FRANCHISES
Mazda
Primarily TITAN appealed because of its unique features, and its links to Mazda. However, it’s “joined-up” approach also lends itself to much greater levels of interdepartmental collaboration, Sales, Aftersales & Accounts.
I would say that our database has never been so accurate or complete at any time previously, and it will only go on improving.
VEHICLES / SALES
It has provided a level of transparency that we have never had: the ability to see profit, estimated costs, diaries, test drives, leads, all in one place and the ability to tailor certain aspects; this makes it a huge improvement on our previous DMS system.
ACCOUNTS
We were 100% SAGE previously. Titan allows us to control debtors / creditors / everything else without issue. The Mazda (manufacturer) bonus system is excellent, as is Warranty reconciliation.
PARTS
The Parts department have experienced a growth due to the control that Titan has given them. I had to ask the Parts Manager to re-write his business plan after he exceeded it ahead of time.
We had been with the (then) current DMS, KBA, since 1999. Whilst it operated fine, newer systems clearly had more advanced features, plus KBA was no longer being developed. Also, accommodation of new legislation, such as GDPR, which newer systems appeared to be building in to their products.
Primarily TITAN appealed because of its unique features, and its links to Mazda. However, it’s “joined-up” approach also lends itself to much greater levels of interdepartmental collaboration, Sales, Aftersales & Accounts.
We had very close contact all the way through with Titan, over a long period. Titan were always realistic with the target launch date, and we put it back twice. Many trial runs on Accounts and database extracts, and the data was all “live” on the test system a month before the actual changeover.
It all happened over a weekend, and most staff were on site. The Titan team wanted to ensure that come Monday morning, business could be transacted, and it did. Training carried on and we covered some areas over and over until individuals or teams had enough to be able to work with.
I think it went pretty smoothly, and whilst there were one or two “unforeseen” issues, the Titan team rectified these, and have no doubt learned from the experience.
In addition to the training, Titan has an extensive library of HELP SHEETS built in to the system. These are NOT the usual text only type instructions. These are screen shots, and with the system available to us, we were able to SELF-TEACH, to a degree. In reality, this was a “warm up”, but it helped a lot of us who explored.
About two weeks prior, the “TITAN TEAM” arrived. We got to know them, and they set about group and individual sessions. It was intense and at times, over-bearing, but it is a process that has to be gone through.
The team there, especially Nathan, are fantastic. Not only in their responses, but in taking time to understanding the problem.
After 20 years on the old system, which had separate Accounts, we were to a degree “set in our ways”. Our check list wanted a DMS that would carry on exporting to a separate accounts module, but after seeing Titan, we tore the check list up.
With Titan you get the sense that all the elements were built for a reason, because someone purposefully wanted it to be there or requested it do this or that. We have respect for that, it is similar to the culture of Mazda, always trying to improve, even a little here or there, they call it Kaizen. This gives us a sense, almost a duty, to explore and see whether those bits can be used for our benefit too. Usually they can, and we make changes to adapt with it.
It’s in everyone’s interest to keep pace with the Motor Industry, which itself is often changing, as well as legislation and customer trends. As new products are launched, such as Vehicle Health Checks, we will always evaluate, and where we see a justifiable benefit, adopt them.
The benefits, for now and the future, are all in Titan, and they seem to us to be a very go-ahead business and being global, have a much wider scope, more likely to stay in tune with the Motor Industry at large.
