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DATA ACCESSIBILITY DRAWS ATTENTION AT CONVENTION
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Reynolds’s O’Neill advocates protecting dealer data. |
February 4, 2007—Access to dealer data has been a hot topic at the convention, especially among vendors, following NADA and the American International Automobile Dealers Association’s joint policy statement that dealers—not dealership management system vendors—own the data stored in their DMSs and should have the sole right to authorize third-party access to it. The statement added that DMS vendors shouldn’t put up unreasonable roadblocks to dealer-authorized third-party access to the data, and dealers should expect any company involved in storing and using their data to safeguard dealership customers’ information.
“The dealer’s data is his most vital, critical asset,” said Reynolds vice chairman Finbarr O’Neill during a Saturday press conference. “There’s no quibble that the data is the dealer’s data. They can give it to any third party they see fit.”
But Reynolds “does not support unmonitored third-party access” to data. “Trust is not enough,” said O’Neill during a later interview. Reynolds wants third parties to be certified so it can ensure that they get only the data they’re authorized to have. How it works: The outside vendor specifies the data it needs, and, something like a reference librarian, Reynolds allows it access only to the requested data. The cost of certification can be as much as $20,000 for the most complex data requests. O’Neill says there are already 100 certified third parties.
“This is not about selling the data, it’s about securing the data,” O’Neill said. “We’re telling dealers it’s dangerous to give out their passwords [to third parties]. Show me a bank that gives out passwords willy-nilly. Dealers have customer data that’s just as important and sensitive as any bank’s.”
The days of unmonitored, uncontrolled data access are over, O’Neill added. Third parties have already caused problems—in one case, according to O’Neill, an F&I vendor inadvertently wiped out a dealership’s leasing information from the DMS over a weekend.
ADP officials said at their press conference that dealers should control who has access to their data and how it’s used. To address security issues, ADP has announced a third-party access program that offers dealers three levels of third-party oversight.
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