Migrating from Bay-master to Other SMS

[JimShelly]

I've been running Baymaster for 25 years, but it seems I"m going to have to make a move.  We want to bring digital inspections on line, along with all the photo reporting and easy customer contact that goes with it.  I don't think Baymaster is going to come out with anything in the near future, so I'm contemplating changing my management software.  Has anyone had experience migrating from Baymaster to say Autovitals or Bolton?

Jim

[Alex]

@JimShelly I edited your topic title to be a little more specific to what you are asking. Hopefully you'll get some info from other members who have used or moved from bay-master. There are a few topics about bay-master on this forum: https://www.autoshopowner.com/search/?q=baymaster 😁

[CAR_AutoReports]

Migrating from anything can be a headache, the best approach to take is to evaluate what you presently do, very thoroughly.

 

Start with:

How many machines are used with the program?

How many employees?

Do they require logins?

 

Expand to:

What are the things you do daily that you take for granted? This is a hard one that requires a team effort to answer accurately.

For instance:  You clearly check in a vehicle and check one out every day, at the least.  What's involved in that?

How does your new system handle that?

Who has to learn what to perform their role?

 

Other than working through the questions up there, the easiest way to learn a new system is to do the following:

Plan on using both systems for +/- 120 days in unison.  What does this mean.  Well the first 30 days, focus doing things as you normally do, but at the end of each day, enter the customers that you serviced that day in the new system, along with their vehicles.  Notice anything different?  Anything you need to adjust to? Anything that has to change your train of thought?

Run that for 30 days or as long as everyone is comfortable doing it.  My suggestion is to allow all of your employees to perform these basic tasks to get everyone used to the new interface.

Next 30 days, time to recreate invoices for the next batch of services.  Rinse and repeat the steps above.

By the 60th day, everyone should be accustomed to how things works, what the strong points are and what the weaknesses are.  On the 61st day... start with the new system entirely for just that day.  Evaluate your entire process at the end of the day and see where the team is at.  If everyone is comfortable, keep moving till you hit a hard enough road block that causes the world to stop spinning.

By the 90th day, your entire team should be fully transitioned to the new platform.  But the 30 days cycles are arbitrary and you should work with your employees to transition.  Having them on board is what makes this easy or hard.

 

Changing platforms is actually really easy when it's broken out into steps.  It's the businesses that do a full hard turn that have a hard time and fail to adapt to better software.  It's a time when your leadership qualities matter the most, because in the end... you benefit the most from a better software platform.

 

[JimO]

I am also a longtime BayMaster user and I think you should give them a call since they already offer digital inspections. I copy and pasted the information below from their web site.

Digital Inspection Forms

(FREE WITH CUSTOM JOBS!)

• Completely Customizable inspections for your shops individual needs

• Full Tablet and mobile device support

• Prints alongside jobs on invoices

• Show recommended inspection and repair alongside a quote for the repair

• Save with the ticket in history to be able to reference in the future

• Can be as short or as long as needed with no limits

USE WITH A TABLET TO SPEED UP INSPECTIONS AND SHOW CUSTOMERS!

 

[Alex]

On 3/5/2019 at 5:12 PM, JimO said:

I am also a longtime BayMaster user and I think you should give them a call since they already offer digital inspections. I copy and pasted the information below from their web site.

Digital Inspection Forms

(FREE WITH CUSTOM JOBS!)

• Completely Customizable inspections for your shops individual needs

• Full Tablet and mobile device support

• Prints alongside jobs on invoices

• Show recommended inspection and repair alongside a quote for the repair

• Save with the ticket in history to be able to reference in the future

• Can be as short or as long as needed with no limits

USE WITH A TABLET TO SPEED UP INSPECTIONS AND SHOW CUSTOMERS!

 

Here's the direct url if anyone is looking https://bay-master.com/advanced