CDK debuts megaplatform meant to streamline dealership software needs

CDK Global has launched CDK Dealership Xperience, a megaplatform that it says will incorporate multiple dealership workflows, boost customer service capacity and eliminate the need for extra software systems.

The software company said the new platform addresses longstanding dealer complaints about extra costs and time wasted trying to create technology workarounds with existing dealership management systems.

"It enables a dealer to operate their entire business on one platform," CDK Global CMO Barb Edson told Automotive News.

Existing dealership management system customers in their CDK renewals will be signed up for the platform's Foundations Suite at no extra cost, said Edson, who added that the platform will be marketed actively to both existing and potential new customers.

"We're spending millions to implement this for our valued customers because we believe so strongly that we have pieces of the technology puzzle that they've been missing," she said.

Dealers have complained that dealership management system software sold by market leaders such as CDK and Reynolds and Reynolds Co. didn't fully address their needs, leading them to purchase add-on tools and systems that don't work smoothly with their system. CDK CEO Brian MacDonald said that Dealership Xperience — which incorporates CDK Drive DMS along with other systems and platforms such as digital retailing and customer relationship management systems — is the product, in part, of a listening tour where dealers aired those concerns.

"We've been on the road talking to dealers, listening, and it's clear their issues haven't disappeared," MacDonald said in a blog post promoting the platform launch. "The traditional DMS is no longer enough if a dealership wants to increase operational efficiency and increase consumer satisfaction."

In his post, MacDonald acknowledged dealership management systems have left gaps requiring added software tools that don't always work well together.

"These broken, unintegrated solutions and workflows have created almost a digital triage — which by the way is costing dealerships tens of thousands of dollars a month," MacDonald wrote.

CDK is touting capabilities within Dealership Xperience such as simplified desking, which refers to the part of the vehicle-buying process in which retailers offer customers selling price, financing terms and monthly payment options. Users also can schedule service appointments and handle digital retailing components within the platform, Edson said, serving as a replacement for what is often separate technology tools.

Also part of Dealership Xperience is CDK Unify, a program billed as providing an interface with simplified access to CDK applications.

CDK's platform comes in the wake of its 2021 acquisitions of automaker data technology firm Square Root and digital retailing platform Roadster and the 2018 purchase of customer relationship management software company ELEAD1ONE, among others. These acquisitions helped the development of Dealership Xperience, Edson said.

"It was an evolution," she added. "The reality is we're building on the components that we've been working on for years, but we're at a tipping point where we can now provide this in a unified platform that goes beyond the DMS."

Dealership Xperience comes as some of CDK's main rivals have taken steps to enhance their dealership management system or market more advanced versions.

Reynolds and Reynolds, for example, is working on a more customer-friendly approach under President Chris Walsh, and the company is using acquisitions to diversify its technology capabilities. It acquired DealerCorp Solutions in April, a Canadian software company and partner focused on providing digital retailing tools to dealerships. In June, Reynolds snatched up dealership management technology startup AutoVision with a goal of using its vehicle acquisition technology in its dealership management system to help retailers sell more used cars.

DMS startup Tekion, meanwhile, is working to gain a foothold with Automotive Retail Cloud, a cloud-based dealership management system that relies on artificial intelligence and big data to streamline the retail sales process with customers, in the back office and with automakers.

Edson said CDK is mindful of its rivals, but customers are the more important focus.

"We always look to competition, but our No. 1 reason for building the Dealership Xperience platform [came from] listening to our customers," Edson said. "This is what our customers want."

Asked this year about switching to a company such as Tekion, Jeremy Beaver, CEO of Del Grande Dealer Group in San Jose, Calif., and a CDK customer, said he wouldn't necessarily leave CDK behind.

"As with any good competition, as Tekion continues to get better, I believe companies like CDK and others are going to also continue to push that curve of what the future [retail] automotive technology looks like," he said.