A Backup Plan

The early-summer outage of CDK Global’s software systems turned out to be one of those events that presents a necessary contrast in hindsight.

Thousands of automotive dealers found themselves thrust back into the preinternet era that some had probably never even worked in. Though in some ways that might have felt like a breath of fresh air, in others it likely caused innumerable headaches.

My mom always said, “You don’t miss the water till the well runs dry,” whenever our power would go out due to a summer thunderstorm or a car hitting an electricity pole. We had a well whose pump depended on the power, and I remember what it was like to go without running water for a good chunk of a day or more. You’d turn on a faucet out of reflex, only to sigh disappointingly when nothing came out.

It must’ve been something like that for auto dealers those two weeks or more without access to their dealer management system or customer relationship management software. I can see them reaching for the portal before recalling they’d find an empty screen starting back at them.

Many resorted to pen and paper – I doubt any still have typewriters – to record sales, get signatures and fill out repair orders, because documentation is still necessary, in fact more so as the years go by due to regulation.

The contrast I mentioned earlier is simply what it’s like with and without the document-processing systems that the CDK systems shutdown took away for many dealers. Having them is obviously a lot more convenient and consistent than a paper trail that can get damaged or lost.

As compliance specialist Gil Van Over, one of our F&I and Showroom columnists, said, the outage pointed up the wisdom of switching to the electronic-contracting technology that many dealers have been using for a while now but that others have held off adopting.

Such tools can help dealers smooth out their day-to-day business, as well as steer through the inevitable shutdowns that will come, just like those summertime power outages of my childhood. It helped that Mom tended to keep a couple of jugs of water on hand, just in case.