LITTLETON, Colo. — AGCO dealers using Charter Software’s ASPEN AGCO Plus+ Interface can now save time, increase sales, and better serve their customers with easy access to the AGCO Plus+ Commercial Customer Credit program right from within the ASPEN business system.
AGCO Plus+ is a new AGCO Finance financing solution that allows AGCO dealership's customers to proactively manage their cash flow. With promotions and programs such as competitive retail rates for new machinery sales, aggressive rates for used machinery, as well as financing for parts and service, access to the AGCO Plus+ program can greatly impact dealership sales year-round.
“Supplier incentives like AGCO Plus+ provide dealership's customers with the means to stock up on parts, purchase essential equipment, and pay for repairs and/or preventative maintenance during critical times of the year when they may not normally have the cash flow, which can help level out the seasonal dips in revenue many dealers experience, ” says Anne Salemo, president of Charter Software Inc.
“A preventative maintenance schedule benefits both dealer and customers. Customers can have their machines serviced regardless of their seasonal financial situation, which in turn helps to round out the seasonal dips in a dealership’s service calendar,” says Salemo. “Having access to information about available financing and promotions directly from their business system can help to make or break a sale for dealers. It can provide a huge advantage in increasing the dollar amount of a sale in process or in securing the sale of an item their customer might not otherwise consider.”
The ASPEN AGCO Plus+ interface also allows dealers to safely store AGCO Plus+ customer numbers in the ASPEN system, which saves processing time at checkout, or allows them to use the account information to process a split-tender transaction. From the ASPEN work order or invoice, dealers can view and apply any available promotions for which the eligible invoiced items or total dollar amount qualify.
Additionally, dealers can opt to automatically split a ticket into several invoices in order to apply multiple promotions to result in the best possible deal for the customer. Using the ASPEN interface, dealers can check the customer's account balance right from their ASPEN Customer record. "Knowing the customers' remaining account balance can be just the right amount of information needed in order to close on a sale," says Salemo.
The ASPEN AGCO Plus+ interface is a certified, standalone interface for the ASPEN system. Charter Software’s development team works closely with AGCO in order to be certified on each AGCO dealer transaction as it becomes available to their dealers. Last March, Charter received certification for their AGCO API integration added to the ASPEN AGCO Communications Interface, which provides AGCO dealers with functionality needed to meet requirements for AGCO’s Dealer Excellence program.
“We are very pleased with the revised vendor certification process announced by AGCO last year,” says Kendall Edwards, Charter Software business analyst who manages the certification process for Charter’s supplier integration. “It’s been a very smooth process rolling out the new AGCO integration, and we look forward to working with them again soon as we move forward with additional integration for the ASPEN system,” says Edwards. “The more functionality we can provide to our dealer customers from within our software, the more efficient and profitable they become, which is our ultimate goal in serving our customer base.”
"I'm excited to have this integration between AGCO Plus+ and Charter's ASPEN system," adds Neal Generose, director of project management for AGCO Plus+. The integration with AGCO Plus+ from the dealership management system makes it much more accessible for AGCO dealers to use," he says.
See more about the integration between AGCO and Charter Software's ASPEN dealership management system.