Burnips Equipment Co. has been serving the agricultural and commercial equipment industry for over fifty years. With eight locations across Michigan and equipment from more than forty leading vendors—including CLAAS, New Holland, TORO, and Kuhn—they offer a wide selection of new and pre-owned machinery to meet a range of needs. Known for service that goes beyond the sale, Burnips is committed to supporting customers throughout the entire ownership journey.
Burnips has partnered with DIS for decades, evolving alongside the platform to streamline operations and harness data to drive better business decisions. This long-standing relationship reflects their focus on innovation, efficiency, and building lasting customer partnerships.
We chatted with Joel Markwat, Parts Director at Burnips Equipment, to learn about how they leverage DIS Quantum to make timely, data-backed decisions.
How long has your dealership been using DIS?
Joel Markwat: “We’ve been using DIS since 1988. We’ve been through all the different iterations of DIS from old green screen days to Keystone to now we’re on Quantum and using Altura and DIS Analytics.”
How does DIS help solve problems at your dealership?
Joel Markwat: “I think we’re currently really trying to use the new tools and Analytics, and so DIS has been helpful in helping us make some changes to analytics and provide dashboards that can help our team see things more readily and provide us with data that can help us make decisions.
I really feel like we’re working together with DIS on that to make it work for us.”
Designed in partnership with dealers in your industry, to help you thrive in today’s market—and beyond.
What would you say to someone who is considering switching to DIS?
Joel Markwat: “DIS has so many different parts that can help your dealership. It’s a very wide and deep program—more than it just looks like on the surface. There’s a lot to it that is very useful, and since they’ve been in the business for so long, working with different OEMs, they’re definitely a good partner to have as a business system.”
How do you see DIS playing a role in your dealership’s future growth?
Joel Markwat: “They’re really a partner. Especially with data—data’s the big thing nowadays. How can we utilize data to make decisions? Using the tools and the data from DIS to help us make those decisions—that’s really helpful.
We can look at what brands are making us money, what areas we are weak in, what parts aren’t turning, what vendors aren’t turning, and what types of parts. So that’s really what the big thing is for me with DIS—using that data to help us make those decisions more quickly, so we’re not ten years down the road before we decide and go, oh, yeah, that product wasn’t making us any money. We can get that data more quickly to make those decisions.”