GoesNet - Web-based Dealer Management Systems

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Disclaimer
This document provides an overview of a vehicle dealership software package developed by GoesNet, LLC. The following material including but not limited to text, data, diagrams and concepts is owned and controlled by GoesNet, LLC and is protected by copywrite, trademark and other intellectual property rights. This material is made available solely for your personal, non-commercial use and may not be copied, reproduced, republished, modified, uploaded, posted, transmitted or distributed in any way including by email or other electronic means without, in each instance, the prior expressed written consent of GoesNet, LLC.

Executive Summary
The software described in the following paragraphs has been created to manage and coordinate the primary functions of a powersports dealership. The application is web-based (accessed on client computers via a "Web Browser" program), and has been developed using open standards and technologies. It aims to be flexible, scalable, and extensible. The system offers strong collaboration capabilities, and integrates well with other standards-based software. It is, essentially, a groupware package tailored to needs of a used vehicle dealership.

Some of the key features the software currently boasts are:

Inventory Control
Sales and F&I
Flexible Reporting
Limited Accounting
Retail / Point of Sale
Contact Management
Configurable Access
Group Calendaring
Email Integration
Internet Website

Other, more technical, tasks the system performs include printing of standard documents, on-demand exporting of current inventory, and internal expense tracking. Sensitive data is protected by a fine-grained permissions set and password authentication. The system also supports SSL (Secure Socket Layer) connections.

This software has been built upon Sun Microsystem's J2EE framework. The application is comprised of several HTTP servers which access a shared MySQL database. Source code from the Jetty and Apache Projects have been used to create this software, and as such certain portions of the source code are bound by version 2.0 of the Apache License. This software was created with the intention of being released under a license approved by the Open Source Initiative (OSI).

The Portal and the Workplace
Buying and selling vehicles is not a business of decimal points; it is one of networking. Naturally, figures need to be recorded and profit margins need to bet met. But, before that can happen, a dealership must become a hub for vehicle trade. Collaboration and connectivity are requisites for this type of commerce.

Consider the process of acquiring a piece of inventory. A customer must make an initiative to contact the dealership. Some of the customer's personal information must be collected so that subsequent correspondences may be made. Qualifying details about the vehicle are gathered to determine the prospect of a transaction. If the prospect is considered beneficial by both parties, conditions of the transaction are negotiated and a transfer of ownership takes place.

Many computer programs exist to account for the technical details of this process, i.e., the financial conditions of the transaction and the identifiers of whatever legal documents are required by such an event. But these things were not arrived upon instantaneously, and so much of the process is lost shortly after the deal has transpired. A paper trail, even if complete enough to recreate the transaction in its entirety, is an inconvenient source of information at best.

A portal is an organized collection of information, providing tools and services for users with which they can work towards a common goal. Much like the open source model for software development, portals are inducive to sharing knowledge for the advancement of everyone involved. A successful portal not only facilitates the storage of pertinent data, it provides convenient searching, sorting, and management of that data. These capabilities, when available in a networked environment, make the portal an ideal paradigm for large-ticket commerce.

Shifting the Formula
Before exploring the benefits of a collaborative business system, the issue of security should be of utmost concern. From a management standpoint, the concept of opening sensitive information to employees can be intimidating. The system, however, places access control in the hands of the administrator, who can specify permissions for each user from a practically exhaustive set of privileges. Each user account is then protected by a password which must be entered to gain access to any portion of the system.

With security, it becomes possible to retain all business data in one place. However, data is rather meaningless without structure. The conventions by which data is organized and then made available define the usefulness of the system. In small-ticket retail, transactions may be adequately represented with one simple record. e.g. Purchasing a loaf of bread at a grocery store. Specific details of the exchange are of no consequence, and so little structure is needed to represent this data.

In a simplified form, large-ticket retail transactions could be designated this very same way and many software applications take this approach. But this is inadequate, and should be considered unacceptable for many reasons. Transactions of this nature are a culmination of prerequisite events, and result in the development of a relationship with the customer. With the proper structure, these events and relationships can be represented as data in a software system.

Plainly put, vehicle transactions transpire in steps, or fragments. These fragments are really artifacts belonging to the transaction. In fact, if examined this way, the transaction itself can be thought of as not much more than a collection of artifacts. Telephone conversations, email correspondences, showroom visits, financing applications, trade-ins and closing terms these are typed events which together compose the state of the transaction at any point in time. This is the level of structure which should be expected of modern vehicle dealership software. The ability to create, modify, and review data conveniently within the context of this structure is the goal of the portal.

Because this goal is met, because a living set of real world events becomes the core of company data, the dealership can become a self-perpetuating marketplace for vehicle commerce.
Defining Structure

If a transaction is essentially a collection of typed artifacts, its structure can be depicted approximately as in Figure 1. Object-oriented programming languages, such as Java, allow real world events like those above to be represented quite naturally in source code. The end result is a cohesive, intuitive design that lends itself well to user interface programming. An expanded, more accurate model of the system's data architecture can be seen below.

This design also allows for records of certain types (e.g. customer, lien holder, vehicle..) to be reused, thus building a history for each instance of these records. For example, it is entirely possible to retrieve all transactions that reference a particular customer or vehicle.

Business Components and Specialized Features
The entire portal is currently comprised of three modules: the Internet website application, the vehicles application, and the parts and services application. Each module is capable of running on either a separate host, or on the same machine. The modules can operate independently, or communicate and interact with each other when necessary. The subsystems built into the portal include inventory control, contact management, calendaring, invoicing, document printing, basic accounting, report generation, and web content management. Each subsystem is cohesively, but not tightly, bound to the user interface. The interface is flexible, should it ever need to change.

Inventory control provides the crux of basic record keeping any business is required to maintain by law, i.e. Who bought what, when, and how? This process is well-defined within the application, and offers helpful tools like vehicle deposits (holds), layaways, special-order parts for which a down payment is required, and other common retail "problems" that are not often facilitated in point of sale software. These features are parameter-driven, so it is easy to enable, disable, or adjust certain inventory control functions via a configuration database.

Because customer retention is so important to automotive dealerships, and because the application aims to provide extensive traceability, its integrated contact management is exceptionally strong. The system stores contact records for customers, employees, lien holders, insurance agents, referrers, vendors, and general contacts. Each record type is specialized in a manner which reflects that contact's role in or to the dealership. Contacts may be safely and easily merged, in the event that duplicate records are created. In addition, the application provides email integration tools which work independently of the messaging infrastructure the dealership has in place.

A bulletin group calendar provides a convenient way to schedule and coordinate business events. Employees may create their schedules hours, weeks, or even months in advance. Just like transaction updates, calendar events are typed, allowing employees to classify and filter different portions of their schedules. Multiple employees can be added to an event. It's also possible to retrieve any employee's calendar to see when they're free, or to view a global calendar for the entire dealership. The calendar also supports the iCal protocol (RFC2445) for data exchange, so clients may use alternative interfaces if they desire to.

Providing customers with detailed, accurate, and informative invoices is a very important part of customer service. It doesn't hurt if these invoices are readable in layman's terms, and visually attractive, either. Many applications fail in this regard, to the detriment of customer satisfaction. When purchasing a large-ticket item such as a used vehicle, it's comforting to the customer if they can hold in their hands a single piece of paper with plain wording, a tabular summary of debits and credits, and even a small photo of the goods involved in the transaction. This is exactly what the system provides. What's more, it's possible to generate a partial invoice for a transaction at any point in time, so the customer never has to leave empty handed, even if the deal is not yet complete.

Document printing is an unavoidable burden in the realm of vehicle commerce. Aligning forms, calibrating printers, and tightening ribbons are, unfortunately, necessary evils when it comes to satisfying registrars and auto loan lenders. The application provides simple and convenient tools to accomplish this arduous task, from start to finish. In fact, equipped with a simple desktop scanner, dealerships may use a drag-and-drop interface to author their own document templates in just a few minutes. Not only does this feature offer dealerships immediate turnaround times when bringing new forms online, it eliminates much of the pressure on the software vendor to provide this service.

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