User Reviews Overview
About IDMS
DealerSocket’s IDMS (Integrated Dealer Management System) is a web-based solution designed for BHPH (buy here, pay here) auto dealerships. It enables end-to-end management of vehicle, sales, customer, and payment workflows. IDMS...
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- Industry: Automotive
- Company size: 51–200 Employees
- Used Daily for 6-12 months
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Review Source
IDMS is as good as it can be
Pros
IDMS is a helpful solution. It works best when paired with Dealer Socket CRM for seamless integration
Cons
Does not necessarily play well with others.
- Industry: Retail
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 1+ year
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Review Source
Decent program if customer service was better.
We really appreciate all the things the program offers. It does a lot of things, including reports that help the business.
Pros
The software is easy to use when it functions properly. It automates a lot for us and saves time when working through accounts.
Cons
There are a lot of glitches when they are updating the software and a lot of times the system lags behind.
- Industry: Automotive
- Company size: 51–200 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
iDMS bungled our conversion
FEX was a great product, and Dealersocket was a great company, prior to the acquisition by Vista Equity Partners. Then everything changed. When the founder of Vista Equity isn't busy committing felony tax evasion (seriously, look it up), he's busy stripping his acquisitions of all knowledgeable support staff, jacking up prices, and hoping long-time customers stick around even after the mistreatment--only because there's not a clearly superior software for BHPH dealers out there yet.
Pros
Underlying FEX software which they acquired years ago is stable and has high penetration throughout our industry. When looking at M&A deals, it's nice to find that many already use the same software that we do. I wish they had just left FEX alone, actually, instead of dressing it up with a new interface and calling it "iDMS".
Cons
1. Poor implementations. We told the Dealersocket team 6 months ago that we were going to convert one of our acquisitions to their iDMS product and away from an alternative. A normal software company would jump at this opportunity to earn new business and take care of a long-time customer (10 years in our core business). Instead, the iDMS team moved at a glacial pace and displayed a generally indifferent attitude toward the new business we were giving them. They had months to prepare for our Jan 1 cut-over date, but when we launched on this date, the conversion was a disaster. Our people were trained on how to use the system (by us), so user error was not the problem. iDMS had failed to map data fields correctly, resulting in over half of our customer accounts displaying inaccurate account balances and accruals on Jan 1. This affected our customers, made us look like amateurs to them (which we are not), and decreased our cash collections by 40% for the first two weeks of January. The iDMS implementation team moved slowly and indifferently to try to "correct" this major error on their part, but they couldn't solve it. In the end, we mobilized our own workforce and paid them a bunch of overtime to manually correct each customer account.
2. Customer service. The response times are slow when we have problems. Worse, the customer support team usually doesn't know their own software well enough to actually correct the problems.
Top IDMS Alternatives
- Industry: Financial Services
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Weekly for 6-12 months
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Review Source
All around good product
It is a great tool that provides as much information as you need all in one place. I'd say that IDMS is a worthy investment for any BHPH dealer looking to simplify their collections process.
Pros
If you are in the auto industry and you are looking for a software that makes your collections job easier and at the same time provides you with the data to assess performance, this software is definitely for you. It has many capabilities to make your job easier if you know how to work with it.
This software in particular, has given us something we did not have fully before. It has enabled our team and customers to make the payment process much easier and friendly. Which for us translate in less time dealing with issues and more time selling or creating new opportunities.
Cons
It is not as user friendly as other products out there. The training it's a bit painful and can be quite overwhelming. It takes time to get used to it.
- Industry: Automotive
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Monthly for 1-5 months
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Review Source
My company stopped using IDMS but i liked it
Pros
I liked IDMS it was very easy to use and all sales reps have access to every upsheet so customer are getting worked constantly. I had no issues
Cons
Im pretty sure my management made the swap because of the cost.
- Industry: Automotive
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
IDMS - it's what we had to migrate to when FEX was discontinued
Overall Successful... however we tried to migrate off IDMS last yr to DealerCenter (1/3 the cost) but that failed during the BHPH historical data loading. We then doubled down and when with all DealerSocket products (CRM, INV+ and Web) hoping that the integration with all DealerSocket products would provide a improvement in efficiency even with the bundle cost more than doubling our previous expenses for non-integrated CRM, INV and Web services. The gains in efficiencies were never realized as the integration of the products is much less than what sales promised. We are are sticking with IDMS as the pain to migrate elsewhere is too high, but we are moving off CRM, INV+ and Web services to lower cost options.
Pros
Decent user interface and admin tools allow for customizations. Supports both lender finance and BHPH deals. Can be linked to FEXPAY so BHPH customers can make direct online payment. Links to RouteOne and DealerTrack are huge timesavers. The ability to add custom forms has helped as well.
Cons
FEX was a very good product and IDMS was written to update/ replace it... We had to have DealerSocket keep our FEX access running for over a yr as features and reports in FEX that worked did not work in IDMS, until we reported the issues and generally they got resolved over time. The Finance and Sales Manager users still miss FEX...
- Industry: Automotive
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Very disappointed
Went from great service to Solera buying them out and can't get anyone to help.
Pros
I liked in the beginning before Solera took over that the customer support was on point. Now, no one answers the phone but yet a message says someone will us back but no one ever does and when you do speak to someone they do not understands my dialect. Very frustrating especially considering how much it costs. Its ridiculous! Finding another software company as we speak!
Cons
The customer support is not even close to what it was in the beginning.
- Industry: Automotive
- Company size: 51–200 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Terrible for buy here/pay here
We use it because there is not many other choices, but it's not good.
Pros
At least once a week the system will be down for a few hours. The search function when looking for customers is not good at all. IDMS is good for accounting, but not good for anything else. Unfortunately there is not many systems out there. I would not recommend this system.
Cons
It's not any better than systems that were older. Search function is not good and the system is always down/having issues.
- Industry: Automotive
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
support lack knowledge, problems not resolved but worked around.
Provided inventory management, expense tracking, inventory valuations, customer retention management
Pros
Ease of use, navigation user friendly. The ease with which the user can get to what they are intending to accomplish.
Cons
Costly by comparison of whats available from competitors, more features for less dollars.
Tech support should resolve technical issues with positive results as in fixing their product, not advising how to work around the problem without ever solving it.
- Used for 6-12 months
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Review Source
Don't fall into the dealer socket trap.
Pros
Fairly decent user friendly software with simple intuitive navigation that handles CRM and marketing with a decent appointment system.
Cons
Expensive and sales staff wants a long term contract. Support is ok at best. Campaigns are difficult to use and take a long time to become efficient.
- Industry: Arts & Crafts
- Company size: Self Employed
- Used for Free Trial
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Review Source
A+
Pros
Easy to use for the non tech type with little to no experience.
Cons
None that I have encountered yet. Still learning.