The Modern Document Management Platform
Built Specifically for Dealerships
The Solution that Changes Everything
Secure Access to Your Documents from Anywhere
Our outlook on doing business changed in 2020. Not only in how we sell and service our customers but in the way we work as well. There have always been times where working from home was needed, and temporary accommodations were made, but those were seldom considered permanent.
Now we realize the need for a higher degree of flexibility. Accessing and sharing our business documents and reports from anywhere now takes on a new significance. SharePoint Online is the secure solution you have been looking for.
Microsoft SharePoint Solves Dealership Challenges
SharePoint Online is the result of decades of proven Document Management experience. It has recently expanded from a storage container for PDFs to a full-blown resource for businesses grappling with the task of information overload.
As a Dealership, this can change the entire method of not only storing business documents but virtually any kind of communications that flows through your business.
Pre-Built - Ready to Use
One of the greatest assets SharePoint offers, its limitless flexibility, has also been its greatest drawback. Traditionally months of planning lead to months of testing leading to a frustrating period of “Getting Ready to Get Ready”.
SP4Dlrs is delivered Ready-to-Use. Departments, libraries, folders, and security are set up. Initial employees are on board and trained.
Learn more in the SP4DLRs MarketPlace.
Secure Documents and Reports
Whether it’s controlled access to documents, retention policies, or user permissions, SharePoint offers comprehensive security options.
Sharepoint also offers advanced security for items like Deal Documents, and Employee files.
That said, it also allows enough flexibility that employees to provide access to the information they need to do their job. This could include tech bulletins, inventory sheets, and reports about contracts in transit.
For Any Type of Dealership
If you sell and service virtually any type of vehicle, SharePoint 4 Dealers (SP4Dlrs) will work for you.
Sp4Dlrs is available in 3 Levels, allowing your Dealership to meet its needs as it grows.
While we can never be sure what the next technology shift will entail, Microsoft makes SharePoint virtually “Future Proof” ensuring availability today, tomorrow, and into the next decade.
Searchable Archived Documents
SP4Dlrs ends the reliance on Dealer Management System integration. Read that sentence again. SP4Dlrs is DMS independent because it utilizes “Searchable” documents rather than legacy keywords. Want to see the accounting copy of RO 12345? SharePoint Search makes it easy.
Watch the video on Search for more information.
Internal Dealership Communications & Reports
A five-minute walk around your building will confirm it, but for most Dealership’s there has to be a better way for communications to flow throughout the departments. Some managers send emails, others print and hand them out. Some use Google drive and share links, others text a link. Our SharePoint solution changes that by providing a consistent method of storing and sharing everything that passes through your Dealership.
Bring Your Own Device and Browser
Documents and reports can be accessed using a PC, tablet, or mobile device using Windows 10, Android, or IOS operating systems.
SP4Dlrs works on virtually every current browser: Chrome, Edge, Safari, and Firefox.
User Friendly for Every Department in your Dealership
Although Microsoft didn’t invent “User Friendly”, they certainly have maximized it. From easy to use screens, to browser flexibility, to their integration with third parties, Microsoft 365 for Business has made this the ideal solution for a Document Management Platform.
As you watch the videos, pay close attention to the simplicity.
The Complete Solution
The all-new SP4Dlrs from DMS Select goes beyond traditional record management and archiving technology; it is a complete cloud-based document management platform, specifically designed for dealers. Not only can documents be converted to digital format, but it also provides complete security monitoring, virus scanning, encryption, Data Loss Prevention, retention policies, and remote backup.
Examples of the Digital Media Flooding Your Dealership
Sales Department
Digital Brochures & Catalogs
Incentive Updates
Rates and Residuals
Delivery Notifications
Aftermarket Product Pricing
Competitive Analysis
Sales Training
Sales Policy
Reports
OEM Zone Sales Report
Inventory Report
Sales Standing Report
Auction Report
Market Report
Service Department
Tech Bulletins
Campaigns/Recall Notifications
Vendor Pricing
Service Employee Policy
Service Discount Policy
Reports
Tech Productivity Report
Advisor Productivity Report
Customer Reports
Collections Report
Warranty Report
CSI Report
CRM Reports Report
DMS Reports Report
Digital overload doesn’t just impact managers from these two departments. Finance Managers have to coordinate lender and vendor requirements, Parts Managers have to organize a variety of reports, and Executives need a better way to manage the constant flow of reports, vendor licenses, and communications that influence their business decision making. It’s often not simply sharing these documents that poses a challenge, it’s retrieving them when you need them.
Overview of Accounting
As expected, Accounting is the Core of SharePoint 4 Dealers. This video will walk you through how it works. It contains its own library and is also directly connected to all of the Team Sites. This means it can also search for documents across the entire Platform
- Navigation & Ease of Use
- Process and Workflow
- Permissions
Understanding a Team Site - Part 1
Departmental Sites have many uses. We use them as the Department’s home screen, and include many features.
- What a Communications/Team Site does
- What’s Included with SP4Dlrs
Understanding a Team Site - Part 2
Join us as we do a Team Site walk-around. Learn how these landing pages can be used in your Dealership.
- Navigation Options
- Preview and Search Options
- Drilldown to Documents
- How each Department can use their own Site
Understanding Search
As each PDF is searchable, SP4Dlrs does not depend on keywords or indexing. This allows it to be DMS independent.
- Simple Navigation
- Easy to Learn
Overwatch
F&I Deals are a perfect example of the challenges presents when mixing Print and Digital Documents. Our Overwatch process works for any type of deal or document
Sit in on a training lesson using the OverWatch tool to build a digital Deal Jacket.
- Learn how easy it is to use this Pre-built tool.
- Follow the simple step by step workflow.
Office Protect Core
SP4Dlrs isn’t limited to just SharePoint, It is a Platform that includes easy to use security tools. As with everything we have included in SP4Dlrs, Office Protect Core is the simple solution for providing a high level of security for your electronic documents.
Sit in on the Office Protect Demo
- Learn how easy it is to use
- Stop threats, and prevent losses
The Complete Document Management Platform for Dealerships of All Sizes
Microsoft Support
As a Premium Class Microsoft Business customer, your SharePoint support after handoff is excellent.
4 Star Reviews by Trust Radius
4 Star Review by PC Magazine
An effective combination of workflow, team collaboration, and document management, Microsoft SharePoint Online is an easy pick for our Editors’ Choice designation.
Ultimate Backup Package
SP4Dlrs takes a two-step approach to protect your data.
Vaulting is a process that preserves documents for a set period of time. An example of documents your may need to Vault would be Deal Files. Vaulted data remains even if a user accidentally deletes it, then empties their trash.
Our Full Remote Backup protects all your documents, reports, files, and folders that are saved in Sharepoint by automatically copying and storing them remotely on a separate server.
By including both Vaulting and Full Remote Backup as standard, we feel our Ultimate Backup Solution meets your requirements for data security.
Safe & Secure
Based on your Dealership’s needs, you control not only who can access files, but also what they can do with them. Each Departmental Center offers separate employee access and controls
Key Team Sites
- Accounting
- Payroll
- Service
- Parts
- Sales
- Finance
99.978% Uptime
Service you can count on. The average uptime, for the past eighteen quarters, has been a consistent 99.978%
TESTIMONIALS
What People Are Saying About SharePoint Online
… A very powerful combination of customizable workflow, team collaboration, and document management…
Sharepoint is one of the most comprehensive and cost-effective enterprise content management platforms, including document management software, we encountered in our review.
… SharePoint Search is easy to use and it has a very good integration to the organization’s needs. It’s a good way to share the information with all the organization departments.
I like Sharepoint for being a secure location to have all your documents in one place in the cloud. And I like the ability to share documents via a link with both team members and outside parties.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. What does SP4Dlrs Actually Do?
One of the largest barriers to using SharePoint is the complexity of setting it up. Multiple Dealerships add to the complexity exponentially.
As both a consulting company and a SharePoint Developer, we have pre-built an entire SharePoint Platform for Dealerships. This lowers the barrier, and while there is a learning curve, we make it simple for any Dealership to use SharePoint.
2. What is the SP4Dlrs Platform?
We see a Platform as a solution where the components are already built, and ready to use.
Our SP4Dlrs Platform includes:
Set-up
Creating the SharePoint Site
Building the Team Sites
Building the Training Site
Synchronizing the Remote Backup
Building the Security Reporting and Alerts
Providing the Scanning Solution
Compare the Three levels
View Side By Side Comparison Guide
Connecting Overwatch*
Setup OverWatch Site
Set up Deal Builder
Train Document Administrator
*Requires Level II or III
Providing Initial Support
Training is based on Level Selected
User Set-Up Available on Level III
3. Is 1 Terabyte Enough Storage?
With standard compression, below are some examples of the amount of space scanned documents would use.
Monthly Documents Added
Dealership A
2000 ROs
500 Parts Invoices
150 Deals
300 AP Checks
Total calculated storage need in 7 years: 0.41 TB or roughly 41% of available space
Dealership B
3000 ROs
500 Invoices
200 Deals
300 AP Checks
Total Calculated storage need in 7 years: 0.57 TB or roughly 57% of available space
Dealership C
4000 ROs
500 Invoices
500 Deals
500 AP Checks
Total Calculated storage need in 7 years: 0.93 TB or roughly 93% of available space.
After 4 years, Dealership should start monitioring the need for adding additional storage.
Keep two things in mind.
After 7 years, typically you would remove about the same number of files that you are adding.
You only need to buy what you need.
Current Microsoft Add On monthly rates are 20 cents per GB.
There are 1000 GB in a TB.
- 0.25 TB = $50 /month
- 0.5 TB = $100 /month
- 1.0 TB = $200 /month
4. What is a Guest User in a Dealership Environment?
When we set up your SharePoint 4 Dealers Accounting environment, in Microsoft’s view it is an Organization. This provides a complete and absolute set of restrictions in which a limited number of employees can read, share, add or edit the information stored within it.
Outside the Accounting barrier are the rest of the Departmental “Team” sites:
- Parts
- Service
- Sales
- Finance.
This is where we use what Microsoft calls “Guest” users. Because access restrictions are lower for items such as tech bulletins, Guest users only need read or read/share access. This is ideal for most employees.
5. Can SP4Dlrs Be Customized?
The two-part answer.
The most important answer to this question is yes. After the initial setup and training, it’s your SharePoint site. If you wish to customize it once everything is working, feel free to do so.
The second part of the answer is this. Rather than “customize” we can personalize it for your dealership prior to installation.
Examples
If you have both a Payroll and an HR department, we can separate the Team Site and create two separate sites.
If you have a Body Shop or a Quick Lane and need to keep the Closed RO’s separated, we can either keep it in one Service Team site with separate document libraries or create multiple Team Sites.
What is Scan2.Cloud?
It’s the Beginning of it All
1. Introduction
It began simply enough. It started as a search for an easy method for Dealerships to scan and store business documents. The effort expanded exponentially.
It became an entire process called Scan2.Cloud.
2. KISS: Keep Image Scanning Simple
Beginning August 1st, SP4Dlrs now includes the Xerox DocuMate 6440 with Visioneer Capture SE software as part of its packages. Combining their process with SP4Dlrs automation literally allows a 3 click solution for scanning documents.
3. The Solution: Automation
KISS: Keep Image Scanning Simple
Let’s look at how the KISS Repair Order scanning process works
The Scanning Tech picks up a bundle of closed Repair Orders with barcodes*. This stack could include a mixture of customer invoices, work orders, MPI’s, warranty, and accounting copies and loads them in the prepped Xerox scanner.
From the time each Repair Order is scanned, a series of automated robotic actions take over. First, the scanner creates an image. Then it splits the stack of RO’s into batches, next the software names each batch based on the RO barcode.
The Tech then clicks the Select > Export All icon, which continues the automation process. The batches are saved as a Searchable PDF/a, then uploaded to your SP4Dlrs SharePoint site.
*RO’s without barcodes are handled similarly, only with Zonal Recognition
4. What Hardware Do We Need?
Your Dealership will need two pieces of hardware: a scanner* and a PC for Scan2.Cloud.
The Scanner
As of August 1st, SP4Dlrs includes the Xerox DocuMate 6440 Scanner with all packages. This will do everything we need for the Scan2.Cloud process.
The PC for the Document Clerk
The KISS Process requires a PC for the employee that will be scanning the documents. It does not have to be a new device.
Requirements
Standard PC or laptop equipped with monitor, keyboard, etc.
Windows 10
USB 3 Port
Connected to the Network and Internet.
5. Scanner Reviews
PC Magazine “Editor’s Choice – Excellent”
ITPro.com: 5 Stars
Amazon
Easy to Use: 5 Stars
User Interface: 5 Stars
Tech Support: 4.2 Stars
6. Do Documents Need Barcodes?
The short answer is no. That said barcodes do make it easier.
If your DMS does offer barcodes, we suggest these documents have them.*
Repair Orders (Identifying the type)
Work Order
Customer Invoice
Warranty
Accounting
Parts Invoice (and Internal Copy)
F&I Recap
Vehicle Stock Sheet
Checks
*If barcodes are not available, the Xerox DocuMate Scanner can use Zonal Recognition to name these same documents. It just takes a bit more prep for the scanning clerk.
What Is DMS Select?
What DMS Select?
DMS Select is the consulting company side of SharePoint for Dealers. It handles the questions and answers, and implements the installation. Not to be too confusing but in the document archiving industry, “DMS” means Document Management System.
What Do You Know About Dealerships?
Its principal, Tom Edwards has been involved with Dealerships for nearly twenty-five years. You may have met him at NADA, AICPA, or one of the OEM meetings.
He’s been a professional problem solver for decades. First, when he worked at a dealership, then later, when he became involved with developing two different Dealer Management Systems.
While his DMS innovations solved many challenges, one remained; finding a better solution to managing the increasing amount of documents, reports, and bulletins.
Contact Us
Please contact us to answer questions or discuss your needs.
Please use your business email address.
We look forward to hearing from you.
