DocuPAD rollout for Canadian dealers ‘imminent’
It has taken a few years, but Reynolds & Reynolds customers in Canada will soon be able to add a major weapon to their F&I arsenal.
Reynolds & Reynolds vice-president Jonathan Strawsburg confirmed the company has completed a legal and compliance review, trained the corporate team on installs and service and has even signed up a handful of dealerships all eager to install one of the biggest head turners to ever hit the business office.
“You will see a big push for docuPAD in Canada in 2017,” explained Reynolds Canada vice-president of sales Ian Reilly.
“This is the beginning of the entire digitization process of deals. We see small parts of that already in Canada, but not to the magnitude you will see with docuPAD. I liken it to Uber in that what Uber has done to the taxi cab industry, docuPAD will do that to the business office and change the entire process.”
As part of Reynolds Retail Management System, docuPAD provides a complete F&I selling solution for dealerships and their customers.
It provides personalized menu presentation, presents forms in an electronic menu format, discloses necessary contract and lease information and captures files in an electronic deal jacket.
“All this adds up to greater profits, increased accuracy and compliance, and improved customer satisfaction. Additional features include interactive presentations and videos to upsell products, full disclosure in multiple languages, both written and audio and detailed usage reports and a structured process to help manage results, track effectiveness and speed up training time,” he said.
According to the company, dealers interested in running docuPAD have to be on the ERA-IGNITE DMS. As of late January, Reilly said the first few installs would likely happen in late February or early March.
DocuPAD wasn’t the only news to emerge from the Reynolds booth during the 2017 NADA Convention and Expo. While much of the talk centered on the company’s Advanced Service goals, Reilly confirmed Reynolds and Reynolds Canada and BMW Group Canada had inked a new, multi-year agreement that will see the ERA-IGNITE DMS installed in all BMW and MINI points in Canada.
“For more than 15 years, we’ve partnered with BMW Group Canada to provide BMW and MINI retailers with a reliable and highly effective DMS to meet their retailing needs,” Reilly said.
“Now, with ERA-IGNITE, we can help BMW and MINI retailers improve even more the efficiency and effectiveness of their business operations and the consumer experience.”
Reynolds spokesperson Tom Schwartz said Canadians should also look out for something called Reynolds E-Workflow as technologies like docuPAD and Advanced Service hit the market.
“Both docuPAD and Advanced Service facilitate Reynolds E-Workflow. F&I and service are traditionally paper-based services meaning the next step can’t be taken until the customer is given or signs a piece of paper. By digitizing those processes, we are streamlining what happens in F&I and service,” he said.
“We’ve seen some customers in the U.S. completely embrace that and it has made a huge difference on their cash in transit, the time to get deals done and so forth. Keep your eye on that in Canada as both these services facilitate this entry into a digital world.”
