Survey finds many dealers ready to buy computers.

THE BIGGER YOU are, the harder you fall for computers.

That's one message that comes out of a survey conducted last fall among tractor and implement dealers in Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico.

Our report last month noted that in-house computers were already owned by 30 per

a closer look at those ownership figures showed that 100 per cent of dealers with annual sales over $5 million were using computer services, and 73 per cent of those big dealers had in-house computers.

As the accompanying chart shows, computer use and ownership both decline as sales volume gets smaller, to the point where only 5 per cent of small dealers, under $500,000 annuals sales, owned an inhouse computer.

This does not imply that big dealers got that way because they have a computer.

Rather, analysis of several survey questions supports the notion that most dealers can see the benefits of using electronic data processing, but are holding off because of financial considerations.

About 40 per cent of the responding dealers said they did not currently have a computer, but 80 per cent of these non-users feel they would benefit from having an in-house system.

Asked to rank their priorities for computerizing various departments in their businesses, these non-users selected the same applications as those dealers who already have computers. In order, these priorities are:

Parts Inventory

Accounting

Accounts Receivable

Accounts Payable

Whole Goods Inventory

General Office

Service shop

The survey found that 69 per cent of non-computerized dealers feel they will have an in-house computer within two years. This, taken with other survey findings, indicates that dealers generally have positive feelings about the benefits of computers as a management tool.

Then why aren't 100 per cent of dealers currently tied into computers, using either an outside computer service or operating their own in-house system?

As noted last month, only 5 per cent of non-computerized dealers listed "present economic situation" as their reason, while 54 per cent said in-house computers were "too costly." These results indicate that dealers, like many other potential computer users, are waiting for prices to come down. lack of communication?

Combining the information from the Southwest dealers survey with a survey of computer vendors conducted by I&T last fall indicates that many of the nno-computerized dealers simply haven't been given enough information about the costs of computers.

Note in the accompanying table that 34 per cent of noncomputerized dealers expect to invest $10,000 or more for a computer system, including installation and software.

The I&T vendor survey got price quotes from eight computer companies for one-user computer systems, with enough software and hardware to handle the basic inventory and accounting needs of a moderate-sized dealer. The average price for the eight systems was $17,862, with a range from $10,500 to $24,730.

So if computer vendors are offering systems that meet the price expectations of dealers, why haven't more dealers brought?

The dealer survey suggets the vendors may not have spread their message well enough: 31 per cent of dealers say their present accounting methods are adequate; 18 per cent said "no one has actually shown me data on cost and savings," and 28 per cent said they "have yet to investigate this aspect."

It must be noted, before drawing any sweeping conclusions from the survey, that the 252 survey respondents, members of the Southwest Hardware & Implement Assn., cannot be taken as a representative cross-section of dealers nationwide, or even as a statistically ideal sample of dealers in three states.

But looking at the responses from the survey group leads to some conclusions about use of computers by dealers:

* Big dealers already have computers, and have had them for several years. Given the rapid pace of change in the electronics industry, some of these dealers may be ready to upgrade their equipment.

* Dealers are convinced of the value of computes, and the majority of dealers with annual sales over $1 million already have some kind of computer connection.

* Small and medium-sized dealers, with annual sales under $3 million, would appear to be the greatest growth market for use of in-house computers, and are willing to invest realistic sums of money to purchase a system.

* If dealers see the benefit in computers, and are willing to pay the price, but haven't yet bought, it may be that computer vendors haven't completely met the challenge of explaining costs and benefits to these potential buyers.