A platform decision is one of the few choices that touches every department at once. Get it right and the store moves faster for years. Get it wrong, and the cost shows up later through reconciliation work, downtime, and reduced visibility.
This checklist is written for executives weighing a cloud DMS against legacy dealership software. It avoids long feature lists. Instead, it focuses on the questions that separate a connected platform from older dealership software.
Cloud DMS Access and Business Continuity
Start with where the system lives. A legacy DMS often ties the operation to a back-office terminal. Many stores also have to plan around maintenance windows. A cloud DMS is designed to be available wherever employees work. Updates can be deployed without turning into a weekend project.
Checklist question: can your team reach the system and current data wherever the work happens, and do updates arrive without taking the store offline?
One Customer Record vs. Multiple Customer Records
This is the question that matters most. Ask whether the deal, the inventory, the service history, and the customer profile are one record or separate copies stitched together. Legacy environments tend to accumulate copies, which is why they accumulate reconciliation work.
Solera DMS is the operational core of the Solera Cloud Platform, built so every department reads from and writes to the same record. Checklist question: how many places does the same customer exist, and who reconciles them?
Cloud DMS Integrations and Connected Operations
A platform is only as useful as what it connects to. Legacy software often treats every connection as a custom project. A cloud platform is designed so that customer relationship, inventory, service, and titling share the same foundation rather than bolting on through fragile bridges.
Checklist question: when you add a capability, does it join the same record or create another island your team has to maintain?
Visibility and Intelligence Across the Dealership
Executives need to see across the operation, and across rooftops if you run a group. Ask whether the platform gives consistent, current visibility or whether leadership waits on exports that are stale by the time they arrive. Then ask what the platform can do with its data. Because the Solera AI Engine works on connected lifecycle signals, intelligence can surface inside the tools the team already uses. A siloed legacy system has little to learn from because it sees only its own slice.
Checklist question: does the platform give leadership a live, connected view, and can it turn connected data into useful prompts where the team works?
How to Evaluate a Cloud DMS
When you are ready to compare a cloud DMS against your current software, start with the platform and the operational core that sits on it.
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Frequently Asked Questions
1. What is a cloud DMS?
A cloud DMS is a dealer management system built to be available where the work happens, with updates that arrive without taking the store offline. Solera DMS is the operational core of the Solera Cloud Platform.
2. What is the difference between a cloud DMS and legacy dealership software?
Legacy software often tethers the operation to a back-office terminal, accumulates separate copies of the customer that require reconciliation, and treats each integration as a custom project. A cloud DMS keeps one shared record and connects capabilities on a common foundation.
3. What should be on a DMS evaluation checklist?
Cover access and continuity, whether the customer record is one record or many copies, how integrations join the platform, whether leadership gets a live connected view, and whether the platform can turn connected data into useful prompts where the team works.
4. Does a cloud DMS make integrations easier?
A cloud platform is designed so customer relationship, inventory, service, and titling share the same foundation rather than bolting on through fragile bridges, so adding a capability joins the same record instead of creating another island to maintain.
5. How do I know if my dealership has outgrown its legacy DMS?
Common signs are reconciliation work between departments, leadership waiting on stale exports for visibility, integrations that behave like custom projects, and a system tied to a single terminal and a maintenance window the store plans around.
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