The business of selling and servicing cars and trucks depends on technology. As a result, the reliability and security of your IT infrastructure is mission critical. In other words, your dealership’s ability to make money is directly tied to the viability of your network, computers, and data. Keep this in mind as you read through this blog.
In the past – before cybercrime became was so pervasive – things were easier. To set-up and maintain your IT environment you could easily find someone who could serve as your dealership’s “IT Guy.” Most often, this person didn’t have any formal IT training or certifications. The old school “IT Guy” was simply someone who appeared to have some technical proficiency. Sometimes, the “IT Guy” would be a full-time employee of the dealership and sometimes the “IT Guy” would be a local resource that the dealership would contact when they needed technical assistance. But those days are over. The continued rise in cybercrime and the fact that cybercrime is only getting worst, has brought about a new reality for dealerships. This new reality marks the end of the “IT Guy.”
What’s Wrong with The “IT Guy?”
Why is the “IT Guy” obsolete? The answer is that with today’s cybersecurity threats you simply cannot have one person – who in most cases lacks the proper training and certifications – shoulder the weight of keeping your business-critical IT infrastructure up and running.
The “IT Guy” is a human being. If they’re like most human beings, then they’ll eventually get sick, take a vacation, retire, or find a different line of work. If you solely rely on one “IT Guy” and your dealership suffers a cyberattack when he is on vacation, sick, or just not available then you’re screwed. Your ability to sell and service cars and trucks will be directly impacted. You will lose money. Relying exclusively on the traditional “IT Guy” simply doesn’t make good business sense anymore.
You Need a Team
Dealerships need a team of trained and qualified IT and cybersecurity professionals guarding and maintaining their IT infrastructure – all day, every day. Having a team does the following:
- Eliminates the worry of a single IT resource being unavailable when one is most needed.
- Provides the bandwidth to think and act in a strategically proactive manner as opposed to having a single, stressed “IT Guy “constantly scrambling from one fire to another.
- Gives you access to a wide array of expertise.
- Provides you with peace of mind.
Building a Team
To build a team you can either replace or augment your “IT Guy” with a set of capable IT/cybersecurity professionals. However, since you’re in the business of selling and servicing cars and trucks and not in the business of recruiting, hiring, and training IT/cybersecurity professionals then the smart and most cost-effective option is to outsource this effort. Of course, we’d love for you to consider Helion – but whether it’s Helion or another IT/cybersecurity services provider – the cybersecurity threat you now face requires a team effort.
