Redhead Equipment Finds CDK Support a Significant Value of CDK IntelliDealer

Redhead Equipment is one of Saskatchewan’s largest heavy equipment dealers. Founded in 1948, they employ 430 people and operate in seven locations. A CDK Global Heavy Equipment customer since the early ‘80s, they run their business on the CDK IntelliDealer™ Dealer Management System (DMS). Because of Redhead’s long relationship with CDK, and their familiarity with the system, they choose to maintain their own CDK server at the Redhead Equipment main office. Branch locations access the server via a corporate-wide area network. A four member team in Regina provides primary support for all IT applications and services, including IntelliDealer, head office and branch Windows servers, and over 450 desktops and laptops. IT Manager Corey Bond says that familiarity with IntelliDealer and a solid IT staff with low turnover provides a depth of internal comfort and skill with IntelliDealer. 

The team handles most issues that arise, he says, but having capable, responsive support from CDK is invaluable.

“The CDK Support desk jokes that when we call, it’s probably not just a simple issue,” Bond says, “We rely on their expertise when faced with issues that are unfamiliar or more challenging— and they come up often enough. Thankfully, CDK Support is made up of really sharp people who offer us not just broad experience, but depth as well.”

Bond says he’s always been impressed by how much even new CDK Support staff members seem to know: “I don’t think that’s by accident. It appears when they bring new people aboard — they’re not just thrown into situations. By the time they take their first support call, they’ve probably been with Support for awhile, shadowing more senior staff.” 

CDK Support takes their role seriously, Bond observes. “Clearly, they understand the high stakes involved with protecting customer data. When they advise me on a course of action, particularly on a complex problem—maybe one they haven’t even seen before—I’m confident they are not just guessing at it. They’re careful and they think it through.”

To ensure the most efficient use of CDK Support, Bond requires that his users route IntelliDealer issues to the Redhead IT department, not directly to CDK Support. “By centralizing support calls internally, we don’t bog CDK Support down with issues we can handle ourselves. This frees them to handle more complex problems and it also helps us spot problem trends,” Bond says. “And if we can’t figure it out, we know CDK Support can for us.”

Support, Bond says, like any relationship, takes effort from both parties. They need to communicate clearly and to cooperate. “We try to do our part by doing our homework before opening a support case. We try to reproduce the error or problem our users report to us. If we can recreate it, we’ll try to resolve it ourselves. If we can’t, we hit the documentation.”

He says that when they do open a support case, they try to have all the relevant info at hand. “The user ID that reported it, the time, date, branch, order number, whatever details we can provide. We don’t just give them minimal info and say ‘Fix it.’ Support’s whole job is to help us. Why wouldn’t we do the most we can to help them do it?”

Bond reinforces that they try not to call with basic issues. “Companies new to the system need some extra hand holding for a while and that’s understandable to a point,” he says. “Companies without an IT department might also need a different level of support than we do. But frankly, support isn’t there to train us. Personally, I’m a little embarrassed when I call support for something I should have known by now, or that I missed in the documentation. We try to be as self-sufficient as we can, and that benefits all parties.”

Bond appreciates the value CDK Support provides. “During normal business hours CDK Support has always responded quickly and appropriately to our support cases. After hours, or on weekends, they’ve also never disappointed me. They’ve returned my calls quickly and done their best to resolve our problems. We try not to use after hours support if it’s not a critical issue. But when it is, and we can’t wait, CDK Support has been there.”

Bond says CDK Support is critical to how Redhead Equipment operates. “When using a DMS, out of necessity you deal with the DMS provider’s support organization. They are our primary interface with CDK. We depend on them to help us keep our system running properly so we can do business and serve our customers. CDK Support really is key to our ability to run our business.”

(The previous article “Redhead Equipment Finds CDK Support a Significant Value of CDK IntelliDealer” was archived in May 2017 via https://www.cdkglobal.com.)