How Power Equipment Plus Boosted Dealership Efficiency and Unified Operations Across Three Stores [Video]

Power Equipment Plus is a three-location, family-owned dealership on the east end of Long Island. They opened their first location in 1994, expanded to a second branch in 2009, and opened a third in 2019. They recently implemented IDEAL, a Dealership Management System (DMS), to address the operational challenges inherent in having a multi-location dealership.

We sat down with Josh Flynn, the CEO of Power Equipment Plus, who shared how getting IDEAL was a strategic move to unify their operations, inventory, and customer management, so much so that in just six weeks, the software paid for itself.

1. What was going on in your business at the time when you decided to go with IDEAL?

Josh: “Especially with the three locations, it was difficult because each one is individually hosted. You can’t see all three dealerships at the same time, so we did some searching and tested out a couple of different systems over the course of the summer and then made the decision to move to IDEAL.

We’ve been on the platform for about two months now, so it’s been a pretty big change.

We felt pretty good about the data transfer and the conversion, which was really valuable to us. That was definitely something that, regardless of functionality, was going to be an issue. IDEAL is the most used for a reason – we knew it was going to be well-supported. It’s not a stagnant software. So all those things contributed to making that decision.”

2. What’s your favorite feature in IDEAL?

Josh: “Honestly, my favorite pieces are anything that has to do with making inventory easier or purchasing. The mass updates of mins and maxes are super helpful with the tens of thousands of SKUs that we have to help us clean up our inventory.

So anything related to inventory and purchasing has been the most helpful.”

3. What improvements have you seen at your dealership because of IDEAL?

Josh: “Specifically, with our multi-location, it’s allowed us to view the dealership more holistically for all three locations. As an example, we’re big into spring orders, and now I can see all three dealerships at the same time maximize our discounts or make the right inventory and purchasing decisions.

There are also a lot of transfers between the three stores, so we’re not over-ordering on parts. And instead of picking up the phone and wondering whether they have that part, IDEAL just tells us that it’s in their inventory.

Then the transfer is really easy within the system, and when somebody’s passing through, they’ll drop it off at the other location. But just the fact that we have three stores and it can manage even the customers.

A lot of our customers are the same, so the fact that there’s one customer account as opposed to three different ones that may have very different pieces of data in it, everything gets compiled into one, which is super helpful.”

4. What’s one thing no one tells you about working at a dealership?

Josh: “Counting parts and inventories is going to be the most important thing.

All the things that you sell for $3 are way more important than the things you sell for $30,000.

But on the outside, everybody just sees the shiny pieces of equipment you put on the lawn and not all the other little things that go into it.”

5. Do you have any advice for somebody who is in the market for a DMS?

Josh: “I think Ideal is a great choice. It’s going to be an investment, but that’s what it is. It’s not a cost.

It’s an investment. For us, our return was six weeks. That’s pretty small compared to most things you invest this much money in.

Take the leap and just do it. It’s not going to be a bad decision.”