CDK says it has brought a small group of car dealerships back online after a massive week-long outage

New York
CNN
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CDK Global said Wednesday it was able to bring a “small initial test group” of auto dealerships back online, a week after a crippling software outage left thousands of car sellers out of business. All over North America is at a standstill.

“We have successfully brought a small initial test group of dealers directly into the Dealer Management System (DMS), and once validation is complete, we will begin gradually onboarding other dealers,” a statement said.

The company said it is also working to bring additional applications back online, such as customer relationship management and service solutions, in addition to its customer care channels.

Dealers were grappling with filing their month-end financial reports during the system outage, so CDK said it created a resource center containing “commonly used documents and forms to support sales and service efforts.”

Car dealerships use CDK’s software to manage everything from scheduling to records, and CDK said Saturday it has begun restoring its software.

On Tuesday, CDK said it did not believe its systems would be back online before June 30, a major blow to dealers in the midst of the busy car buying season. However, the company suggested several times that a fix for the bug was required, but then said that its systems would remain out of service for a longer period.

A systems outage caused by a cybersecurity incident has paralyzed nearly 15,000 auto dealerships across North America since last Wednesday.