How Cloud Hosting Put Vogt RV into the Growth Fast Lane

Vogt RV is a family-run business in the heart of Northern Texas. Located in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, they have recently experienced Texas-sized growth in terms of both their motorized and towable vehicles.

The busy, multi-location dealership has a Sales Center, Service Center and an exclusive Airstream Dealership, which they are very proud of. Everyone wants growth, but even the best dealers don’t want the complexity that goes with it.

One thing that Vogt RV didn’t need was the day-in and day-out management of their server with the associated to-do list of backups, maintenance and security protocols.

We sat down with Greg Walker, the Chief Operating Officer (COO) at Vogt RV. He makes sure that Operations and Support work well to promote the success of the dealership. We talked about how getting the IDS Cloud hosting solution helped him achieve quicker response times, so that the team at Vogt RV could continue their lives in the fast lane in terms of revenue growth.

Can you talk a little bit about some of the challenges associated with having a dealership with multiple locations?

Greg: “I think the management gets more difficult and the complexity goes up. Things are always easier when you’re on site and everyone’s working in the same location. It’s as quick as walking five or ten steps away, so you can chat with a colleague and work through a business issue together. It’s easier to get communication and input, and to get everybody pulling in the same direction. Multiple locations increase those challenges.

I think you have to get a process in place, and you have to actually manage more systematically. You need a defined procedure on how you get things done. Growth, in general, can stretch even the most seasoned employees and the most successful dealers. The more that’s happening and the faster it’s moving, the more challenging it can be as well.”

How did you manage hosting IDS Cloud?

Greg: “We’ve had IDS for almost 20 years, but we’ve only been on the IDS Cloud hosted solution for a couple of them. Previously, we had a server on site. As we expanded to multiple locations, we still ran IDS off the one central server. Each of the satellite locations was connected back to the main office.

The biggest challenge with that is maintaining the performance of an on-site server and everything involved with that, including support, backups, disaster recovery solutions and scenarios, speed, maintenance and upgrades.

When you have your own server, you have to handle all of those things yourself or pay an external IT provider an hourly rate to help. In addition, having multiple locations, all trying to communicate back to the main server, was not always easy. Keeping speed to a level where everybody could operate efficiently was sometimes a challenge.”

What was the biggest reason to move from on-site hosting to IDS Cloud hosting?

Greg: “It’s simpler because you just have just one vendor who handles everything. So, we are no longer required to manage the situation if there’s an issue. Whether it’s on the IDS side, on our IT provider’s side, or on our hardware’s side, it doesn’t matter. It’s not up to us to figure it out and determine who we have to delegate to and subsequently hold accountable. We have a one-stop shop; it’s a turnkey solution where IDS handles everything quietly in the background.

Our speed got better, especially for our multi-location set-up, because everybody has a direct link to IDS hosted in the cloud. It’s faster than having to go all the way back to the main on-site server, which may not be as fast. So, speed certainly got better for us. Simplicity of managing the vendor, managing the relationship and then managing the upkeep also got much simpler.”

Has the switch to IDS Cloud impacted your usage of the system?

Greg: “It’s made it easier. We used to have complaints about people having trouble with speed, and we don’t hear those anymore.”

How do you feel about the data being in the hands of IDS versus being on premise?

Greg: “I like to think that, with IDS’ scale and experienced support team’s ability, that I’m in an even better position. In your hands, the level of security is greater than we were able accomplish on our own.”

What was your experience with Support like for IDS Cloud?

Greg: “I haven’t needed to call Support about IDS Cloud at all. It’s kind of like an Offensive Lineman. If you’re not getting any notice during the game, then that means you’re doing your job really, really well.”

Do you have any advice for other dealers?

Greg: “For most dealers, whether it is RV or another type, if you can put this in IDS’ hands, then it’s one less thing to worry about. It’s one less thing that either you, your staff or an outsourced IT support organization has to handle. That’s a great win for everybody.”