© 2017 Autosoft. All Rights Reserved. AS17-0192Case Study: Country Saab of Orange Countywww.autosoftdms.com

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Country Saab of Orange County:Growing Through Change

If Frank Petrucci, owner of Country Saab of Orange County, had to choose one word to describe his more than three decades in the automotive industry, that word would be “change.” He has learned to not only embrace it, but actually look for changes that will turn into real profit.

Change has shaped his career from the very beginning when he joined the Warwick, New York, based company in 1984. The business, which began as a Chevrolet dealership at a single location, grew with the addition of a Saab franchise and body shop at their current location in Florida, NY.

In 2008, when dealerships across the country were in freefall, Frank knew he could either sink with the rest of them or dare to make a transformation that would massively impact his business. He chose transformation and installed the Autosoft® dealer management system into both stores, replacing a DMS from one of the two biggest providers in the industry.

“The reasons we selected Autosoft are very vivid to me even though it was eight years ago,” said Frank. “It was economically a difficult time for dealers. And DMS providers were not keeping up with what technology was able to do in so far as bringing down costs.”

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© 2017 Autosoft. All Rights Reserved. AS17-0192

Choosing a more advanced technology is making it possible to sell cars in places he never dreamed he could. While traveling in his car one day, Frank received a phone offer for one of their vehicles, a used car that was on their wholesale website. He turned to his Autosoft mobile app (a cloud-based solution) to figure out his inventory, immediately responded to the offer, and sold the car on the spot, from the road.

Before this mobile app, Frank would have had to call somebody at the store or waited until he got back to the store to figure it out.

“The mobile app speeds up the process and makes it less cluttered as I’m walking around the lot or off-site, and I’m off-site all the time trying to buy cars,” said Frank. “We do a lot of wholesale business. So it’s been really a great tool for me and makes everything easier.”

After so many years in automotive retail, Frank knows that time is money. You must strike when an opportunity presents itself or risk losing the deal.

When he first proposed switching to Autosoft, Frank’s staff balked, concerned about learning a new DMS. At the time, he had 30 employees but only six really used the old DMS. To Frank, the choice was easy. The money they would save by switching would enable him to keep an extra employee even though the economy was going through a recession and business was slow. Once this benefit was explained to his team, they were totally on board with being re-trained on a new system.

His advice, “Get your people to understand that this change is good.”

Although Country Saab had been loyal users of their previous DMS, they soon discovered that Autosoft met the stringent provider requirements set by a General Motors mandate and at a fraction of the cost. It did as much, if not more than their previous DMS, and for less.

In his estimate, Frank’s business went from spending $5,000 a month on their DMS to less than $1,500 a month—simply by switching providers.

The ramp-up to use the new DMS was trouble free, and re-training proved easier than expected.

Frank and his team were pleased with the high-end quality of the operating reports generated by their new DMS for tracking gross profits, expenses, sales, and inventories. Those reports coupled with straightforward yet detailed data entry screens helped make for an easy transition. As a bonus, the system included seamless F&I integration with the store’s accounting software.

In short, Autosoft gave Country Saab more than enough platform needed to build deals, calculate payments, sell warranties, and keep track of just about everything.

Case Study: Country Saab of Orange Countywww.autosoftdms.com

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A Mobile App for a Mobile Industry

Employee Buy-In

Easy to Learn and Use

© 2017 Autosoft. All Rights Reserved. AS17-0192

SETUP

REPORTS

PARTS

SERVICE

VEHICLE

CUSTOMER

ACCOUNTING

SALES

DASHBOARD

Greene Auto Group

Dashboard

ADAM

Gross Profit Trend

$223.2K $284.9KObsolescense

$9,333 (7.5%)

ELR

Total ROs

$64.85

2,974Total Service Sales Total Service Gross Profit

$228.4K$76.82 / RO

$173.8K76.1%

Total Service Hours

3,5231.2 / RO

Vehicle Inventory Aging Snapshot

Parts Performance

Service Performance

91

90

Used Average

Days

New Average

67

Days42

Autosoft develops and supports a complete dealer management system (DMS) that has been named the Highest Rated DMS from DrivingSales for three years in a row. With affordable month-to-month contracts, Autosoft’s DMS improves processes and reduces operating costs in over 2,000 franchised automotive dealerships. Easy to use, affordable, and innovative software helps dealers focus on their customers' needs.

844.888.8200 | sales@autosoftdms.com | www.autosoftdms.com 3

In 2012, Frank had plans to sell his Chevrolet franchise to a local party but General Motors bought it instead and shut down the franchise.

Frank and his employees moved to the Saab store. He converted the store to an independent dealership with an emphasis on wholesale and retail sales of pre-owned vehicles, as well as mechanical service.

Through this change, Country Saab kept their Autosoft DMS, even though they could have gone with a less robust system. They decided their preferred DMS solution was still affordable, and they didn’t want to let go of it. Although Frank no longer owned franchises, he considered his DMS a great one for independents and wanted to continue operating much as before.

“It is clear that the Autosoft product is awesome from the cost alone,” Frank pointed out. Affordability is just one more reason he likes to recommend it to other dealers.

Support is another area that has been critical to Country Saab. When Frank makes a support call, he never has to worry about how that call will be handled. He always gets answers to his questions and has been more than satisfied with the support for his DMS. Country Saab is not alone in their appreciation: Autosoft was ranked #1 in the industry for dealer satisfaction for three years in a row.

Whether it’s tracking sales or scheduling service, Autosoft helps ensure that Country Saab keeps on top of its growth with affordable, leading-edge solutions. While Frank Petrucci is comfortable with change, he has no plans to change his DMS—Autosoft has won his business time and again.

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