CNN
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An outage at software provider CDK Global is costing car dealerships millions of dollars as it enters its second week, according to new estimates.
Workers across the US auto industry told CNN that the software outages, which the company blames on a cyberattack, are making it difficult for dealers to track customer interactions, orders and sales, hurting their ability to make a living.
“It’s going to affect our pay here,” said Bernard Irvin, a salesman at a Ford dealership in Greenville, S.C. “Why aren’t we getting our regular pay? I don’t really understand what’s going on.”
Workers’ concerns show that even a cyberattack on something as overlooked as record-keeping or scheduling software could cripple an entire industry.
Anderson Economic Group estimates that if the CDK outage were to last for three full weeks, it could result in direct losses of approximately $944 million due to business interruptions at affected auto dealerships.
The outage began last Wednesday when two cyber incidents caused systems to go offline, according to CDK, which provides software to about 15,000 auto dealerships across North America.
The company said in a statement on Friday that it was making progress toward reopening some dealerships. The company had previously said it did not expect the issue to be fully resolved until July.
“We have successfully gone live with two small dealer groups and one large publicly traded dealer group on our Dealer Management System (DMS) and are actively working to launch additional applications and customer care channels, including customer relationship management (CRM) and service solutions,” a CDK spokesperson said. “We understand and share the urgency for our customers to return to business as usual, and will continue to provide updates as more information becomes available.”
Dozens of car dealership employees expressed concern about how the power outage has affected their livelihoods.
“I work at a large auto repair shop and the power outage is really hurting me,” one worker wrote to CNN about the outage. “I don’t know how I’m going to get paid.”
Norm Phillips, 71, has worked as an auto parts delivery driver for a Mercedes-Benz dealership and a Honda dealership in New Jersey for more than 21 years.
He hasn’t been able to work at all since the CDK failed, and the dealer couldn’t figure out what parts needed to be delivered.
“I asked my boss if I was still getting paid, but he didn’t say anything,” Phillips told CNN on Thursday. “I’ve been home for a week and I’m looking for another job.”
Even if CDK resolves the issue, Phillips said he remains concerned about the possibility of new cyberattacks.
“The warning signs are clear: If a hacker can get into the system and take my job, then this is probably not the job for me right now,” he said. “There’s no security.”
Phillips wasn’t the only one to express frustration.
“When you do the math, 15,000 dealers is a ridiculous number to manage,” Irvin said of CDK. “It’s ridiculous.”
Irvin said when a couple interested in buying a new Ford Bronco Sport came into his dealership early last week, he noticed something was wrong with the CDK software he was relying on to help prospective buyers.
“I couldn’t do any of the things I normally do,” Irvin said. “I was totally immobilized and could only do the most basic things.”
Irvin also said he doesn’t think his dealers would be able to track accurate commission payments without CDK’s record-keeping system.
“If we don’t make sales, we don’t have food to eat when we go home,” Irvin said.
Even without access to the software, business continues, albeit slowly.
In all, it took a week for the couple who bought a Ford Bronco Sport to receive the contract of sale proving ownership of their new car, Irvin said. All the paperwork had to be done by hand.
Then, after staying home for more than a week, Phillips got a text from his boss telling him to return to work on Friday, where they would be tracking deliveries of parts and manually checking for pickups.
“I’m surprised they didn’t think of this sooner!” Phillips said in an email. “This will be a new adventure.”
