Southern Vehicle Services (SVS) has built a legacy in the Southland new car sales market by mixing great customer service, community involvement and getting the most out of their CRM systems, and Dealer Principal Rick Murrell is justifiably proud of the business he and partner Gary Tippett have built up.

Without taking anything away from the hard work and commitment of the SVS people, Rick attributes a large part of their success to their SAM DMS (Orion) system, installed in 2006.

“Choosing a Dealer Management system that would suit our needs was a major decision for us”, says Rick, ” At the time we had just transformed from a used car sales yard with a workshop to a fully blown two-brand Franchise dealership providing sales, service and parts.”

“We also expanded our finance department to cater for our growing outbound ledger.” Rick says that the investigated all major dealer management systems and through the process Orion became the obvious choice.

“We particularly liked the excellent accounting systems, industry leading service and parts modules as well as the ease of use in the new and used sales areas.”

“Additionally, over time Orion has continued to enhance the value proposition for us, with additions like customisation to cater for our Deloittes benchmarking, Autoplay internet hosting and internet sales”. Rick says that Southland is still a place where integrity is crucial and deals are still done on a handshake.

“Our relationship with SAM is like that too”, he says, adding, “We – and our accountants – continue to be delighted with our Orion system and we are grateful for the ongoing support and the future proofing of our Orion system. We particularly liked the excellent accounting systems, industry leading service and parts modules as well as the ease of use in the new and used sales areas.”