Reynolds and Reynolds, headquartered in Dayton, offers the Windows-based ERA-IGNITE dealer management system (DMS). ERA-IGNITE offers a single system with a single unique identifier for every customer, every vehicle, and every transaction.
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IDMS by DealerSocket
Score 4.1 out of 10
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DealerSocket’s IDMS combines its web-based design and custom reporting for a DMS solution designed to help independent and BHPH dealers be successful. IDMS gives web-based access with mobile capabilities, configurable workflows, and more than 50 third-party integrations.
ERA-IGNITE works well for day to day operations at Car Dealerships. It will maintain your customer records. It is lacking a little in mainlining employee records, as you have to switch back and forth between ERA "blue screen" (older version) and IGNITE "point and click" (newer version). Overall, though it will get the job done.
DealerSocket is well suited for a scenario in which an auto or motorcycle dealer needs a one-stop, all-inclusive software for CRM and marketing. It can be cost prohibitive so a small dealership may not use all the features or be able to afford the high cost of the software.
The Financial Statements can only be printed on legal and instead of scrolling through it to look at it you have to navigate it at the top with the arrows.
Their time clock is not user-friendly. You cannot just pull up one person and look at their time and make changes. You have to go through like you want to print, look at the time for the employee to find errors, then back out and go into a different screen to correct.
Giving employees access to different functions is a nightmare. It is not at all laid out the way Ignite is used, and there are numerous hidden check boxes.
The service scheduler is mediocre at best. It offers very little control over what's coming in and is extremely clunky.
Adding a new user is a terrible experience for service. They need to be added to the BlackBird side, then to the scheduler as an adviser, then given permissions as a user, then given override permissions. It's way too complicated.
Their support team knew less about their scheduler than I did. I was almost training them within a week.
We were using CDK CRM for the sales side of things, which was greatly outdated and DealerSocket absolutely blew it out of the water. However, we were using Xtime for service prior to the switch and after just 10 months, we are back to our original system. We wanted to integrate both sales and service within the same system, which is why we went with DealerSocket, but it's not worth all the trouble it brings.
