Four Ways to Promote Data Sharing at Your Heavy Equipment Dealership

Like most businesses, your equipment dealership’s operations are rooted in various key performance indicators (KPIs) — data points that reflect the profitability of your business, the efficiency of your teams and processes, and any areas that you may need to improve or expand upon. 

This data comes in from various source systems, including:  

• Dealer Management System (DMS) 
• Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software  
• Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system  
• OEM benchmarks  
• Advertising data  
• External market studies 

Each of these systems stores invaluable information about your customers, employees, inventory, and overall performance. However, you can’t take advantage of it if your data is disorganized or inaccessible to the employees who keep your business running in the day to day.  

Rather than spending hours each month building spreadsheets or prompting various team members to track down information on their own, an end-to-end business intelligence (BI) solution empowers your employees with instant access to actionable insights, no matter where they are in the dealership. 

By prioritizing data sharing across every level of your operations, you’ll pave the way for informed decisions, enhanced visibility, and seamless knowledge transfers between teams.  

In this blog post, we’ll share some examples of effective data-sharing techniques and explain how you can use them to equip your workforce with game-changing information anytime, anywhere.  

Push vs. Pull: What’s the Best Way to Share Insights?

Your dealership’s BI strategy should center around data sharing – making sure employees in all roles and departments can access the information they need to do their best work. In practice, there’s no one-size-fits-all approach to this process. Instead, you’ll want to evaluate your company’s unique BI needs so you can build a strategy around them.  

In BI and analytics, the concept of “push vs. pull" outlines two ways you can put data in the hands of your end-users: 

• “Push” data to people via pre-built reports sent out to the relevant parties  
• Allow users to “pull” data on their own via dynamic, self-service tools 

So, which approach is the most effective? Often, it’s a mix of both that will change over time, as your organization evolves. 

You’ll want to evaluate your end-users and their needs when deciding how to balance the push and pull of data across your dealership. For example, if you want to share progress on KPIs with managers or service techs who don’t have a ton of technical expertise, pushing data out to them is your best bet. On the flip side, financial analysts and IT professionals likely need the option to pull in relevant insights and dig deeper into your company data.  

Why Go Beyond Traditional PDF Reports? 

PDF reports are often the cornerstone of an organization’s “push” data sharing. They’re easy to customize and distribute to employees via email or similar channels. In short, PDF reports give managers and other employees a quick, daily view of things like Open Purchase Orders, Operating Statements, Realized Labor Rates, etc.  

PDF reports are essential to keeping certain team members informed, but in some cases, their lack of interactivity limits the potential for further analysis – such as tools that allow employees to “pull” insights out of your BI solution. 

By expanding your horizons through embedded BI, interactive dashboards, and other data-sharing tools, you’ll help your employees make clear, informed decisions quickly and confidently. A high level of data visibility also encourages everyone to align around the same goals and take personal responsibility for working toward them.  

Sharing data in multiple ways across your dealership can help you: 

• Promote Cross-Team Collaboration: Break down silos by making data accessible between departments, like giving sales teams access to service records.  
• Boost Employee Engagement: Keeping everyone informed encourages ownership and allows your teams to work toward improvements together.  
• Enable Data-Driven Decisions: From the Service Center to the boardroom, your entire team has the same mindset and source of the truth. 
• Keep Customers Happy: Give frontline employees the data they need to deliver high-quality service and resolve problems quickly.  

Let’s take a closer look at some of the most effective BI tools for data sharing at your heavy equipment dealership.  

Four Creative Data Sharing Methods for Dealers

#1 Build Interactive Dashboards for Dealership-Wide Engagement 

While PDF reports are great for sharing routine updates, BI dashboards offer next-level insight into various data points. These dashboards combine several metrics and data visualization charts in one easy-to-use screen. And with advanced features like TARGIT’s Object Toggling, you can present multiple levels of detail in one dashboard – simply give users the option to toggle between views or use buttons to show/hide certain pieces of information.  

Set role-based permissions that allow employees to explore relevant insights based on their jobs and departments. For example, create a Service overview dashboard for managers and an interactive Technician Efficiency dashboard where techs can flip through various efficiency metrics, see how performance has changed over time, and compare themselves to their peers.  

These dashboards make data highly approachable, giving non-technical users the opportunity to dig deeper into company data without developing reports themselves. They also help employees understand how their work contributes to the dealership’s success and may motivate them to focus on improving specific processes or KPIs. 

#2 Embed BI Dashboards into Your DMS and Other Systems 

With embedded BI, you can seamlessly integrate data visualizations, reports, and dashboards into the business applications your teams use every day, like your dealer DMS and CRM platforms. Rather than requiring employees to switch between tools and systems, embedded BI places critical insights right where they work every day, making data easy to access and act upon right away.  

So, rather than clicking through multiple logins or static documents, sales managers can access dashboards that display the latest pipeline performance directly inside your CRM, while service managers can view equipment maintenance trends within your DMS. You can even embed dashboards from your BI solution inside your company portal or intranet website to reach your employees in the place that’s most convenient for them.  

Plus, embedded BI fosters a low learning curve. Employees interact with relevant data in a familiar environment, ensuring they can interpret and apply insights effectively without additional training for yet another separate tool.  

Whether it’s tracking inventory turnover, analyzing customer buying patterns, or monitoring service department efficiency, embedded dashboards keep employees informed and proactive without switching up their daily routines.  

#3 Create 'Presentation-Ready' Dashboards for Board Meetings 

The right BI solution gives end-users the ability to analyze data how and when best fits their needs. However, it’s still valuable to highlight your business insights during events like board meetings. 

Along with giving your employees a link to view the latest dashboard updates, you can create a presentation-ready version of each dashboard to share on a live display during in-person or hybrid meetings. That’s where TARGIT’s “presentation mode” dashboards come into play. With Object Toggling, you can hide unnecessary objects on the design canvas and collapse the system’s menu and navigation, leaving you with a clean, engaging dashboard to present.  

These dashboards give everyone a real-time view of the most recent information from across your business, and by removing all the noise, you keep your audience focused on the most important thing: the data you’re sharing.  

#4 Display Safety Performance Metrics in the Breakroom 

But what about employees who don’t attend board meetings or even work in front of a computer?  

Sharing data with your frontline employees, like service technicians, is critical to keeping your business in order and your workforce safe. But email report delivery and web-based dashboards won’t reach them on a regular basis. 

That’s where BI slideshows can make all the difference. By creating custom dashboards for display on TV screens around your dealership, you can ensure that data reaches employees throughout their day-to-day work.  

You might set up a slideshow of dashboards in the breakroom or canteen to share team productivity stats, safety metrics, and progress toward year-end goals. You could even go a step further and create slideshows for your service bays, where employees can quickly scan to see top safety practices and related metrics like “Days Since Last Incident.”  

ALSO READ: Holt of California Increases Data Visibility and Control With TARGIT 

These slideshows incorporate engaging visuals like charts, heat maps, and color-coded indicators to give employees a good understanding of your data at a glance. The more visibility these employees have into performance, the more motivated they’ll be. Plus, these displays will keep things like safety, efficiency, and WIP top-of-mind every day.  

See How TARGIT Customers Share Data With Slideshows

Data sharing can help you unlock the full potential of your data by engaging every team member, from the boardroom to the service bay.  

By balancing the push and push of data throughout your dealership, you’ll empower your employees with actionable insights that improve collaboration, shape strategic initiatives, and drive business success.  

Watch our on-demand webinar, "Data Sharing With Slideshows,” to explore practical strategies for data sharing and see slideshow examples from TARGIT Customer Holt of California.