Like any good business leader, Gary Ware, the Owner of Ware Chevrolet, believes in the importance of protecting consumers from bad business practices—no matter what it takes. New updated General Motors IT requirements and the recently expanded FTC Safeguards Rule dramatically changed Ware Chevrolet’s IT environment. To play his part in ensuring a transparent and compliant purchasing process, Gary started investing in better IT infrastructure, enhanced recordkeeping mechanisms, and airtight compliance policies.
For Gary, failing to prioritize government and GM requirements, customer data laws, and cybersecurity protections isn’t just an ethical consideration—it’s a business one, too. “Some of the fines you can get from the government for not being in compliance are something like $110,000 per occurrence,” Gary revealed. “One slipup could take us out of business.” Failure to meet GM IT requirements could potentially result in the inability to do business with General Motors and the loss of the dealership.
As the business stakes surrounding IT grew, Gary decided that his long-time friend he had been using for IT support probably wouldn’t cut it as the dealership’s sole IT resource anymore. “It just got to the point where it wasn’t working for him or us anymore. We needed more than he could do,” Gary explained.
Roughly two years ago, Heather from Vision Computer Services took her car to Ware Chevrolet to get it serviced. On her way out, she left a business card with Gary’s brother and Ware Chevrolet co-owner Kent Ware. In what seemed to be a very inconsequential moment, everything about how Gary and his team approach technology completely changed.
Hit The Ground Running
Ware Chevrolet has been around since 1949 when Gary’s grandfather opened the dealership’s doors, starting a long legacy of industry expertise being passed from generation to generation. Unfortunately, that expertise didn’t come with much experience from a technological standpoint. “We’ve been car guys forever,” Gary quipped, “but we’ve never been technology experts.”
This technology gap created a fast-and-furious situation when Vision Computer Services first came onto the scene. There was a lot of work to do, not a lot of time to do it, and an entire team needed to be trained on how to protect the business from cyber threats, technology hiccups, and system failures. “They came in with a plan to make us GM-compliant and helped us meet all the government FTC Safeguards requirements while updating our technology. The technology part came first,” shared Gary.
Daniel and his team from Vision Computer Services walked through the doors on a Friday afternoon, worked the entire weekend replacing all the workstations in the building, set up a network firewall, installed a new server, and installed wireless access points. They resolved issues with slow internet speeds so that Gary and his team could come back and get right to work on Monday morning. “They replaced every computer we had. When we came into the office that next week, it was a night-and-day difference,” Gary admitted.
A Seamless Partnership
The near-overnight office transformation was nothing short of miraculous, but when Gary’s 20-person team started to understand some of the process changes that would be involved with the technology updates, not everyone was thrilled at first. “It was a bit of a struggle to get our employees to embrace the idea that we must do this. Little things like using multifactor authentication [MFA] to maintain FTC compliance were challenging at first, but I think everyone sees the bigger picture now, thanks to Vision Computer Services,” shared Gary.
Any professionals in the managed IT space know that advanced technology and cybersecurity protections are only as good as the users who are in the system every day, and that reality must be accounted for with training, education, and continuous improvement. “Vision Computer Services takes us through phishing training and keeps us up to date on what we need to know to stay safe, to stay protected,” said Gary. “They either come on-site or send us the training materials. They’re always really proactive about the training aspect.”
To Gary, the fact that everything works like a freshly oiled machine when it comes to the relationship between his team and the team at Vision Computer Services is a major business win, but it’s also a major peace-of-mind win. “Just knowing that they’re monitoring everything helps me sleep better at night,” he joked. “They’re such good partners. There’s no wait time when we call, they follow up via email to provide updates on open issues, and I fully trust their judgment to make the right technology decisions for our dealership.”
Managing Industry Complexities
“We’re dealing with 10 or more banks, the federal government, General Motors, and other large entities that can be really tough to navigate,” explained Gary. With a variety of customer data requirements, historical record tracking, and ever-changing industry best practices, there are too many technological decisions for one person to make. And when one wrong decision could end up crippling the business, getting the right people in those decision-making roles was non-negotiable for Gary. To him, hiring an MSP is an investment that pays for itself time and time again.
“In the age that we’re in, with all the cybersecurity threats and other technology issues, all businesses need to be working with a team like Vision Computer Services,” he shared. “We’d probably go out of business if we didn’t work with them to be proactive in making sure all our info is secure. The price tag is nothing when you realize the true value of the security it brings.”
No matter how many new government regulations come up, no matter how many new cybersecurity threats arise, and no matter how many new technology systems are recommended in today’s digital age, Gary has several expert opinions at his disposal. Regardless of industry, organization size, or product roadmap, businesses need to bring technology experts into the fold. Simply look at Ware Chevrolet to see how that simple decision can transform your own business.
