We're excited to introduce notifications to the Motorcentral ecosystem, so you can easily keep up-to-date with all the important things going on in your dealership in one convenient location.

What are Motorcentral notifications? How do I get started? Understanding the components of each notification What type of notifications are there? What if I don't want to receive certain notifications? Are notifications on mobile?

What are Motorcentral notifications?

Motorcentral Notifications are an easy way for you to keep informed about all the important things that go on in your dealership and more specifically to your role (or roles) within the dealership. For example, they can alert you to vehicles that need your attention for one reason or another, customers that need following up, or reminders about periodic things like renewing your RMVT status.

Think of them as your own 'robotic' helpers that search out information for you and then bring it to your attention at the most appropriate time. In most instances notifications will also prompt you to complete an action at the time.

 How do I get started?

When you first run Motorcentral (after upgrading to version 3.1.28) you will prompted to select the role(s) you most identify with at your dealership. Your selection here is important as you will only be sent notifications specific to a role if you have selected that role. 

Try not to select roles you have no association with whatsoever, but if you sometimes fill a role or some of the duties of another role, you're best to select that role also so you don't miss any notifications. You can always remove yourself from a role later if you are getting too many notifications that don't apply to you.

Once selected, click the Save & Close button and notifications relevant to you will begin to flow into your Notifications Inbox which is located on the Home tab of your Motorcentral DMS.

Notifications are automatic and you do not need to continually visit the Notifications Inbox for notifications to flow in.

Understanding the components of each notification

Each notification is made up of a:

• Title: Describes the type of notification
• Short Description: A brief version of the intended message
• Click action (optional): Describes an action available when clicking on the notification
• Date: The date the notification was sent
• Sender: The system or sender sending the message to you
• Call(s) to action (optional): these are in the form of buttons for you to quickly action a suggested choice
• Dismiss/Delete button: located in the top right hand corner of the notification

When a notification first arrives its background will be light blue indicating it is Unread. When you click on the message or an available action the message will change to a white background indicating it has been Read.

On the Home tab and also in the Windows task bar their will be a red badge with the current count of Unread Notifications.

If you have read all your messages the red indicator will disappear until the next notification flows in.

A notifications will remain in your Notification Inbox until you either dismiss it (by clicking the x button in the top right hand corner) or it expires on it's own accord.

What type of notifications are there?

Motorcentral offers three types of notifications:

• Standard: Display a message that when clicked on shows a pop-up with more information
• Direct Link: Displays a message that when clicked on redirects to you a website
• Simple: Displays a message only

When clicking on a Standard notification you will be presented with a popup that displays more information like the one below.

Once here you will be given more information about this notification, can complete a suggested action, learn more about this type of notification by clicking the Help button (when available) and/or Dismiss/Delete this notification (or unsubscribe from this notification type altogether - refer below) 

What if I don't want to receive certain notifications?

Who receives what notifications is determined by two things:

• A user's role(s): the role(s) you have told us best describe your current position or duties within the dealership.
  
  
• A user's notification group(s): specific notification types you have subscribed to.

Therefore by removing yourself from certain roles and/or notification groups you can determine what notifications you receive.

Both your role(s) and notification groups can be found in you User Account Settings which is located under Tools > Users... > Your User Account.

Simply select those roles that best describe your role and/or duties within the dealership. If you're unsure what a role is click on it within the list to see a description on the right-hand side.

Your Notification Groups can be found by clicking the Edit... button next to Notification Preferences.

You can also opt to Unsubscribe from Notification Groups when you receive a notification. Under the Delete dropdown you will see an option to Unsubscribe from this notification group.

Clicking this option will have the same effect as deselecting that group from your Notification Preferences described above.

Are notifications on mobile?

No, currently notifications are only available on the desktop version of Motorcentral DMS although we do have intentions to extend this functionality to our mobile platform in the very near future.