CDK Global announced that its services should be fully operational by Thursday, following two cyberattacks on June 19. These attacks forced many dealers to revert to manual processes, severely impacting their operations and resulting in estimated revenue losses of millions of dollars.
The cyberattacks disrupted critical dealership functions, including vehicle sales, documentation processing, and access to service history and appointment logs. Dealers were compelled to handle documentation manually, run documents to state departments by hand, and operate without digital service records, causing significant operational delays and financial losses.
Lisa Finney, a spokesperson for CDK, released in an email statement, “We are continuing our phased approach to the restoration process and are rapidly bringing dealers to live on the Dealer Management System (DMS). We anticipate all dealers’ connections will be live by late Wednesday, July 3, or early morning Thursday, July 4. Our Customer Care channels have also been restored and customers can call, chat, or submit eCases if they need assistance.”
In addition to restoring the DMS, CDK is working to bring other applications back online, including its customer relationship management, One-Eighty customer engagement, and service products. Last week, a small group of dealers was successfully reconnected to the digital management system as part of the initial testing phase.
However, the economic impact of the shutdown has been significant. The Anderson Economic Group estimated a $605 million direct financial loss to dealers in the first two weeks following the attacks. If the services had remained down for the entire week, the consulting firm projected an additional loss of $339 million.
Some dealerships began to see a partial restoration of services on Monday. Thad Szott, dealer partner at the Szott Auto Group and president of the Detroit Auto Dealers Association, reported that half of their operating systems were functioning again, though they were still waiting for the customer relationship management system and the lease webdesking tool.
Dealers have found temporary solutions to maintain some level of operation. The Preston Automotive Group, with 21 dealerships across Maryland, Delaware, and Virginia, integrated some CDK products into their digital management system to keep business moving. However, the inability to access vehicle service histories and specific service appointment details remained a significant issue, according to David Wilson, the group’s chairman, and Ford National Dealer Council chairman.
As CDK Global works towards full-service restoration, dealerships hope for improved communication and resolution to prevent future disruptions of this scale.
