LAS VEGAS, NEVADA–(Marketwire – Feb. 3, 2012) – Quorum Information Technologies Inc. (TSX VENTURE:QIS) (Quorum) announced its integration and partnering plan. Called the Quorum Integration Strategy Program (“QUISP”), the plan outlines dealers' capability to access data in XSellerator™, Quorum's dealership and customer management system, for their own use or to provide data to the third party systems and services that they utilize. Quorum's strategy also includes direct interfaces (including some that are bidirectional) with select products and companies, many of which take advantage of pre-defined secure data interfaces within the Quorum DMS.
“Data access and integration has been a hot topic and one of serious concern within the industry recently. And, rightfully so, given the myriad laws, security and complexities to consider,” commented Mark Allen, Quorum's Vice President of Sales, Marketing and Services. “When developing our strategy, we started with a few core beliefs – First, and foremost, is that the information contained within the DMS is the sole property of the dealership to do with what they choose. Second, that it is our job as their technology provider to offer our dealers guidance and methods to access their data in a secure manner. The final tenant of our strategy is that there are many different technology tools in the marketplace because each fills a niche function that some dealers value. As specialists, they often do an outstanding job of providing a service or system to deliver that value. But, not all of them are applicable to all dealers. Therefore Quorum developed a strategy comprised of three corresponding elements: 1) technology solutions; 2) easy to follow processes that are “dealer friendly” and; 3) a concentrated effort to select and partner with companies with products that help form a complete solution for the unique needs of each dealership,” Allen concluded.
Dan Ichelson, Quorum's Vice President of Operations and Development explained, “We give the dealership several choices when it comes to data access for their own use or for sending to another system. Since our DMS, XSellerator, is based on Microsoft's SQL Server database, standard tools like Excel can easily access the data. In fact, we provide 'views' of the data for that purpose. Dealers, or their contractors, can readily create their own Excel-based queries and use the data how they see fit. In fact, we even offer a short online course to teach them how to do that. In this case, the dealer is on their own and must be cognizant of what they are pulling and sending.”
“A second way to provide data to a third party is to use Quorum's authorized data extraction partner, ProQuotes. ProQuotes is very experienced in our data structure and provides data feeds for a number of Quorum DMS customers every night. They charge a very nominal fee and their services include not only creating and scheduling the data feed to the vendor's specification, but also active monitoring of the successful transmission and restarting it in the event of a failure. When our customers choose this option, we have a straight-forward process for obtaining their sign-off for ProQuotes to access their system and send the data. It specifies what is being extracted for what purpose and where it is being sent. Quorum maintains the access authorizations. This mechanism helps ensure the integrity of these data feeds,” Ichelson continued.
“Lastly, we have our partner program. Largely with input from our customers, Quorum has selected several strategic partners and developed specific integration either using our pre-defined data integration specifications or, in some cases, with custom development. We have added over eight such partner relationships in the past year or so and plan to add more in 2012. In these cases, we believe that the partner company offers a product of high quality and value at a reasonable cost and fill a specific function for a subset of our dealers that is outside of the core DMS and primary work flow of XSellerator. These partner integrations are also documented with the same process used with ProQuotes to ensure that the dealer is aware of data flowing in an out of their DMS,” said Ichelson.
Maury Marks, Quorum's President and CEO summarized, “In a nutshell, Quorum is the kind of company that our dealers and our partners like to do business with. We are open and look to add value to the benefit of our dealership customers in any way that we can. Understanding that their needs extend to using the data in XSellerator for other purposes, and that some dealers require other systems as an extension to the DMS is a part of that goal.”
About Quorum
Quorum is a North American company focused on developing, marketing, implementing and supporting its XSellerator product for GM, Isuzu, Chrysler, Hyundai, KIA, Nissan, Subaru, NAPA and Bumper to Bumper dealerships. XSellerator is a dealership and customer management software product that automates, integrates and streamlines every process across departments in a dealership. One of the select North American suppliers under General Motors' IDMS program, Quorum is the second largest DMS provider for GM's Canadian dealerships with 25% of the market. Quorum is a Microsoft Partner in both Canada and the United States. Quorum Information Technologies Inc. is traded on the Toronto Venture Exchange (TSX-V) under the symbol QIS. For additional information please go to www.QuorumDMS.com.
The TSX Venture Exchange does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Contact Information:
Mark Allen
403-777-0036
AllenM@QuorumDMS.com
www.QuorumDMS.com
