Paper records are an expensive hassle that are time-consuming to file, retrieve and manage. Using document management solutions for your car dealership makes life easier by streamlining processes, and enabling instant access to your collection of paperwork, such as deal files and repair orders. Switching to a digital medium is a convenience that not only saves you time and frustration, but also is an investment that will produce steady returns for the lifetime of your business! By digitizing your dealership documents you gain multiple benefits such as:
- Ease of Retention
Whether past customers request old deal file paperwork, or your manufacturers call upon warranty repair orders, thumbing through hard copy files in a storage room is not a practical way to operate anymore. A document management company can digitize your backfiles, host them in the cloud, and offer physical storage for hard copy files that need to be retained.
- Free Up Space
Attics, storage units, basements, offices, hallways…these are just a few of the places car dealers store their boxes of paperwork before partnering with a document management company. Just like each parking space on your lot has value, so does that internal real estate, digitizing your dealership frees up valuable space to be used more cost effectively.
- Ensure Disaster Prevention
Accidents are often unavoidable, and there is nothing that can be done to ensure safe storage in the case of flood or fire. The same cannot be said with an electronic storage system; if a disaster takes place, digitized documents won’t be lost in a fire and can’t suffer water damage. Digitizing your files ensures secure storage and back up retrieval even in the worst scenarios.
- Free Yourself From Housing Too Much Personal Information
Housing a backlog of files not only takes up too much space in your office, but also puts your dealership at risk of losing files or putting your client’s personal information at risk. Digitizing your backfiles and having a process for moving your files forward digitally will secure your files safely moving forward. By using secure cloud based storage, your client’s personal information will be safe and protected through passwords and encryptions.
- Online Portal/Cloud Storage
Using an online portal or cloud storage option is paramount to running a smooth and organized document management process at your dealership. It not only reduces costs, but also increases data security and makes information easily accessible. The right option will integrate directly with your scanners on site, as well as your back end system, such as Reynolds and Reynolds. It also has many features that assist dealerships, such as the “Virtual Auditor” that aids in making sure that an audit is never failed again.
- Make Use of Unused Data
Within all those old files is data, more importantly, past customer data. For most dealerships this data sits unused in a cold dark room. In the process of digitizing your backfiles, valuable information can be extracted from the old files to deliver a new marketing list in the process of getting rid of your old backfiles. Data is valuable, and with the right partner you can capitalize on that value.
Your dealership documents are an integral part of your business. The process of going paperless and digitizing your documents will ensure your data and business is secure, protected, and working proficiently.