FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -

Buy-here, pay-here operators who use products from Ituran USA and Auto Master Systems now can benefit from these two systems working together.

The GPS solution provider and dealership management system (DMS) recently finalized integration. The companies highlighted that all Auto Master clients using Ituran GPS devices and associated software will have the ability to work directly within their DMS systems to issue all commands including payment reminders, starter-interrupt commands, starter-enable commands, vehicle location and more.

“This integration means our clients now have all the features and functionality that our software provides without ever having to leave their Auto Master DMS,” said Efrat Bogolavsky, sales, service and marketing director at Ituran USA. “This will improve our client’s effectiveness by eliminating double entries and saving them time.”

Providing their customers with prompt and efficient services is of the utmost importance to the dealers’ clients for both of these companies, which insisted Auto Master and Ituran’s integration will automate a number of collection services, allowing dealers to set up their unique business rules and disseminate digital commands directly from their DMS.

“The benefits to the dealership and their customers are immediate,” Bogolavsky said. “These automated services free collectors from manually inputting and sending commands to a vehicle. It improves collection efficiency, and adds to the bottom line as cash-flow improves. Customers who want to pay, but need a friendly reminder, are automatically sent notices.”

Mike Downey, vice president of sales and marketing at Auto Master, said the integration offers his clients an even more robust system, and will benefit the many mutual clients between Ituran and Auto Master.

“This integration will also help dealers with legal and regulatory compliance,” Downey said. “These systems will help ensure all of the customers using the devices are treated the same using the automated notifications under the terms of the finance contracts. This is vital given the regulatory scrutiny of the deep subprime marketplace.”

Collections managers and their staffs will benefit most directly from the integration, Bogolavsky said. Managers will be able to pull up all the information they need regarding the Ituran GPS systems, make changes, updates, issue commands and track payments all from the Auto Master software.

“Anytime we can add superior functionality to our DMS we move to make that happen,” Downey said. “This is an instance where it makes perfect sense, and we had our developers bring the integration to market in record time.”

One operator is already seeing the benefits of this integration.

“When we learned of the integration with Ituran we were among the first to sign on,” said Steve Taylor, president of Auto Credit of Southern Illinois, a four-store BHPH chain. “Our managers have said that the integration not only saves time, but has improved collections. It has reduced errors from no longer having to duplicate entries, and it has the added benefit of improving our compliance requirements.”