Separated At Birth

I had lunch yesterday with an old friend from AutoNation.  David now works for JM&A, and I started thinking about the two companies.  AutoNation is the world’s largest auto retailer.  Jim Moran Enterprises is the most vertically integrated.  I picture them in opposite corners of a Gartner chart.

Mike Jackson put an end to AutoNation Financial Services in 2002, because he wanted no distractions from the pure retail business.  Mr. Moran’s vision, by contrast, was that he would control every revenue stream within his Southeast Toyota footprint – from the port to the stores, including financing and all the F&I products.  Today the finance arm, World Omni, is so strong that it does third-party servicing for other lenders.  Each of these businesses, up and down Moran Boulevard, is a strong competitor in its own right.

I wonder if a single entity could combine the two strategies – the depth of a JM with the breadth of a public dealer group.

Which Admin System Are You Running?

Thanks to the people who responded to my query on Linked-In.  I am still learning about the systems used by my customers in the vehicle service contract (VSC) market.  Most, it seems, have homegrown AS/400 systems.  I have also gotten referrals for Sirius and Stone Eagle.  Please comment here, and tell me what system you are running, whether COTS or custom, and what the platform is.  Thank you.

Selling F&I Products in the Service Lane

Automotive News reports the success AutoNation is having, selling F&I products in the service lane.  I thought MenuVantage dominated service-lane selling, and I was dismayed to see AutoNation using a different system.  I am not with MenuVantage anymore but – old rivalries die hard.

What caught my eye was the point about service-lane buyers needing a way to finance their service contracts.  I have a few words to say on this point – Service Payment Plan.  My pal Bob Hymen offers zero percent financing, and a complete selling kit for the service lane.

Service Payment Plan is integrated with a number of menu systems including MenuVantage.  The F&I Manager can create a finance contract for any of the leading providers, as shown here:

After that, the system prompts for a credit card or bank account, and then generates all the required paperwork.

Cloud Telephony

Now that we are staffing up for PEN, the HR department has asked me which city to recruit in.  It’s hard to have an opinion about this.  I am based in South Florida, the developers are in Chicago, and I expect the Sales and Training staff to be on the road.  The real answer is – wherever you find the talent.

When I did this job for MenuVantage I was physically in the office, but on the phone all day.  The sysop job requires no physical presence – Lynn McLennan was doing it from Europe.

Most of the work in advanced economies will be done by networks of itinerants, who gather from hither and thither, do their thing, and disband. — Tom Peters

Tom Peters, in The Tom Peters Seminar, writes that eventually all workers – or at least all “knowledge workers” – will be free agents working out of their homes. Sprint has already turfed 15,000 workers out of its offices.  This creates a new opportunity for cloud telephony.

Let’s say that I recruit one of my old pals, already a remote worker for MenuVantage.  We will have to disconnect his AltigenVoIP phone from their on-premise PBX, and then ship him a Packet8 phone for ours.  If we were all connected to the same multi-tenant virtual PBX, though, changing jobs would mean simply changing his profile online.