Issue 014 - Bike Business Magazine Home Page

u s i n e s s s e r v i c e s
What’s going on in your workshop By William Barclay
I often feel the workshop department in a motorcycle dealership
is not valued as much as it should be.
I remember back in the seventies, I was working for the
Queensland Suzuki distributers rebuilding RE5 rotary engines (now
that’s showing my age). One day the owner came down and asked
me to investigate why that, although we looked busy, the workshop
was not making any money.
Now I love this sort of challenge and I really went to town looking
at everything from admin to mechanic ratios to labour efficiency.
However the biggest surprise to them was that the Workshop was
in fact making money, it was just that the accounting systems were
not reporting the internal work correctly. For example, a mechanic
could spend all day working on sales bikes but because the internal
transactions were not being reported accurately it showed Sales
making artificially high profits and the Workshop (and Parts) making
artificially low profits. Once we had accurate figures to work with it
was easy to make decisions to improve not only the Workshop but
business efficiency overall.
A few years later, after I had started my own motorcycle
dealership, we started looking for the ‘ultimate’ computer software
to make this sort of thing easier. We tested countless computerised
systems but they were either too long winded, or could not
efficiently handle what we needed to do. We decided that the only
way we were going to get everything we wanted was to design
a system ourselves. Our first system was called ‘Biketech’ and it
was a massive success in the UK (It has been the market leading
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motorcycle dealer system there for over 20 years). However with
a changing industry, new technologies and the feedback from
hundreds of our dealers we felt we could do even better, and for the
last 8 years we have been quietly designing the latest generation of
Dealer Management System called ‘Evopos’ at our Development
centre in Queensland. The workshop features in Evopos are
exceptionally easy to use and brings dealer reporting to whole
new level. The workshop often used to be the last department to
be fully computerised. One reason was that it was hard to get a
computerised diary that was as easy to update and access as a
manual diary. Another reason is that it was just too difficult or timeconsuming
to log engineer’s time (especially on internal work).
Evopos can solve both these problems. And because we are getting
the full picture we are able manage and improve the workshop
much more effectively.
For example because we know the proficiency, efficiency
and productivity ratios for each engineer, we can reward good
performance and also highlight when an engineer may need
additional training (eg: if taking longer times on electrical jobs).
Evopos also helps in other areas, for example it helps ensure
parts are not missed off the invoice and it helps controls sundries
and consumables. Your customers will appreciate features like
the automatic SMS or email reminder when their job is ready or
parts are in. And with the automated ‘story’ generation, a detailed
description can be created in a few key presses which can help
enormously with the accepting of labour charges.
So give the workshop it’s fair due. It can be a great profit centre
and it is where many customers are won or lost.
For more information contact Evopos 1300 652132.
Bike Business Extra Value
Over the past two years our readers have been enjoying
the service offered by Bike Business providing easy access to
industry related product updates industry news and technical
applications.
Always looking for a means to continue to enrich this
service it has become apparent that delivering multiple copies
of each issue to dealerships may do the trick.
With multiple copies of the magazine
each related department can
have quick access to this
industry resource.
Typically the Service
Department, Accessories
Department and
Management can receive
their own copies of each
issue of Bike Business.
Best of all there is no
charge for multiple copies the
magazine is FREE to the trade.
To register for multiple copies
of each issue of Bike Business
contact the publishers on
03 5862 3091, or email the
request for extra copies to
bikebusiness@westnet.com.au
AUSTRALIA’S MOTORCYCLE PARTS & ACCESSORIES INDUSTRY MAGAZINE
BIKEBusiness
Issue 13 September - October 2009
b u ssi n e s s s tto b u ssi n e s ss
Motorcycle Diagnostic Solutions
Demonstrations available Australia wide
A Revolution In Workshops
motorcycle traction control
Life of a Motorcycle Dealer
PLUS - News - Accessories - Parts - Service - Workshop
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