Workshop management software??

Oct 20, 2005 8 Replies

Hi,



I have a customer who has a bike workshop and I am looking for a workshop management software that they can use to book bikes in for servicing and repairs and manage the technicians time allocating jobs to the technicians when the bike is booked in and seeing how busy each technician is etc..



Basically all the activities that would be needed in this type of software..



I have found a couple but they don't look that good so i am looking for all the options..



Can anyone that works in a garage or car/bike dealership give me some pointers to the software you are using..



Thanks..


Most expensive is Kerridge, and is s**te (I use it at the moment). I have also used PineWood, which my last place bought, and was very good while it was Unix based. Both now use Windows XP, and work off remote server, and are rather buggy (as expected).

Kalamazoo is one of the oldest, and also one of the most complicated, but is also the most configurable system.

In all these though, you are looking at major outlay, and I'd suspect they'd cost more than the labour saved in the workshop.

One to consider is Ego, we used them back in 1981, and were a very solid system. They are probably the lowest cost of the big boys.

There are one or two cheapies out there, but I've not had any dealings with them myself.

You usually find they have been written by somebody with a bias towards a particular department, usually parts or accounts. Most sales systems are rubbish, and some service packages are pants too. Most parts and accounts packages are usually very good.

Its a very similar list of requirements to those that may be required by a hairdresser, so it might be worth broadening the scope of your searches... if you happen to find something suitable, I know a hairdresser that might find it useful too !

Thanks for the feedback and suggestions..

The only one of the ones you mentioned that I had looks at was Pinewood but the price was up in the clouds.. Totally over priced especially for a hosted ASP facility..

Will have a look at the other you mentioned..

Heretic! Kerridge is fantastic. Keeps my employers engineers gainfully employed (for lack of better words) :)

[Snipped Text]

HTH

Actually, it's equally as good as Kerridge, which is easily 40% more expensive. It is a pretty reliable system, and they do have good support.

We put PineWood in at Coupers, and IIRC it cost about £60k, the Kerridge system was over £100k (this is for 17 work stations).

Always worth a look.

If you can find a local IT bod, you could possibly get something bashed up in FileMaker Pro or even SQL.

"Andy Hewitt" wrote

Most parts and

I can assure you that the market leading Ipcos Gold is pure s*it.

Huw

And DPs will buy it because they get fooled by the marketing crap.

Kerridge isn't the best, it's just the most expensive.

Join the Discussion

Have something to add? Share your thoughts — no account required.

Didn't find your answer?

Ask the community — no account required