What investment is required for a Navigator Dealer Management System?

What investment is required for a Navigator Dealer Management System?

As you would expect, the simple answer is “it depends”.    

Depends on what though?

There are a few main variables :-

  1. How many users of the system you need
  2. How much up-front investment you would like to make
  3. The version of Navigator
  4. What franchises you hold
  5. Any non-standard add-ons you have

Each element is discussed below :-

Users

The first and main item is the number of “users” you licence.  

This is not the number of staff you have that will use the system but the maximum number that you can login at the same time.

The core software is licenced on a per-user basis.     Once you install the system, the monthly licence is simply the per-licence fee multiplied by the number of users licenced.

This licence fee will reduce on a per-user basis as the number of licences increase.

Up Front Investment

It is possible to reduce the initial licence investment and increase the monthly subscriptions, but over the long term it works out cheaper to pay a reasonable initial licence fee.

The higher the initial investment, the lower the monthly licence and the higher the long term benefit of your investment.

Navigator is priced like a car loan, the higher the deposit, the lower the repayments. However, unlike a car loan, the repayments stay low forever, so the long term savings of paying more upfront continue to accumulate

Navigator Version

We offer Navigator in 3 versions, priced based on your dealership type

The Lite Version is aimed for the single site independent which operates only Sales or Service and no Accounting Requirements. It has a lower price point than our other other systems.

Our Solus offering is aimed at single or dual site independents, Used Car Supermarkets, Single Franchised or Caravan/Motorhome dealerships.

Our Group offering adds multi-site, multi-company and multi-franchise capability.

See what each version offers here

Franchises

Navigator supports most franchises "out-of-the-box", but there are some more complex franchises where there is a supplement to deliver the higher value integration.

Add-ons

Navigator is supplied as a full package, so the core software contains pretty much everything most dealer's will want. As you use more of the system, the number of user licences you will need will increase and so will your investment!

However the are a handful of updates which aren't used by all dealers, so are priced individually in order that you only invest in the packages you need.

For example, this may include :-      

  • Data supply from third party sources (e.g. Vehicle Price lists)
  • Navigator Vehicle Health Check System
  • Other interfaces to specific third parties

Pricing Examples

Let's review a couple of real world price examples:-

A Single Site Independent Sales Only Dealer

This example is for a small Independent dealership, which Sales but doesn't service cars. They need CRM/Lead Management, Vehicle Stock Control, Invoicing, Marketing and Reporting - they want to automatically manage the stock on their web site and capture leads back into the system.

They want to invest an initial £700 subscription for a 5 User Navigator Lite System.

They would expect to pay £144.50 for this solution.

A Single Site Independent with a Workshop

This example is for an Independent Dealership, with Full Sales and Service. They need a full CRM/Lead Management System, Vehicle Stock Control, Workshop Diary Loading, Job Management and Invoicing along with Marketing, Accounting and a full reporting suite- - they want to automatically manage the stock on their web site and capture leads back into the system.. In short a complete Dealer Management System

They want to invest an initial £1,000 subscription for a 5 user Navigator Solus System.

They would expect to pay a monthly subscription of £252.50

They wondered what would happen if they reduced their initial Subscription to £500 - in this case the monthly subscription would have been £272.50

A 3 Site Franchised Dealership Group

This example is for an small franchised Dealer group, with Full Sales and Service at each sire. They need a full Dealer Management System including -CRM/Lead Management System, Vehicle Stock Control, Workshop Diary Loading, Job Management and Invoicing along with Parts,Marketing, Accounting and a full reporting suite- - they want to automatically manage the stock on their web site and capture leads back into the system. They require Parts Price files to be supplied for their franchise. In short a complete Dealer Management System. They estimate that their maximum concurrent user count (the number of people logged in at once) would be 25 users.

They want to invest an initial £5,000 subscription for a 25 user Navigator Group System.

They would expect to pay a monthly subscription of £1437.15

They wondered what would happen if they reduced their initial Subscription to £10000 - in this case the monthly subscription would have been £1235.55

Obviously, your situation will be unique and the pricing/configuration will also be unique to you, but the above should provide some ideas.

So how does Navigator compared to other systems?

Navigator is competitively priced against systems with similar features.

Navigator functionality is on-par with the top systems in the marketplace whereas the investment required by the dealer is more mid-range. Kind of like buying a Volkswagen - it is reliable, high functioning but mid-range in terms of pricing.

Particularly over the long term as Navigator has permanent price increases tied to the Retail Price Index and we will never charge you for an upgrade – ever!  This is unusual in the industry.

We often find that our prospects and customers are surprised that migrating to Navigator can actually have a lower total cost of ownership than staying with their existing system!   .  

How can I reduce the investment required in Navigator?

 Navigator Solus doesn't have too many options to reduce the price, bar increasing the contract term and the up front payment.

The main factor is to reduce the number of user licences and restrict add ons to only those that you need.  We recommend calculating the minimum you will need when you initially licence.  With Navigator, you can increase (and reduce –to a minimum of 5) the number of licences you use and are charged for at anytime.

It may be that if you use more of the system than you expected, that you may then need an extra licence or two – but that would be ok as you are getting extra benefit.

It may be that you wish to lower the initial payment – you can do that, though of course the monthly payments will rise.  This may work for some.

If I choose Navigator, will I get a shock in future with price increases ?

In short NO

When a dealer signs up with Navigator, the price per licence is frozen in real terms at that point

So, what that means, is best served by example.

If a 5 user system is contracted at £1500 initial payment and £250 per month, then each user had an initial subscription of £300 with a per month subscription of £50.

If you wanted to add an extra user, you would pay an additional one off of £300 and then pay £300 per month thereon (i.e 50 x 6)

We cannot vary this price, except in line with Inflation - we tie our pricing to the Retail Price Index.

However, even here, you will not receive an increase until you have had Navigator for at least 12 months.

At Navigator, we like to keep it simple!

As you would expect, the simple answer is “it depends”.     But depends on what ?

Will I get any shocks with price rises in future? 

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Would not hesitate to recommend Navigator DMS.

John Macleod
Lawrence of Kemnay
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