Don’t forget the supplier!

Choosing a vehicle quotation system is a difficult, time consuming and often confusing process. It is not a task that repairers engage in on a regular basis.Consequently, repairers tend to focus on satisfying their specific business requirements and how the quoting system satisfies these requirements for the lowest cost.Almost no focus or time is spent on ascertaining how the software vendor actually runs their business.

In the software selection process, finding out what an organisation will be like to do business with is easily as important as the features of the software itself.When you select a quoting system, you are selecting both the package itself as well as the organisation that supplies it to you.In your current business operations, it is likely that you have formed some sort of partnership or relationship with your key suppliers.

The goal is to have this same type of relationship with your future software supplier.When you select a software supplier it is imperative that you have a true “partnership” relationship with that supplier. You will be unavoidably linked with them throughout the entire life-cycle of the system within your repair shop. Caution and objectivity are key elements in this process.Most computer software is in a continual state of flux, with both new features being added and sometimes old features being fixed. You will likely receive many upgrades to your quotation system to reflect changes in industry standards (e.g. real-time real-money), or to reflect the developing needs of your business.

A supplier in a true “partnership” arrangement will be constantly looking for ways to improve the software so that it continues to provide additional advantages for your business. Your supplier should listen to your input (and those of your peers) and continually strive to improve the system. Ideally a flat per-annum fee should cover all upgrades, beware of suppliers that continue to charge large amounts for small upgrades.For this reason it is important to obtain references from suppliers that you are considering.

Contact the references and ask questions such as:

• Do you pay for new features (or is it covered in a flat fee?)
• Is your supplier quick to respond to software problems and provide solutions?
• Does your supplier listen to the customer base and constantly provide a stream of useful new features?
• What IT companies is the supplier partnered with? (e.g. Microsoft, Oracle etc.)
• Does the supplier appear financially stable?
• How long has the software been in operation?
• Choosing a vehicle quotation system supplier is a complicated task, you can simply the process considerably by considering more that just your software needs.

Do your best to sure the supplier is going to be there to support you in the long term!