While working on the next blog of Dx3 I was asked the question, What does Ziios mean or imply?
The name Ziios came about because I am completely lazy.
The original name of the system was PowersportsOffice.com. Try typing this as an email reply when you're sending our perspectives to every VC group in the bay area.
So out of my frustration of typing I asked a group of people to give me a new name, the criteria was quite simple, I just got my first iPhone and loved what you could do with it 'i' in a name for marketing and i wanted the name to be no more than 5 characters.
I got back about 100 or so names, of which Ziios was one. It looked good and if I could not make the DMS work we could always go into some Operating System development with that name.
Anyway, not much of a story here but now you know.
More on Dx3 to come
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Thoughts on DX3 and why we are doing it
This is my first of I hope many Blogs. The starting is a bit rambling but I hope the end will make some sense. If you enjoy this let me know, if you have something you want me to talk about let me know.
Background about me and how I got to this point. For about 20 years I was an IT professional, worked for a few small companies (AT&T and Microsoft) but decided to quit the glamours life of an IT professional and join the easy life of a Powersports dealership.
WOW, was I wrong. In all my life I have never worked so hard and had so much at risk as I did when I owned my own dealership. Somewhere along the way (after 5 years) I got fed up with owning a dealership and wanted to get back into software.
I should also tell you that I have been an avid Motocross nut since i was 13. I am 52 now and other than a few breaks here and there (broken back, etc) I still ride and race. Its in my blood, like most of the owners I have met in Powersports dealerships we do this for the passion as much as for the business. It becomes a way of life.
So back to software. Once I made the decision to leave the dealership I came up with the bright idea of building a better DMS. Why? I had the then top of the line DMS and coming from a software background I knew software could do so much more for a dealership than what that product did.
So me and a couple of guys (ex employees of my dealership) started Ziios.
When we first created Ziios as a DMS we really thought we could change the industry by ourselves. Our primary vision was to reduce the amount of back office work required to support the operations needed in a DMS and to enhance the ability of a dealership to give great customer service. Wow were we surprised on how hard this really would be.
When presented with the opportunity to join Dominion and become a part of all the different properties they have we felt that we could really make our vision come true.
Well that was the thought anyway, as with any acquisition it takes awhile to get accustom to your new surroundings. Now after a year and a half we are making progress with the new vision and what is that vision? DX3.
So what is the DX3 vision and why is it important to every dealership? Think about your dealership this way, if your like most dealerships you have a website that contains major units you wish to sell, maybe you even sell parts online, in addition you may have or would like to have a lead management system and a CRM system. In addition you will most likely have a need to feed outside websites such as Craigslist or Ebay or CycleTrader, maybe more. Then there is that DMS system.
As you can see lots of system requiring data, most the same data. Today's solution to this comes in a few flavors, Cut and paste, re-enter the data and a delayed data feed. All of these require work of your employees and are error prone. If your like my old dealership we tried to keep it up to date but other items always seemed to get in the way.
In addition the data needs to focus on back office issues such as cost, product categories, warehouse quantities but that same data also need to feed the public interface that focuses on images, descriptions web pricing, dealer pricing, sale prices etc. One single piece of data that handles all of the needs of the dealership.
So this is where the vision of DX3 comes in, having a central data storage for all these systems to allow real time access.
With advancements in cloud computing giving computing power that was once only accessible to large corporations is now affordable and with this the vision of having a single real time database in the cloud can be possible.
We are currently in development on Parts and Accessories. Sounds simple huh? I wish it was :)
Our goals for P&A are the following
Early work has been done and we are excited with some of the results. Distributors like Western Powersports and Helmet House have been amazing to work with on this. They see the vision and want to change the industry. Others don't see it yet, but once we have this up and running i am sure they will see it also.
We also have a few OEM's that we are working with, too early to let the cat out of the bag but their vision will help the industry in many ways.
I will try to update this blog as much as I can with our progress on DX3, what Ziios the DMS is doing and what my thoughts on the industry in general are.
until then, happy motoing
Curtis
Background about me and how I got to this point. For about 20 years I was an IT professional, worked for a few small companies (AT&T and Microsoft) but decided to quit the glamours life of an IT professional and join the easy life of a Powersports dealership.
WOW, was I wrong. In all my life I have never worked so hard and had so much at risk as I did when I owned my own dealership. Somewhere along the way (after 5 years) I got fed up with owning a dealership and wanted to get back into software.
I should also tell you that I have been an avid Motocross nut since i was 13. I am 52 now and other than a few breaks here and there (broken back, etc) I still ride and race. Its in my blood, like most of the owners I have met in Powersports dealerships we do this for the passion as much as for the business. It becomes a way of life.
So back to software. Once I made the decision to leave the dealership I came up with the bright idea of building a better DMS. Why? I had the then top of the line DMS and coming from a software background I knew software could do so much more for a dealership than what that product did.
So me and a couple of guys (ex employees of my dealership) started Ziios.
When we first created Ziios as a DMS we really thought we could change the industry by ourselves. Our primary vision was to reduce the amount of back office work required to support the operations needed in a DMS and to enhance the ability of a dealership to give great customer service. Wow were we surprised on how hard this really would be.
When presented with the opportunity to join Dominion and become a part of all the different properties they have we felt that we could really make our vision come true.
Well that was the thought anyway, as with any acquisition it takes awhile to get accustom to your new surroundings. Now after a year and a half we are making progress with the new vision and what is that vision? DX3.
So what is the DX3 vision and why is it important to every dealership? Think about your dealership this way, if your like most dealerships you have a website that contains major units you wish to sell, maybe you even sell parts online, in addition you may have or would like to have a lead management system and a CRM system. In addition you will most likely have a need to feed outside websites such as Craigslist or Ebay or CycleTrader, maybe more. Then there is that DMS system.
As you can see lots of system requiring data, most the same data. Today's solution to this comes in a few flavors, Cut and paste, re-enter the data and a delayed data feed. All of these require work of your employees and are error prone. If your like my old dealership we tried to keep it up to date but other items always seemed to get in the way.
In addition the data needs to focus on back office issues such as cost, product categories, warehouse quantities but that same data also need to feed the public interface that focuses on images, descriptions web pricing, dealer pricing, sale prices etc. One single piece of data that handles all of the needs of the dealership.
So this is where the vision of DX3 comes in, having a central data storage for all these systems to allow real time access.
With advancements in cloud computing giving computing power that was once only accessible to large corporations is now affordable and with this the vision of having a single real time database in the cloud can be possible.
We are currently in development on Parts and Accessories. Sounds simple huh? I wish it was :)
Our goals for P&A are the following
- Deliver the richest set of data to the Dealer/OEM/Distributor that includes data needed for Accounting and Advertising.
- Deliver data in near real time (don't wait until April 15th to deliver April 1st price updates)
- Allow users to customize and use the data as they need (remove application boundaries)
- Start to establish OEM/Distributor standard data formats (work with MIC and the industry)
Early work has been done and we are excited with some of the results. Distributors like Western Powersports and Helmet House have been amazing to work with on this. They see the vision and want to change the industry. Others don't see it yet, but once we have this up and running i am sure they will see it also.
We also have a few OEM's that we are working with, too early to let the cat out of the bag but their vision will help the industry in many ways.
I will try to update this blog as much as I can with our progress on DX3, what Ziios the DMS is doing and what my thoughts on the industry in general are.
until then, happy motoing
Curtis
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)