Arkona Inc., a company specializing in fully integrated dealer management solutions, on April 11 announced new dealer management solutions for the used-car market.
"This suite of applications is fully integrated and specifically designed for the needs of used-car dealerships -- with many of the advantages of Arkona's new car dealership system," said Susan Richards, vice president of marketing communications at Arkona. "It gives the used-car dealer more control of the critical parts of their business such as vehicle inventory, accounting, payroll and customer relationship management (CRM)," Richards said.
According to Richards, the used-car suite is based on Arkona's new ASP (Application Service Provider) model so there are no upfront server hardware costs and the applications are accessed through any Internet browser ensuring that even lower volume dealers can afford state-of-the-art software.
"Arkona's suite for used-car dealerships allows people to focus on selling cars rather than worrying about entering data into an F&I package, and then wrestling with non-integrated spreadsheets and customer management databases," said Alan Rudd, president and CEO, of Arkona. "It also offers used-car dealers the industry's leading analysis and reporting tools that are simple to use."
Arkona's used-car dealer management solutions include a fully integrated package of applications that manage payables, financial reporting, general ledger and the entire business office including F&I, full tax reporting and showroom management. "It is simple and easy to add other applications for
dealers that offer parts and service," Richards said. "Industry leading technical support by
experienced technicians, training and product enhancements are also part of the solution."
According to Richards, Arkona uses industry standard laser printing technology so there are no additional charges for the necessary ongoing business forms.
"The Arkona system will save us a significant amount of time in just data entry," said Fadi Samhouri, general manager, Quality Auto Sales. "With our previous system, when we sold a car we had to enter the information four
times to complete the paperwork. With Arkona we enter the information once and the completely integrated software takes care of the rest. We also see value in the regularly scheduled, automatic backups handled by Arkona technicians."
The new used-car suite is based on Arkona's ASP model meaning that the applications are hosted at a secure facility and accessed through
the Internet. The system is completely installed and maintained by Arkona engineers and technicians at a site with security features and hardware redundancy. The ASP model also has remote management capabilities that allow the dealer to access information from virtually any PC.
"Because the Arkona system is Internet accessible," said Samhouri, "I can get real time information about the dealership from home or anywhere. When I am out of town I can check the performance of the store as often as I
choose. I also can maximize my personnel because one F&I manager can handle several stores without leaving his desk. This can definitely save us money."
"The Arkona system is built on the latest database technology so all past and present information is always instantly available," Richards said. "The result is that it delivers unmatched analysis capabilities. For example, the dealer or manager can track inventory
quickly and drill down into each deal to track the exact cost of the car and how long it has been on the lot. Each customer and potential customer can be tracked to analyze buying patterns and ways to improve marketing and
sales efforts."
Pricing and Availability
Arkona's used-car dealer management package is available now. The price of the software license is a one-time fee of $2,500 and the ongoing cost is based on the number of retail cars sold each month.
Sixty or more per month is $19 per retail car sold, 31 to 59 is $24 per car sold and less than 30 is $29 per car sold.
For more information on this and other Arkona solutions call 866-478-6364 or 801-501-7100, or visit www.arkona.com for the sales representative in your area.
About Arkona
Founded in 1996, Arkona is a public company providing integrated information management and data distribution solutions for the automotive industry.
Arkona's Ensign Dealer Management Suite leads the market in technologically superior e-business solutions for automotive dealers that
fully integrate back office systems with a retail Web presence. In this market Arkona is one of the first Application Service Providers
(ASP).
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