Challenge

For over 75 years, Citrus Motors, a leading auto sales, servicing, and detailing company, has built a reputation as one of the top automotive dealers in the U.S. Their exceptional commitment to customer service has earned them the prestigious Ford President’s Award and a place among the top 10 Kia dealerships nationwide.

“When it came to deployment, it only took about three weeks to install NinjaOne to my entire network.” – Phil Collett, IT Director

To continue delivering top-notch services and excellent customer care, efficiency and organization are a must for all teams. This especially rings true for their IT department.

Phil Collett, the IT Director at Citrus Motors, manages a wide range of responsibilities including endpoint health, network maintenance, web development, and business intelligence. In early 2023, Collett used a patchwork of IT tools to manage endpoints and keep servers running smoothly.

“I used WSUS for updates, LogMeIn for remediating remote endpoint issues, we had SolarWinds for managing endpoints as well as Spiceworks for our inventory needs,” said Collett. “These legacy applications began having significant breaks and I wanted to slim down my tech stack to a single tool to save time and money.”

During the sourcing process, Collett narrowed his search down to two solutions. “I ended up testing out N-able and NinjaOne,” said Collett. “With N-able I ran into several CPU issues right off the bat and their software inventory feature was underdeveloped.”

Solution

On the other hand, NinjaOne boasted easy setup, reliable features and a robust software inventory tool. “When I deployed NinjaOne to my devices, it was so easy, everything worked and the features did exactly what I needed them to,” said Collett. “NinjaOne was clearly the best choice. When it came to deployment, it only took about three weeks to install NinjaOne to my entire network.”

NinjaOne takes on manual task

Prior to NinjaOne, Collett personally handled all troubleshooting, helpdesk inquiries, and patching. When he deployed NinjaOne, he immediately leveraged automations to increase his bandwidth.

“With NinjaOne automation, I save 40 hours a month,“ said Collett. “I create a custom script, set it to the correct device list and NinjaOne takes care of it.” Collett also takes advantage of automated restart features in tandem with NinjaOne remote access. “Since using NinjaOne’s automatic reboot feature, we’ve reduced the number of helpdesk calls we get by 80%. When we do receive calls, NinjaOne’s remote access reduced our issue resolution time by 89%,” said Collett.

With NinjaOne taking on so many manual tasks, Collett can keep his team lean while maintaining his usual high level of customer service. “I’ve had additional team members in the past, but currently it’s just me. NinjaOne makes having a one-person team possible, without disrupting business operations,” said Collett

NinjaOne’s software inventory tool recovered 15 Citrus Motors devices across the company

Software Inventory: Automotive Game Changer

Collett identified software inventory as one of the pivotal features required in an endpoint management tool. Thanks to NinjaOne’s software inventory feature, 15 devices across the business were successfully recovered. “After using the software inventory feature, I found 15 devices that were not accounted for,” said Collett. “Now, I can pull an accurate report of all my devices and have complete visibility into what applications are downloaded on each device.

” Because of the increased visibility NinjaOne offers, Collett saw a shift from being reactive to proactive. “The legacy tools I used to use would break or errors would occur without warning,” said Collett. “NinjaOne proactively sends me alerts before issues occur, so I can get ahead of it.”

Per Collett, NInjaOne proved its value through time savings, increased visibility into devices as well as peace of mind. “One of the best parts about NInjaOne is it’s so simple, but it has so many features that just work” said Collett. “I know my devices are receiving critical updates in a timely manner, and I can trust the accurate reporting it gives me. I’m excited to continue to bring on more features NinjaOne builds.

NinjaOne’s remote access reduced Citrus Motors’ issue resolution time by 89%