Who Has Access to Your Data

[BillVaughnAlWestNissan]

We recently had a customer inquire how Sirius XM got their information to be able to call them about adding the service to the used vehicle they purchased.

After some quick digging we realized it was through our DMS. Upon reviewing who had access to our DMS we found several vendors we were no longer using still had access to our data.

I feel really stupid that I never thought of this when scrapping vendors, but I figure maybe I'm not the only one.

 

[jon.berna]

We do for good reason!

 

[BillVaughnAlWestNissan]

We do for good reason!

That's no kidding!

 

[Alex Snyder]

Upon reviewing who had access to our DMS we found several vendors we were no longer using still had access to our data.

whoa! There are some implications here that fall outside of the website plugins world.

1) if using Authenticom to access your DMS the vendor is paying a reasonable monthly fee
2) if using a "certified" connection to your DMS (assuming one of the biggies) the vendor is paying an hefty monthly fee
3) if outside of these traditional realms, the dealership had to do something special to enable access and that might not have any ongoing cost to the vendor

If the vendor is still paying to be inside your DMS after you stopped paying them, they're either incompetent or selling your data out the back door.

Vendors: PROVE ME WRONG!

 

[craigh]

If the vendor is still paying to be inside your DMS after you stopped paying them, they're either incompetent or selling your data out the back door.

At all levels there's alot of "forgot to turn that off" I find.
When a client terminates a contract, the cleanup process is often not well planned or completely ignored.

We get DMS data for our products for around $50 a month, but in some cases there are group discounts or combined feeds.
We always cancel this data feed because it costs us money, but things like inventory feeds get sent to me in perpetuity by vendors who never got cancelled by the dealer.

 

[Alex Snyder]

At all levels there's alot of "forgot to turn that off" I find.
When a client terminates a contract, the cleanup process is often not well planned or completely ignored.

Soooo…. would you file that under thievery or dumbassery

 

[BillVaughnAlWestNissan]

I've no doubt that we gave these permissions. Just never thought to turn them off. So I'm the dumbass as far as I'm concerned. Ha.

For example, we signed up with TrueCar about two years ago and canceled within a few months (what a disaster that was). They still had access.

What is Authenticom by the way? That's one that I didn't recognize.

 

[Alex Snyder]

So I'm the dumbass as far as I'm concerned. Ha.

For example, we signed up with TrueCar about two years ago and canceled within a few months (what a disaster that was). They still had access.

No Bill - not you. The vendor should have turned it off just to save money. That's where my usage of "incompetent" "dumbassery" are coming from. It is very possible they did and you're just viewing a remnant of their name there. They may not be pulling any data at all.

What is Authenticom by the way? That's one that I didn't recognize.

Authenticom provides a pull capability on many different DMS systems. For us vendors, they make it easier and more cost-effective by being our interface to the DMS. It saves us development time for doing DMS pulls by standardizing the data from each DMS. We don't have to build entirely different things for CDK, Reynolds, Dealertrack, AutoSoft, DealerBuilt, UCS, the independents' version of CDK, some other old DMS CDK bought, that DMS the owner's grandson built in the garage, and the 60 other systems that are out there.

If there is a need to push data to the DMS then a "certified" integration directly to each DMs company is needed. This has significant costs in development time + direct fees to the DMS company.

As an aside, @jon.berna can explain the amazingness of what they built to interface with so many different systems. Driven Data goes far beyond the DMS.

 

[craigh]

If there is a need to push data to the DMS then a "certified" integration directly to each DMs company is needed. This has significant costs in development time + direct fees to the DMS company.

Almost always. Thankfully there are some people out there with solutions to expensive problems like this.

 

[Jeff Kershner]

The owner sends me a list every 6 months to update who and who does NOT need access. You may also want to check your inventory management tool to see where all your inventory may be being sent as well.