For heavy-duty commercial vehicle dealerships, their dealership management system (DMS) is unquestionably critical business infrastructure. To keep up with the dynamic nature and unrelenting pace of business in general, companies like Procede that provide these solutions need to continuously and strategically improve their technology to meet dealership needs. That’s why, at Procede, we re-invest every dollar we earn back into the business—into advancing our technology, providing a broader range of services, growing our team, and even strengthening our security position.
But technology is only part of the equation. Dealerships need to be able to maximize their use of their DMS in ways that streamline operations and enable them to access their data so they can make informed decisions about their businesses. Technology coupled with expertise—best practices, deep product knowledge, and custom reporting that delivers deep insights—those are things that can deliver a real competitive advantage. That’s why, here at Procede, technology is not something apart from expertise—the two are deeply intertwined.
How Procede Drives Value through Technology and Expertise
At Procede, we are committed to driving value to our customers by continuously enhancing our products and services in ways that have a meaningful impact on your business. Our ability to do that is deeply tied to the strength of Excede and its underlying technology, the Microsoft SQL Server platform; our domain expertise in software development; our longevity in the heavy-duty commercial vehicle industry; the direct experience of our team members who have worked in and with dealerships, some for ten or twenty years; and the deep expertise our customers generously share with us through our active, ongoing working relationships.
From a technology perspective, a dealership management system is only as strong as the platform it is built on. Excede was built on Microsoft® SQL Server, a relational database designed to provide unprecedented reliability, scalability, and access to data. For more than twenty years, it has served as a rock-solid foundation for the ongoing advancement of Excede and a powerful launchpad on which to build integrations with OEM-proprietary systems and leading third-party solution providers. And since the introduction of our open API five years ago, we’ve seen countless OEMs, third-party solution providers, and even dealerships building on it, a move that has sped the pace of innovation across the industry.
From an expertise perspective, we consider you—our customers—our foremost industry experts. Nobody knows more about the industry and the day-to-day operations of a heavy-duty commercial vehicle dealership than you do. To make sure your voice informs our product roadmap and your expertise is embedded in everything we build, we’ve put a number of formal and informal programs in place.
The Procede Insider Program is a central part of this effort, as is our Customer Success team, who makes it a point to reach out to every customer, every month. Customers who have attended our annual Procede Software Conference will be familiar with our practice of holding breakout sessions to capture your input. We also have an active ground game—our team members are constantly going out to dealerships across North America, talking with you, observing your operational practices, listening to you, learning about your challenges, and seeing Excede in action.
Another way of looking at expertise is through the lens of educating our customer base so that you can fully realize a return on your investment in Excede. It’s not enough to simply release new products or enhancements—it is our responsibility to provide the necessary resources so you can fully realize your investment in them. Our award-winning Education & Training team leads that charge, and our newly enhanced Procede Learning site is a cornerstone of their programs.
I would be remiss if I did not mention the expertise that the Procede team brings to the table. Most of our leadership team has been with the company since its earliest days, with some having as many as twenty years of industry experience. But truly, we have experts at every level and in every role—some who have built careers here at Procede and others, the best and the brightest in their fields, who share our mission and have joined us, bringing both industry and technology domain expertise.
The reality is this—when you have maxed out the capabilities of your underlying technology, no amount of expertise is going to get you where you need to be.
You simply cannot have one without the other and any business solution provider worth its salt, in any industry, must continuously deliver on both. If your underlying technology is not foundationally strong, even the best expertise will only provide incremental improvements—outdated technology will never be a game changer.
Both technology and expertise matter, and the two can and should be inextricably woven together. You shouldn’t have to choose between them, and at Procede, you will never have to.
Warm regards,
Larry Kettler
CEO
Procede Software
lkettler@procedesoftware.com