Ready Your Dealership Before Disaster Strikes

HOFFMAN ESTATES, Ill, Sept. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- National Preparedness Month is officially underway and CDK Global wants to remind dealers about the importance of having a disaster preparedness plan. Weather-related events from Louisiana to Florida have demonstrated that communities and business are vulnerable, but can take a few simple steps can mitigate their impact.

"It's important to have a plan in place and educate your staff, so that you can recover and rebuild quickly," said Jim Foote, chief business security officer at CDK Global.  "Dealerships are often looked to after a weather-related event to repair and replace damaged vehicles. Simple steps such as backing up your data and updating your insurance coverage will help your business get back up and running."

To help make sure dealers are prepared in the event of a natural disaster and can recover quickly, CDK Global offers the following tips to consider when putting together a disaster preparedness plan:

Have a written plan, and make sure everyone has a copy. Writing a plan and educating your entire staff will make sure that everyone understands their role and the steps they need to take in an emergency. Make sure to document your organization's critical contacts and review them for accuracy.

Designate teams for key business operations. Before, during and after the disaster period, your most crucial operational need will be communications. Without it, you can't do much else. Designate teams to be responsible for key communications, your day-to-day business operations (payroll, parts, service, etc.) and data recovery.

Use an off-site location to back up your on-premise data and paper records. In the case of a power outage or system failure, you will want to have your data backed up in a secure cloud service or on an external hard drive sent to an off-site storage area where your paper records are also stored. Ensure that your off-site storage vendor is taking items to areas that won't be impacted by the same threats as you – for example, if you're in a hurricane zone, use a site that is farther inland.

Evaluate your disaster insurance coverage. Review policies with your insurance agent to make sure your dealership is covered for the appropriate types of disasters, and the proper values of your building contents and inventory.

Test your preparedness. What would you do if key IT people, like your systems administrator, aren't available in an emergency? Write it down. Have materials and processes in place to do business the old fashioned way, on paper, until power is restored.

About CDK Global
With more than $2 billion in revenues, CDK Global (Nasdaq: CDK) is a leading global provider of integrated information technology and digital marketing solutions to the automotive retail and adjacent industries. Focused on evolving the automotive retail experience, CDK Global provides solutions to dealers in more than 100 countries around the world, serving more than 27,000 retail locations and most automotive manufacturers. CDK's solutions automate and integrate all parts of the dealership and buying process from targeted digital advertising and marketing campaigns to the sale, financing, insuring, parts supply, repair and maintenance of vehicles. Visit www.cdkglobal.com.

Contact: Kyle Donash[email protected]
847-485-4335

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SOURCE CDK Global, LLC