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6 Ways OEMs Can Control Warranty Costs Before Investing in Warranty Software

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Overview  Warranty cost reduction for automotive OEMs starts with process and data discipline, not software. The article outlines six areas OEMs should address before investing in warranty management software: claim adjudication rules, dealer coding accuracy, parts and fitment data, supplier recovery, standardized PDI, and warranty data visibility. Once these fundamentals are in place, Intelli Warranty can help enforce and scale them across the dealer network. Key Takeaway  Most warranty cost problems come from process and data gaps, not a shortage of technology. Claim adjudication rules and dealer coding accuracy usually deliver the fastest, lowest-cost improvements. Supplier recovery is one of the most underused levers OEMs have for controlling net warranty spend. Software performs best when it enforces rules that already work manually. It rarely fixes a broken process on its own. What Does Warranty Cost Control Look Like Before You Buy Software? Warranty cost control before...

What Is Warranty Claim Adjudication? How Automation Replaces Manual Approval Queues

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Overview: Warranty claim adjudication is the formal decision-making process an OEM uses to determine whether a submitted warranty claim is valid, and if so, how much should be paid. It's a distinct term from claim submission or claim processing, referring specifically to the judgment step: checking a claim against coverage rules, repair codes, labor benchmarks, and documentation standards to reach an approve, deny, or flag-for-review decision. Traditionally, this happens through a manual approval queue, where human reviewers work through claims largely in the order they arrive, regardless of complexity. Automated adjudication replaces that queue with a rules-based and machine learning-driven decision engine that resolves straightforward claims instantly and routes only genuinely complex or anomalous cases to a human reviewer. Introduction "Adjudication" is one of those warranty industry terms that gets used constantly by people inside the process and is rarely explaine...

Best Dealer Management System Software for Automotive OEMs in 2026: A Complete Comparison

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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...

How Interactive Exploded View in Digital Manuals Saves Hours of Diagnostics

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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...

How a Dealer Management System Turns Aftersales into an OEM Profit Center

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 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...