Local dealerships respond to CDK cyberattack

In response to a recent cyber attack on the major software provider CDK Global, local car dealerships are reverting to traditional methods to help manage their operations.

The attack has left about 15,000 car dealers across the United States scrambling, and southwest Florida dealerships are no exception.

CDK Global, which provides software to auto dealerships for managing sales and services, was forced to shut down due to the cyber attack.

This outage is expected to last through June 30th, meaning dealerships will be without access to the software for 10 days.

Local dealerships like Fort Myers Genesis and Infiniti Naples are feeling the impact.

“We’ve had to pivot,” said John Garces, Executive Manager at Fort Myers Genesis.

“It’s a major impact, certainly in our dealership,” said Scott Roland, Executive Manager at Infiniti Naples.

The outage has disrupted communication with customers, affecting the ability to receive and respond to questions about vehicle purchases.

“A lot of the inbound prospects of people wanting to purchase or get information about vehicles, we’re not getting all of that information right now and we’re certainly not getting it in a timely manner,” said Roland.

Garces said the disruption has impacted incoming leads, as people using the dealership management system are having to handwrite everything.

Some dealerships are only partially reliant on the affected software, allowing them to continue closing deals, albeit more slowly, by inputting information manually.

Despite the challenges, local dealerships are looking at the glass half full.

“The one thing I can tell you is that we’re resilient,” said Garces, “That’s a key factor. Especially with the way the climate is that we’ve been dealing with, whether it’s a cyber attack or anything else going on in the world.”