I am curious to know if Autobase has direct mail capabilities or will have with the merger. Let me know please

Interesting read Jake - thanks for linking it. We used to be an AutoBase dealergroup, and have entertained ideas of moving back to them, but this news has me concerned. Despite Dominion's track record of leaving acquired companies alone, it seems they leave things alone too much. I've already mentioned my large corporation buying small corporation woes.

DM,

I'd be happy to discuss Dominion with you if you would like any insight via one person's opinions. I won't give any advice in terms of whether or not you should make a move there, but I can shed some light on some things that may not be visible on the surface. I worked there for a few years and still have several of my closest friends in a range of departments - cust. service, programming, dealer sales, national accounts, management - the whole gamut. By no means am I a disgruntled former employee, actually I'm thankful for my time there, but I don't hold anything back when it comes to my opinions on DE, good or bad. Feel free to get in touch with me through higherturnover.com (jake@). I also gave my $.02 at Dominion Enterprises: The Unwieldy Conglomerate

I have been doing some intensive research about Dominion Enterprises since I am considering a corporate management position with the company. I am a bit dismayed about the turnover rate at the company that has been discussed here. Although the position I am considering is not a programmer position, it is still a red flag for me. Any advice? It seems the company is making efforts to aggregate some of their divisions and get all functions in the same place and also are re-designing their websites. Any advice?

I have to agree woth most of you.
Most of these great-smaller-companies are better than larger ones because of the team of people that started amd grew up with them. Once the mergers are done, they leave as the new corporate mentality settles and the new people that comes in can't be as efficient.

EJ is correct. I have yet to see Dominion/Trader do anything with any of their acquisitions. Like management used to tell me during my tenure there, the easiest way to take care of competitors eating into opportunities/marketshare is to buy them out. Once they buy them out they let the newly acquired company continue almost as if nothing happened. See boats.com, xigroup, homes.com, etc. They have been like this for years, but it seems like they're getting more agressive with it lately. Heard it from a Dominion employee/manager/friend today that they just acquired another dealership web development company and are doing away with some of their vehicle web services division. Haven't been able to find any published info yet on that though.

Interestingly, JM Solutions and DME Holdings just announced a partnership to create a marketing company for dealers. The company will integrate the direct marketing products of DME with the analytics of JM Solutions. Here is the press release: http://www.autoremarketing.com/ar/news/story.html?id=6490.
Very different way to operate than DE.

The comments regarding how little integration there is between Dominion's companies are insightful. Mitch Brooks confirmed that strategy will continue in an interview last night. He also confirmed Dominion is getting more aggressive with its acquisition strategy.

Whether that's good for the industry is for you guys to decide.

http://wardsdealer.com/latest/dominion_acquisition_autobase/

I know, it's a little self-serving posting a link to an article I wrote....

My experience with Dominion Enterprises doesn't lead me to believe they will integrate any of these companies into a more useful platform for dealers. They tend to let each company run itself, with little top down guidance.

I don't know if I should be happy or sad with this news. I've been through too much pain with larger companies to feel this is a good move for AutoBase. The smaller companies are fantastic to deal with because everyone, within the organization, is excited about having a pivotal role. Once that small company is acquired by a larger one, these same excited employees find themselves amongst a sea of other employees and prohibitive policies. Their access to the head boss no longer exists, and their excitement eventually dwindles. I've personally seen this with:

AutoMark - acquired by Reynolds & Reynolds
Traver Technologies - acquired by ADP
AVV - acquired by AutoByTel
I can go on and on

AutoBase is a decent CRM, and their latest ILM tool looks like an improvement (but still not perfect). With this news, I worry over past experiences that AutoBase will become a stagnant tool. The big company acquirements seem to create a loss of innovation, elongated support response times, disconnects, and watered-down-underpaid staffs.

With that woe on the table, I must admit that I am not fully familiar with Dominion Enterprises. There is always the possibility they are the exception to the rule.

xigroup makes some pretty decent dealer websites. One of our clients recently had one done through them. Its the most custom looking dealer website ive seen out of a larger company.

Sorry Lao for misspelling your name.

I totally agree with Loa. It is time for companies to offer affordable solutions at reasonable prices to the dealer body. For too long many companies have sold into the ignorance of the market with flash and hype. Sad to say many dealers have paid for their education buying into all the hype. That being said, there are some great companies emerging with world class, truly integrated technology that really have the best interest of the dealer in mind.

PS: I think ADP and Rey Rey should be shaking in their boots watching Microsoft on the horizon. That should be very interesting to watch in the next couple of years.

Dominion Enterprises: The UnwieldyConglomerate

Scrolling through my RSS feeds this morning, I noticed on DealerRefresh that Dominion Enterprises acquired another company, definitely not surprising, but I think it’s interesting, in light of their recent history. I am not sure if anyone has ever d...

Dominion Enterprises

Please if there is a CRM Player out there with an affordable system that will work for dealers let us know, we need a simple, user-friendly solution that will work.

Maybe someone does listen. Maybe this new venture will provide the solutions to make us all more effective. This market area is fertile for a company that is able to offer a simple, web based option that is cost effective for the dealers.

I have seen in a number of markets where there is a monopoly, oligopoly or the industry is dominated by a few big players then technology evolves and boom there are a number of companies come in and offer better solutions at affordable prices.

ADP “the archaic one” has had a dominant position for way too long and the company has been suffering with the “hardening of the arteries.” It is time for new fresh approaches as solutions.

I have used a number of LMT's (Lead Management Tools) over the past 6 years and none of them are the real answer. Maybe Dominion Enterprises or when Microsoft Auto Solutions, check out their web site if you have not done so, rolls out the new system in the next year or so we will see a system that is the answer.

The days are numbered for the companies providing poor, substandard, cookie cutter solutions at inflated prices or outdated service and we welcome the new breed of companies offering solutions.

It will soon be time to sell that stock in those old line companies’ folks and invest in the new resources as they come to market.

I won't call them companies, but individuals....people within companies who envision large paychecks by skating the customer. The Internet is a breeding ground for this kind of practice. It is happening in every online industry, and will continue to happen. We just have to be aware that it is happening and try to keep an eye out for it. Thanks for getting this issue out on the table Jeff.

As for some of the names already put out there. My guess is that just as there is a bad apple, there is a good one. The good ones have to clean up the bads ones' messes. I guess further that the people we actually hear from are the good ones, and we'll never know who the bad ones are.

My June 2007 DMM just arrived, and Phil is quoted a few times in "To Drive Online Lead Volume, Dealers Continue to Rely on Third-Party Classified Ad Sites"

Page 11: "Our surveys show that the average dealer is using three to four lead services" .. "We suggest that dealers explore a variety of providers to deliver the volume they want."

Or the quality

Why don't you simply CALL Phil Dupree at AutoUSA and ask him what's up?

Jeff:

I have only one regret, that I could not do your interview for DDM before by exit. Maybe I can do a good interview from the new magazine I am working for now.

All the best.

Mark Dubis

Tell it how it is Jeff! That's why I love this site, keeping everyone honest and to stay informed!

Oh yeah, could ya hold me a spot in line behind you at the weightwatchers?!

Jeff

I don't think kindly of you all that infer Jeff is fat. Success adds a few pounds and I for one think he looks brilliant

I saw a commercial for Weight Watchers this morning. If you sign-up now, you can get an extra day of meals for free - what a deal!

Ryan,

You bring up a good point. It reminds me of a Wired Magazine article from a month or two ago about "transparent business". It mainly referenced blogs as being outlets for companies to expose their true business practices. It promoted the linking of competitive entities for the betterment of evolving an industry. Think of this as a blogging "20 Group", but within your own marketplace.

You're absolutely correct on there being too much "old-school" thinking within the car industry. It can be very frustrating when speaking to progressive thinkers, such as the participants on DealerRefresh.

Jeff,

Pretty good read. I think they did a good job demonstrating to readers that emerging media and advertising trends are real. I suspect the fact that they removed reference to DealerRefresh itself is because Roscoe would see it as a threat to his readership. I have run in to this on occasion, with the Ask Patty folk most recently. I think these are examples how business is in this industry. A lot of people are "afraid of the competition" which in this case is just silly because DR is certainly not a competitive threat to DDM. Hopefully soon people will start realizing that. There is too much "old school" thinking in the automotive industry and it really holds things back in my opinion. The Real Estate industry seems a bit more enlightened on these emerging media trends, and definitely other publications and communications companies out there not in automotive.

Congratulations on the interview. Your baby face really came out nicely on the cover, hehe.

Jeff,
I agree with Alex. I would recommend telling your vendors that you want to use your number and they will.

I worked for Who's Calling and as a Internet Director, You need to make sure you are using national numbers especially with Who's Calling, so you do not lose calls and then assign one to each vendor so you can track the call volume. They will use them if you request them to.

I feel that the vendors use their own tracking numbers simple to be able to say "look you have this many calls this month, we are doing our job!!"

Good Luck
Timm

ASK AND YE SHALL RECEIVE...

1st, Here's the Job Summary:
-A Single Web Task
-Done on a Regular Basis
-From Multiple Sites

BEST CASE SOLUTION:
-Open 1 Browser
-Click a Button
-Browser automatically goes to your phone sites
-Keys in passwords to all sites
-Auto-Drills into your selected reports page
Multiple Sites... One Click... Done.

HOW?
FireFox browser and a plug-in.

Plug in:

hope this helps,
Joe