In December, Lynn Grayburn became controller at VIP Marinas. The Strawn, Texas-based company owns 13 marinas across southern states and a boat dealership with five locations in Texas and Florida, which means it has a lot of data and information that needs to be tracked, organized and analyzed. That’s all part of Grayburn’s expertise.
“I really do believe that I was chosen for this role at VIP Marinas because of my background in and passion for technology,” she says, “having successfully implemented software systems in all of my previous companies.”
It’s a job that tends to induce headaches and frustration for business owners in the recreational marine industry, which is why companies like VIP Marinas are now hiring people like Grayburn. An increasing number of executive leaders are asking what’s possible to achieve with today’s technology, then bringing in people with software and systems expertise, like Grayburn, to help them figure it out.
“I believe that future controllers and CFOs will be expected to deliver real-time, customized and dashboard-style reporting in addition to traditional financial statements,” Grayburn says. “And speaking from prior experience, I’ve seen firsthand that having those kinds of tools impacts a company’s leadership team in a positive and transformational way.”
Marinas see enhanced efficiencies with the use of software systems. PHOTO: VECTOR FUSION ART – STOCK.ADOBE.COM
Big-Picture Thinking
C-suite executives generally understand that they’re paying for software like QuickBooks, Microsoft Dynamics 365, Sage Intacct or SAP Concur. What they often need help to understand is how those and other tools can be brought together and leveraged to maximize results.
The basic building blocks can seem like an alphabet soup of acronyms. Smaller boating businesses tend to use two types of software to track things like inventory, repairs, slip management and purchases: dealer management systems, or DMS, and marina management systems, or MMS. Within those two types of systems, there’s also customer relationship management programs, or CRM. And as businesses grow, all the data from those disparate systems needs to be consolidated. That’s what enterprise resource planning, or ERP, systems do.
“As a business grows, it becomes inefficient to log in, individually, to each marina’s MMS or dealership’s DMS system to get data,” Grayburn says. “And that’s where the ERP system comes in. It consolidates, organizes and interprets the data from each location so that you can consolidate and review the total portfolio’s results, compare similar locations, and look for trends across the organization.”
One of her missions at VIP Marinas is to assess whether the company’s software systems are adequately supporting its overall vision and purpose. Her primary goal is, “without question, to streamline, optimize and improve their software systems so that the outcome is decision-useful data,” she says.
Grayburn’s work included checking out all the tech-themed tables at the Associated Marina Industries Conference & Expo this past February. (The next edition is scheduled for February 2026 in Daytona Beach, Fla.) She also has visited nearly all of VIP’s locations, and she completed AMI’s Basic Marina Management course.
What she has learned is helping her test plug-ins for VIP Marinas’ existing platforms, she says, “to see if we can gain any improvement in our daily processes while we continue hunting and planning for a larger system change. In general, I want to have cloud-based data, similarly organized across our marinas, readily available at all levels of leadership with customizable dashboards and highly flexible for growth.”
She’s also interested in automating more processes, she says, “so that we can spend less time entering data and more time analyzing the results and fruits of our labor.” All of this takes time, training and support, she adds. Cost is a consideration. Team members learn at different speeds. Existing processes or procedures may need to be altered to fit with new software.
“It’s critical to establish and support the internal and external teams that will champion the cause from start to finish,” she says, “because the most common pitfall, perhaps simply explained, is the fear of change.”
The Best Fit
Anywhere from 40% to 70% of marine businesses are estimated to use MMS or DMS programs. Some businesses are using older versions of software that has updates available. And some are still using paper and spreadsheets, according to Ed MacFawn, president of BiT Dealership Software in Knoxville, Tenn.
“Others are trying to make do with using QuickBooks or another accounting system plus other non-integrated systems that don’t have the marine-specific functionality for things like service history, tech-hour tracking and lead management,” MacFawn says.
Some of his customers, he says, are converting from older marine DMS platforms — and in some cases, realizing just how much they’ve been missing out on. For instance, dealers and marinas that are not using a cloud-based platform are paying for local server space, which means they may be on a platform that can’t easily communicate in the cloud with other industry partners. “I know that there are still sizable businesses on our software from back in the early 2000s, software that we last updated in 2012, before we launched our cloud-based system,” MacFawn says.
Businesses trying to figure out the best way to upgrade have a lot to consider, including the number of departments involved, the purpose of the upgrade, the number of employees, budget and growth prospects. “You want a system that fits your operation. We have different modules for different departments,” MacFawn says. “For example, if you don’t need a module for servicing boats, you pay less.”
VIP’s Anclote Village Marina in Holiday, Fla., offers slip rentals, boat storage, bait and tackle, a restaurant and other services. PHOTO COURTESY VIP MARINAS
Most companies look for a software provider with a longer track record, he adds, “but they also want a software provider that is continuing to innovate so that they don’t get stuck with a system that is stagnant.” Examples of recent innovation at BiT DMS include texting capability embedded in systems so clients can provide better customer service. The tool reduces time spent playing phone tag while speeding up customer payments, and reduces risk by retaining conversation histories, MacFawn says. Other integrations can include linking dealers to vendors and adding enhanced data analytics for operational insights.
Costs, Transitions and Gains
Rob Grant, associate director of OEM and business development at Lightspeed DMS, says the pandemic led a number of business owners to reassess their software and systems. All at once, a lot of things needed to be done electronically, such as signing contracts.
“That’s really kind of what has catapulted that technology adoption over the last few years,” Grant says. “Lately, a lot of our focus has been on our CRM and its customer engagement capability, lead-tracking, and following up with those leads and those customers. Additional services for the dealerships and the marinas let them interact with those consumers at different levels.”
Another area of innovation is making systems more consumer-facing, he says. Just as consumers are stepping aboard boats with a belief that they should be able to control all kinds of systems from a single touch screen at the helm, they are also looking for ways to streamline the way they communicate with businesses. “As a consumer, I’ve got my phone here, and I want to be able to interact with my local marina or dealership on my phone,” he says. “That’s where some of the direction is going to be able to do that, having that interface, like our new text marketing capabilities.”
Lightspeed scales and prices services by module and the client’s user base, meaning the number of employees who need access to the system. Grant also urges business owners to consider a prospective software provider’s training and transition teams and methods, as well as how customer service and support will be handled. “It’s all about change management,” Grant says. “There may be processes that are consistent across various platforms, but then there will be certain nuances from one system to another because no systems are exactly alike.”
Lightspeed assigns each client a project manager, and offers virtual training and onboarding, as well as in-person training. “We try to be upfront with our clients, and we want them to be successful in that transition period,” Grant says. “It can vary among businesses, but typically I would say within that first three- to six-month period, by six months, they’re usually at a level of comfort where they feel pretty good about the change and are happy and excited about the future benefits, as well.”
Change From the Inside
To help ease this transition period at VIP Marinas, Grayburn has been polling the company’s teams, asking if they have pain points or special requests, and trying to gauge the overall appetite for the transition. “And I’m leaning hard on our leadership teams at VIP Marinas,” she says. “We are fortunate to have a tight-knit group of seasoned leaders who have been in the marina industry for many, many years. The collective wisdom and experience of that group is more valuable than any software system.”
Surfside Marina in Surfside Beach, Texas, has a retail parts store, a 24-hour, full-service fuel dock and other amenities. PHOTO COURTESY VIP MARINAS
Grayburn is also expanding her accounting team to include a person dedicated to the software project. “Once that role is secure,” she says, “we’ll begin demonstrations of new software systems, and I hope to present a proposal with my recommendations this fall. We would like to migrate to a cloud-based system during 2026.”
The transition process may seem to be about programs, she says, but it’s really about people. “What we’re really searching for is a tool that amplifies the strengths of our team, removes roadblocks and helps us connect the dots across locations,” she says. “It’s easy to get lost in the features, demos and price tags, but I keep coming back to this: Will this system help our teams shine? Will it make their day easier? Will it help us to give our leaders better insight, faster? Will it improve the experiences of our members and help us to add more value to their lives?
“Overall, I think the marina industry is at an exciting crossroad,” she adds. “We’re combining old-school hospitality with new-school tech, and there’s a lot of innovation and energy in that blend.”
Software
Providers
BiT Dealer Management Software: for boat dealerships, yacht brokerages, marinas, repair shops and boatyards, or any combination of these businesses. bitdms.com/marine
Boatyard: service management platforms, custom portals, inventory management, custom websites and more. boatyard.com
Dealer Rock: a cloud-based dealer management system with sales, service and CRM. dealerrock.com
Dockmaster: for marinas, dealerships, service yards and mobile techs. dockmaster.com
Dockwa: for boaters and marinas, with travel and dockage deals, as well as marina management software. marinas.dockwa.com
Integrated Dealer Systems: cloud-based dealer management software with mobile apps. ids-astra.com
Lightspeed DMS: module-based software service programs for marinas, dealers and repair shops.
lightspeeddms.com
Molo: marina management software for marinas, boatyards, yacht clubs and other businesses. getmolo.com
Sharper Marina Management: marina and slip management, rental, point of sale, booking and customer portals. sharpermms.com
Speedy Dock: software for managing boat rentals, boat clubs and drystack marinas. speedydock.com
TeamMarine: sales and service software built on top of CRM. teammarine1.com
Total Control Software: management systems for boat dealers and marinas. tcsoft.com
Winboats: dealer management software with sales tools, CRM and prospecting, and website integration. winboats.com
Ziidms: marine and powersports dealership software with machine learning, supply-chain automation and seasonal ordering. ziidms.com/marine
