The Dealer Services Group of Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (ADP) has bought the Michigan-based Automotive Retail Group (ARG) from Electronic Data Systems for an undisclosed sum.

ARG was formed shortly after General Motors acquired EDS in 1984, and was focused exclusively on GM dealers until 1996, when its split from GM allowed EDS to sell the system to non-GM dealers.

EDS began a working relationship with GM's Saturn division in 1988 to develop a retail application and has since been Saturn's primary dealer management systems provider. Saturn renewed their contract with ARG in 2002.

ADP Dealer Services supplies onsite and offsite ASP computer systems to more than 16,000 car and truck dealers throughout the US, Canada and Europe.

Both ADP and EDS claim leadership in Application Service Provider (ASP) Managed Services and offer dealers the choice of onsite or offsite server platforms. ADP and Saturn will continue the migration of the current Saturn Retail Systems applications suite, which over 8,500 users access daily for sales, service, parts, accounting, data mining and reporting, to a centrally hosted ASP environment, making GM the first US-based automotive company to move an entire division's dealer network to the ASP model.