the company website, as well as having a separate site for its wholesale division.

"It's what we need … there's really nothing else in the market that says hey I want to go look at something else right now," Mr. Gase said.

TCS Technologies Inc.

Cookeville, Tenn.-based TCS Technologies, an ARI Network Services Inc. company, caters to larger, more progressive tire shops. It recently collaborated with major suppliers, including Hunter Engineering Inc. (see story on page 14), Bartec USA L.L.C. and Tiremetrix L.L.C.

With the Bartec integration, users can capture tread depth, tire inflation and TPMS sensor activity with Bartec's Tech200Pro tool through TCS software and save the data to the customer record, according to Jefferson Carpenter, director of software sales at TCS.

The integration with Tiremetrix, which provides solutions for tire registration, makes it easier for service techs to check DOT numbers "and ensure the tires aren't part of a current or past tire recall either prior to installation of the tires or if they're currently on the vehicle," Mr. Carpenter said.

TCS Inspect, meanwhile, is a new digital inspections app, helping to enforce proper inspections procedures so techs can focus on higher margin, lower-return-type services, Mr. Carpenter said

A permanent record is saved to alleviate liability concerns, Mr. Carpenter said, thus improving interactions with the customer, as well as allowing for the inspections to be emailed or texted for a seamless response.

"We consistently hear there is a lot of gain of profitability improvements for having the right data at their fingertips to help tire dealers better service their customers," Mr. Carpenter said.

He said dealers miss an opportunity to have a connected shop by not embracing the latest technology.

The biggest aspect dealers are missing in software and technology is the concept of a connected shop, he added.

"There are many effective devices or solutions that help to enable the tire dealer to operate more efficiently," he said, pointing to the collaborations with Hunter and Bartec. "... The ease of their use is something that can't be understated from a software perspective," he said.

One of the largest challenges dealers face is personnel turnover, Mr. Carpenter said, but technology can assist.

"To address this, we have built many features and integrations around operational consistency and shop automation that ensures our dealers provide the same experience from store to store and service writer to service writer for customers," he said.

Tim Jenkins, an owner at Longwood, Fla.-based Inlign Automotive Center, said the benefits and integrations TCS provides made him select TCS for his software just three months ago.

"What stands head and shoulders above everything is the people in the company. ... they bend over backward to get problems fixed quick," he said.

"We have fixes made in minutes a lot of times when we have issues.

"It's all about what the customer needs, not what the package has," Mr. Jenkins said. "It's how can they customize it to fit your needs."

He said he is looking forward to using the part catalog and tire quote module in his shop.

"It's probably one of the more robust (programs) I've seen, and I've looked at a lot of them and used a lot of them," he said.

No matter what software provider a tire dealer chooses, many dealers say they become more efficient by embracing technology, and thus more profitable.