The convention in New Orleans was a great success for Dealerflow, and I’m thankful to everyone who helped us exhibit and who visited us on the floor. We knew attendance would be down, but it was our first show, so as far as we were concerned, attendance had never been better.

Since our ERM (employee relationship management) product is so different from what’s on the market, I was curious to see the reactions. Some people didn’t quite get it. When they realized it had to do with their employees, some said “oh, we just shoot ‘em on sight.” I’m not sure how well that perspective might work into the future, but all feedback is appreciated. What was striking though is how many people really got it.

Here’s a picture of our booth, pre-show.

Comments from folks who got it were more like, “this is exactly what the industry needs.” We had profitable visits from dealers (small, medium, and large), dealer associations, media, vendors, and OEMs. As the convention progressed there was a growing buzz about Dealerflow and many people came who had been referred by people who had visited us earlier.

Chuck and Marshall in action.

On the personal side, it was a blast and the food was amazing. The parts of New Orleans I saw were better than before Katrina. From St. Pat’s

to Pat O’Brien’s, the entire team had a time to remember.

You can now follow us on Twitter at username dealerflow. If you are unfamiliar with Twitter, it is a nifty service that keeps you updated with short messages on people or organizations that you follow. You can sign up for free at twitter.com.

We will be using Twitter for quick updates on new features, to relay company happenings, or to ask for input.

While techies have embraced Web 2.0 since O’Reilly Media introduced it at their 2004 Web 2.0 Conference, mainstream business has only recently begun to look past the buzz phrase and get excited about what they can do with it. In the aftermath of said conference, Tim O’Reilly wrote a detailed article on what Web 2.0 means. But to save you some time, allow me to sum it up in three words:

While we could talk about blogs, wikis and tag clouds, these are only structures of Web 2.0. We could talk audio, video and SMS texting, but these are just media channels. We could talk about Ruby on Rails, AJAX and REST but these are just underlying technologies. Regardless of these particulars, it’s only Web 2.0 if it is extremely SIMPLE to use, encourages wide PARTICIPATION within a group or community, and is truly USEFUL in that it solves real problems and generates real results.

These three core characteristics of Web 2.0 are sure to find a welcome home with dealers who have long struggled with complex, hard-to-use software. I have no doubt that dealers will address the social and policy issues associated with Web 2.0 and adopt it to their advantage. The question is, exactly what areas of their businesses will they target with Web 2.0 technologies.

The obvious choice is to use Web 2.0 to reach out to customers. DealerRefresh recently published a blog post by guest writer Audrey Knoth underscoring the wisdom in dealers turning now toward Web 2.0 for their marketing and sales. While this is huge, I think the even huger opportunity is for dealers to adopt Web 2.0 for their internal organizations.

Web 2.0 can help dealers get their people talking to each other and working together like never before. It can help management effectively manage larger stores and more stores in this consolidating industry. It can increase transparency, making clearer the paths to cut costs and right-size the organization. It can help workers within departments, and cross-department, take better advantage of all the sales and service opportunities that come their way.

Dealer Web 2.0 is the real deal, for both internal operations and customer marketing.

On Friday November 7th about a hundred of our friends and associates stopped by to celebrate the official launching of Dealerflow. The Kokomo/Howard County Chamber of Commerce organized a ribbon cutting, and they let me work the scissors.

I am grateful to those who came to the reception and others who could not but sent their best wishes. We are fortunate to have their support and encouragement, and it was a joy to celebrate this milestone with them.

Dealerflow’s team is excited to exhibit at our first NADA trade show in New Orleans on Jan 24 – 27, 2009. We have a small booth, but we’re bringing a big message. Stop by and check us out at booth #4555, right next to Reynolds & Reynolds and kitty corner from RouteOne.

These are indeed turbulent times, but they can provide opportunities. Dealers will continue to sell and service millions of cars a year in this country. I want to pledge our support to those dealers determined to get only stronger. Dealerflow is the ideal tool to help you meet these challenges, making your people more effective than ever. Your people are the key to surviving and thriving through this shakeout.

The new landscape will be dominated by those dealers who can run a better, more organized operation. We’re here to help you do that, fundamentally.