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Glass software

How do all you mobile only operators give your quotes?

I know of a guy who uses a laptop and a special program to quote customers over the phone. I think the program is called Glass Pack.

Is this a good way to do it or are there better ways?

Any good products that anyone can recommend?

Re: Glass software

Personally I use IBS/ELMO you can look them up online and they will send you a demo I HIGHLY Recomend them, however you should get many demo's from everywhere so you can know what your comparing it to. Elmo for us is the best thing since... the movie back to school (little inside joke there)

Re: Glass software

I noticed that ODG uses Glaxis which is part of the PPG network. Do all of the programs use NAGS to quote? I would like to find a program where I could look up my cost at say ODG...I could care less what the NAGS price is unless its an insurance job.

Re: Glass software

If you have your own pricing lists based on OEM pricing, then there are a few POS systems that you can plug that in to without paying a NAGS license since the OEM numbers are not the "copyright" of NAGS.

The distribution model in the US is broken and sadly the ability to retrieve real-time pricing and availiability is not an option. Our product line delivers this real-time information in other countries thanks to distributor cooperation; however in the USA you have multiple companies trying to compress and control the model.

Read AGRR and thumb through the advertisements from the POS systems and then call each one for a evaluation, demonstration or free trial.

In our case, if you have a mobile phone, you have access to NAGS and your own private parts lists! And look at it this way, is $150 a year for a NAGS license worth the ability to quote from anywhere at anytime? From a business and economical standpoint, I believe so.

Regards,
Gary Hart
CEO & President
eDirectGlass

Re: Glass software

And now a few words from our sponsor...

Re: Glass software

The only problem with the NAGS license is that I want ot price things at cost +. I need to understand more about how places like ODG and PPG arrive at their prices. Perhaps that will help me purchase the correct system.

Re: Glass software

You are not going to find out how the distributors arrive at any certain price. The best you can do is get your wholesale costs from your favorite distibutors and then plug them in to either a POS system or use Microsoft Excel.

Some companies like Pilkington and PPG will give you your own cost price list in an Excel formatted list, proving you purchase enough quantity for them to compile this list for you.

This is the reason why there is a NAGS, whether it is good, bad or indifferent. For you to manage your own lists in the fashion above is very time consuming and the margin for error is great to the extent you could lose a lot of money on a job.

What you could do is, get a POS system and a NAGS license. For cash qoutes, simply take a fixed percentage from each NAGS/OEM price off and quote that way. Then, start recording all of your purchases to build your own margin profile. What this means is that you could run a report every month or quarter that will tell you what you should be quoting.

Good luck.

Gary

Re: Glass software

AGN

With elmo you can load your price list directly into the POS and then it know what you pay I HAVE not demo'ed anything that can do that. they coded it for me like that cuase i requested it elmo rox

Re: Glass software

What about wireless internet and get your costs/availability from vendor websites? I see dudes surfing internet every day at taverns, ball games, etc.?

Re: Glass software

Bachman,

3 POS vendors have that functionality; however, it is only good if you receive pricing from your distributor(s) in a mappable format. Like 1% of the industry has this ability and it is a shame.

GLASSGOD,

Sure, you can get a wireless aircard from Sprint, Cingular, etc. and use a notebook to access PPG, Pilkington and other, assuming you have online accounts with these companies that permit access to ordering, pricing and inventory. Not every shop has this privilege

As I said before, distribution in the USA is broken! I'm not the first to say it either, Gary Lubner from Belron even stated it at the AutoGlass show in Tucson in May.

Re: Glass software

Hrmm well lets see, LOF can do it, odg can do it, umm ppg can do it so... what is the 99% of distributors that cant do it?

Re: Glass software

I personally have & use the spring air card, it is awsome! i have had good connections all over, and it is very reliable.. beats the heck out of counting on wifi..

As far as the NGA confrence i bet when he talked there was a huge echo, from what i hear no one was there except vendors and it was a very poor turnout??

Re: Glass software

Bachman,

The 1% I am referring to is the number of shops that have access to their pricing tier from their respective distibutors. Most if not all distributors unofficially place restrictions on who can get their pricing via exported lists or in real-time, simply because they do not want to support thousands of these requests. I could write all day on this subject but I think we have all answered the original question.

As for the NGA show, it was a poorly attended show for sure. Mr. Lubner did have many valid points that mostly fell on deaf ears because very few organizations really want to promote positive change and rather would continue with the status quo.

Let me ask you this, what vendor in this industry has given back to your organization for your patronage? What have they done innovative that has allowed you to realize additional or new revenue? Do you enjoy paying EDI and related network fees?

Do you know that there are no technology standards for point-of-sale in the AGRR industry? This hurts everyone from the top down.

Re: Glass software

I can not tell you what the others do but being a PPG customer I can log on to their website through internet explorer with my codes and get my cost and availability in real time. They want their customers to use the website - whether they buy one or one hundred parts at a time.

I belive Pilkington and Mygrant do this also.

Re: Glass software

"This is the reason why there is a NAGS, whether it is good, bad or indifferent. For you to manage your own lists in the fashion above is very time consuming and the margin for error is great to the extent you could lose a lot of money on a job."

Oh boy..........

Re: Glass software

Mark1

Oh boy what? What is the universal solution? Look at how far the Chicago group got for instance. Not very.

I'm curious as to your meaning of "oh boy".

Re: Glass software

Ok, I'll play.

What exactly do you mean by "this is the reason for NAGS"? To protect poor ignorant shop owners from their own lack of being able to sell a part for more than what they paid for it? What great margin of error is there that exists that NAGS protects us from?

Thousands of net priced parts, perhaps? Shop owners are already checking costs on virtually every part as it is; to use NAGS as some kind of equalizing entity is just plain scary.

Your example of Chicago Group in reply to my post demonstrates a level of defeatism that suggest we should continue to use NAGS just because they are the least of evils? THere isn't even that choice.

I'll give you this, you did say "good or bad" in reference to NAGS, so you do acknowledge the problems exist, at least somewhat?

But back to shops managing their own lists, who cares about lists anyway? THe selling price is all that matters. If you have shops determining their own selling price all over the country, what would we have? I'll tell you, it's called an OPEN MARKET. What a concept, eh? But NAGS is there to protect us from losing money? Boy I feel better about NAGS now.

I've posted this before: NAGS, I'll pay for the use of your NUMBERS, and you guys keep the pricing. All except the OEM prices, I refer to those a lot. I'll pay HALF price even though I'll only be using a quarter of the data, and you can keep all but yearly updates.

I'll figure my own prices from there, thank you very much, and I think I can handle it, I'm doing it already and have been for some time due to all those net priced parts, for one reason, though there are more.

And I think that the average shop owner that can figure out how to stay in this biz for more than six months without going under has the savvy to do it without NAGS protecting us from losing money on a job due to our great margin of error.

Is it possible that your point of view is slightly narrow, in that to do what you do processing claims, you must endorse some kind of system that establishes these rules of pricing for you to get your foot in the door with the insurers? That's fine, I'm sure some will say I'm old fashioned, and that the days of shops risking the margin of error and calculating their own selling prices are long gone.

The fact still remains that this scenario does NOT happen in any industry that the insurance industry does not have its fingers in, up to their armpits, and into our pockets.

'Nuff said.

Re: Glass software

Mark1,

We agree with you and the rest of the industry when it comes to NAGS and we let Bud Oliver and others at Mitchell know it from time to time. As I stated originally, other countries do not suffer from the problems we have here in the USA. Our product base thrives in these markets.

We are trying to do our part by giving shops the functionality to build and maintain their own part lists; however, in the industry you almost cannot escape using the NAGS part numbers therefore you must have a license to do so.

There is no doubt that if the industry could just simply revert to OEM part numbers based on a single technology standard for delivering timely updates on pricing and technical information, the alternative would be welcomed.

We keep our minds and technology wide open and we certainly are advocating change, look at the way that we are the only POS company not charging for EDI fees.

Re: Glass software

Mark1, have you ever considered politics...**** you're good. You make a point when you make a point!

Re: Glass software

E Direct,

Thanks for your reply.

What this industry seems to treat as the conundrum is that NAGS as a whole is a problem. The numbering system is fine, other than it has evolved into a Aftermarket Parts database, reflections of OEM are distant at best.

The insurers have used this to push AM part pricing on to the industry, which could at some point have disastrous results in terms of liability on shops, but that's another discussion.

The point is, that the majority of distributors have refused to use NAGS benchmark pricing. Why the retail side of the industry continues to use the nearly useless pricing end of the NAGS database is completely beyond my understanding.

Of course, many will say that insurers and networks require it, to which my response would be, simply "SO WHAT? Who runs your business, you or the insurers?"

This problem will solve itself when this industry wakes up and realizes that insurance companies are not the shops customer, plain as that.

To Don't Panic, thanks, but I hate politics, but on the other hand, many say I talk too much, so perhaps I am qualified.

Re: Glass software

Email Me you address i will send you a courtesy copy of what I personally believe to be the finest piece of software the auto glass industry has to offer.

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