D2D OEC Subscription Agreement

[wct54]

After reading all the posts about D2D, I.'m surprised that no one has mentioned the subscription agreement. In paragraph #26 it states that "as part of the D2D link service, OEConnection must collect data including, BUT NOT LIMITED TO dealerships entire parts inventory from it's DMS. Dealership agrees that OEConnection, or it's subcontractors shall be permitted to remote access, poll, copy, extract, download, reformat, aggregate and/or compile dealerships data...". Personally, I am not comfortable with GM having access to my computer system, while stating that they are not limited to accessing only parts data.
Also of interest is paragraph #7, which states, "the agreement may be modified by OEConnection by posting any amendments on their web site". In other words, GM can change the agreement to suit their needs at any time, and we have no recourse if we do not agree with these changes.
It would be interesting to know just what type of reports GM wants to run from my DMS. As an ADP user, they have access to my English Statement, so they will be able to pull any information they want.

[Howard]

THEY CAN ONLY ACCESS WHAT YOU PERMIT THEM TO. THEY DIAL INTO YOUR SYSTEM, THEN HAVE A LOG ON SCREEN MUCH LIKE YOUR EMPLOYEES. YOU GIVE THEM A USER NAME AND A PASSWORD AND SET UP WHAT SCREENS THEY CAN ACCESS. "NO ONE" WITH A BIT OFBUSINESS SENSE IS GOING TO PERMIT AN OUTSIDE COMPANY TO WANDER THRU THEIR FILES

[scotstrong]

Howard:
You have to give GM access to the "English" function in order for them to extract the basic inventory information they use for D2D. What wct54 is saying is that if they have access to the English function, they can access any file that is set up in English. ADP cannot restrict access by file, by user. If they have access to one, they have access to all. One can only hope that GM and OEC demonstrate a little integrity and not try to access information that is outside of the legitimate needs for inventory information sharing. ADP can provide an audit trail of anything accessed by the log-on GM has been given access to in a pinch. I am not saying that I am comfortable with this situation, but forewarned is forearmed to a certain degree.

[Rex]

With English, a user can read, but not write, so corruption of data is not a concern. They are operating a business, so they have certain things they need to do in your system to get their job done. What data are you afraid they are going to read? If you had full access to your customers' systems, is there some data you would want to get from it? For what purpose? It's sad to me that we live in a time when people and businesses lack integrity to the point that it engenders paranoia. I'm not saying it's not well placed, either. Just sad.

[Richard]

One of the best reasons so far that I have heard NOT to be on R+R or ADP....with EDS, we upload our inventory file to d2d each night, they have NO access to our system at all.

[Service 1]

I thought I was the only one who actually read contracts.... After I highlighted the parts I did not like there was no white paper left. However, after a little research I have found that OEConnection uses a vendor for this D2DLink nonsense. The company is DigitalMotorWorks.com if you are opposed to allow access to your database, you can download the file (data of your choice) and use a ftp (File Transfer Protocol) program to send your data directly to digitalmotorworks. The process is not that complicated and any 1st year IT person can set it up for you, or if you have a little computer savy you can do it yourself.
The only data they want at present is
part number, On-Hand Quantity, On-Order Quantity, Entrydate, Last Transaction date and 12 months sales history.
I know that is more data than I want anyone else to see but at least it keeps one more vendor out of our database.

[wct54]

I am not concerned with any corruption of data, but what GM intends to do with the information they have access to. Scotstrong understood exactly what I was saying. Watch for your APM's from General Motors coming into your store with all kinds of reports generated from your DMS. These may include your purchasing habits, how your parts are sourced, what your buying from the WD's, etc.
Also, for those of you that haven't heard, there is a new GM program on the horizon. It's called RIM (Retail Inventory Management). With this program GM tells you what you have to stock, quantities you have to stock, and orders carry no discount, and all parts from these orders are non-returnable. To operate this type of system, GM would have to have access to your computer.
It appears that GM wants to run it's dealerships as if they were company stores, not franchises like they really are.

[Richard]

wct, you sound like this is a new thing. GM has tried since the inception of RSG's to run our parts departments. d2d is just the next link in the chain to better control the market, for GM. If you want to look into my crystal ball, the next thing on the horizon is not if GM is going to use your data against you, but that they are going to use your data to setup Marketing Area's, similar to what they have done with AC-Delco; smaller rural dealerships with little to no wholesale business will be told to let the larger, wholesale oriented dealer have that business (wholesale) and the larger dealers will be given YOUR territory to sell in, maybe even exclusivly. This is the bigger picture, not the little pieces, such as d2d, RSG's, ect. GM will try to control the market, as they have done with AC-Delco.

[Ted@ADP]

Richard's point about sending the data to your vendor rather than having them dial in is a good one.
On ADP you can use RPX to download any RPG report to Excel or a Comma Separated File. You can use logging or slave printer capture to capture to a plain text format. You can do the same thing with RXR for any English statement. Ask your vendor for the English statement or report they need, and what format they would like. Then email it to them. With Excel format, this entire process can be automated with a Reflection script or macro and an Event. This includes emailing in the process.
Regardless of the method you use, you retain full control of your data.

[petepuma01]

Similar to Ted's post, Reynolds Era users can send their files using EraLink32. You can create the query using Query Builder and then download or e-mail the file to whoever needs it.

EraLink offers a wide variety of formats-- it does include what is likely desired-- comma separated values or an Excel spreadsheet.

Once you have everything set up, the whole process can be scheduled to run automatically.