I've never been so inclined to read 100+ pages of a court order; it reads like a spy novel and pulls back the curtain on what vendors often go through when accessing dealer client data.
The DMS market for the most part has been a 2-horse race for the longest time until recently. OEMs have begun looking outside the legacy DMS giants with GM, BMW, Nissan, and Hyundai saddling up with newcomer Tekion and Ford choosing Salesforce, both of which seem to offer more open and robust data integrations.
I'm sure these OEM partnerships along with the continued dealer group consolidation trend will put further pressure on their market share.
It's crazy to think it will likely be several more years before this works its way through the American court system. A lot will change by then - EXCEPT REYNOLDS 1980'S ERA BLUE AND YELLOW DOS INTERFACE OF COURSE (PS: I'M NOT YELLING, I'M TYPING IN ALL CAPS BECAUSE MY ADVANCED SOFTWARE SYSTEM DOESN'T UNDERSTAND LOWER CASE LETTERS).
I see merit on both sides - DMS companies want to ensure data security and integrity, while vendors want easy, affordable access to client data. Ultimately, I hope everyone can find a happy medium and do what's best for their mutual client: us, the dealers.
