4) Unrealized profit potential...

4) Unrealized profit potential while you continue to operate unnecessarily on the old system - the new system brings with it myriad new features that directly impact profitability. To name a few:

- labor line association makes it much easier to verify that all parts are on the service order; eliminates unbilled parts

- menu pricing

"One benefit of menu pricing that you may not realize is the time saved in collecting money and delivering the car to a client: menu pricing reduces this time to a minimum - the bill is now simple to understand for the client! I can deliver at least twice as many cars at day's end than before, without brushing off anyone: time per customer is now spent on warm/fuzzy instead of them going anal on my too high price of a water pump gasket or some such time burning exercise. This is a major benefit for us every afternoon at that 5:00PM crunch time!"

                                                                    - Russ Stein, Stein Automotive, Louisville, KY

- improved matrix pricing (easier to implement, more likely to be used)

- improved control of labor rates

(labor rates by labor category enable you to vary labor rate on a per labor-line basis)

- easy-to-create Service Templates means you'll have a far more usable and profitable job database (you can now have diagnostic, electrical troubleshooting labor rates, and so forth)

- improved technician time tracking (by labor line - far more precise)

- enhanced estimate totals box allows you set and realize pre-determined profit goals

- ability to email your customer mailings (saves postage)

- improved marketing and marketing analysis enables you to make better marketing decisions and bring in more business

(this affects the generation and tracking of business from both new and existing business)

- improved mailings (mail merge with Microsoft Word)

(enable you to produce far more professional and effective mailings)

- unlimited-length recommended repairs which can be stored for instant retrieval, which means better written, more effective and convincing recommended repairs, which will save time at the service desk and facilitate sales

- more powerful accounting afforded by the move to QuickBooks (which deserves it's own discussion - see next reason, below).

If you are a Worldpac customer, the integration to Worldpac brings with it a massive efficiency boost. And while it may be difficult to assign a value to these items now, it won't be at all difficult to do so once the new system is in place. As far as systems go, SSM is just a little too good, so the decision to leave it isn't easy. But those who have made it look back and wonder why they didn't do it earlier. And so will you. To read what some of the SSM users who have migrated to to S2K have to say specifically about the economic impact S2K has had, click here.