Aftermarket Software Solution

Summary The U.S. dealer management system market in 2026 is still dominated by a long-standing duopoly, CDK Global and Reynolds & Reynolds, which together run the majority of franchised dealership rooftops in the country, largely because of deep OEM certification libraries built up over decades. But that dominance is being genuinely tested. Tekion, a cloud-native platform backed in part by Toyota and founded in 2017, has become the most-discussed challenger in the space, while Dealertrack (part of Cox Automotive) holds a strong position for dealers already using the broader Cox ecosystem. Mid-market platforms like PBS Systems, Auto/Mate, and Autosoft serve smaller and multi-rooftop groups that don't need enterprise-scale pricing or complexity. For OEMs building or managing dealer networks, particularly outside the U.S. mainstream franchise market or with integrated aftermarket needs spanning warranty, parts, and inspection, the right choice depends heavily on what "best...

Overview A static exploded view diagram solves one problem, showing which parts belong to an assembly, but leaves a technician to solve a second, harder problem manually: matching each numbered callout on the diagram to the correct row in a separate bill of materials table, then figuring out the correct order to disassemble and reassemble everything without creating an interference or a mistake. For assemblies with 50 or more parts, this manual cross-referencing process is slow and genuinely error-prone. Interactive exploded views eliminate both problems at once, letting a technician click a component directly to retrieve its part number and specification, while the diagram itself encodes the correct disassembly and reassembly sequence rather than leaving that order for the technician to infer or remember. Introduction An exploded view diagram looks like it solves the identification problem the moment you see it: parts spread apart, numbered, clearly related to each other spatial...

 Overview Fixed operations, service, and parts generate 49% of total dealership gross profit while consuming just 12% of total revenue, according to NADA's 2025 Dealership Financial Profile, a margin profile no other department comes close to matching. But that profit doesn't happen automatically just because a service department exists. It depends on specific, repeatable mechanisms: documented multi-point inspections, systematic follow-up on declined work, structured maintenance packages, that a dealer management system either enables consistently or lets quietly fail.  A DMS is the infrastructure that makes both mechanisms operate consistently, rather than depending on any individual advisor remembering to do them well. Introduction Fixed operations earning 49% of a dealership's total gross profit on just 12% of its revenue isn't an accident of the business model. It's the result of a specific, repeatable set of mechanisms, some diagnostic, some communicatio...

 Overview: Supplier recovery rate doesn't improve by working the existing manual process harder. It improves by removing the specific manual steps- liability identification, contract cross-referencing, deadline tracking, documentation compilation, and negotiation follow-up- that each introduce their own chance of failure. Industry benchmarks show manual claims processing costs 5 to 7 times more per claim than automated processing and takes roughly 10 times longer, a gap driven almost entirely by how many separate manual touchpoints a typical claim passes through before resolution. For OEMs looking to raise supplier recovery rates, the fastest, most direct path is a step-by-step audit of exactly which manual tasks are still standing between an eligible claim and actual recovered money. Introduction Ask most OEM warranty teams why their supplier recovery rate sits below where it should, and the answer usually comes back vague: "our process could be tighter" or "...

Overview: Warranty claim leakage, the gap between what a claim should recover and what gets reimbursed or recovered, is largely a data connectivity problem rather than a policy problem. U.S. automotive OEMs spent over $20 billion on warranty claims in a recent fiscal year, and a meaningful share of that spend traces back to claim data trapped across disconnected systems: the DMS where the repair order originates, the warranty platform where the claim is adjudicated, and the ERP where the financial recovery is tracked. When these systems don't share a common data spine, claims get denied on technicalities, resubmitted claims lose their history, and supplier recovery windows quietly close before anyone notices the claim was ever eligible. Integrating DMS and warranty software directly at the data layer closes most of these leakage points at the source, rather than trying to catch them after a claim has already been processed. Introduction: Every warranty claim starts life as a re...