Power outages, cyber attacks, and internet failures can bring dealership operations to a halt without warning. This article explains how to prepare a Data Emergency Plan so your team can continue trading — even when your systems are down.
Why Your Dealership Needs a Data Emergency Plan
Modern dealerships depend heavily on information technology, and disruptions can come from many directions:
Power grid outages
Wildfire damage to infrastructure
Weather events such as storms and extreme cold
Internet provider failure
Cyber attacks
Because these failures can occur without warning, every dealership should have a Data Emergency Plan documented and ready to go. Think of it like an insurance policy — you hope you never need it, but you'll be grateful you have it when you do.
Handling an IT Failure
When an IT failure occurs, the goal is to keep essential activities running on a manual system until you're back online. Paper-based systems are slower than digital ones, but they are far better than being unable to trade at all. Start by asking two questions:
What activities must continue during an IT failure?
How can we manage those activities manually in the short term?
The table below outlines the key dealership activities and practical manual alternatives for each.
Activity | Manual Alternative |
Service Invoice | Use a carbon copy invoice book to produce manual invoices. Once you are back online, enter the information into Blackpurl. |
Service Worksheet | Use a carbon copy book. The service writer manually records unit details and instructions — the original goes to the technician, who records hours worked and parts used, then returns it to the service writer on completion. Enter the completed information into Blackpurl once the system is back online. |
Parts Counter Sales | Write invoices manually in a carbon copy book. Customers retain their copy, and the duplicate pages can be used to load transactions into Blackpurl once the system is back online. |
Parts Pricing | Ensure all parts are labelled and priced. As a best practice, download your inventory once a month and save it as a printed hard copy or on a local device such as a laptop (see steps below). |
Parts Ordering | Keep your major vendor email addresses and phone numbers written down and stored in a safe, accessible location. |
Keeping an Offline Parts Inventory Reference
Running the Part Inventory Valuation report at regular intervals gives you an offline reference for parts pricing and availability. Follow these steps to create and save the report:
Run the Part Inventory Valuation report. See Part Inventory Valuation Report for instructions.
Set the search parameter to Quantity Available greater than zero.
Export the results to a CSV file and save it to a laptop, or print a hard copy.
Saving to a laptop in CSV format lets you search for the price and location of any stocked part without internet access. The data may not reflect real-time stock movements, but it will be a close approximation of your actual inventory.
Handling Power Outages
Blackpurl is cloud-based, which means it can continue to function during a power outage — as long as you have internet access. Your dealership's local internet connection will likely go down with the power, so prepare an alternative connection method in advance.
Keep a tablet or laptop fully charged so it can operate without mains power.
Use a mobile phone hotspot to connect to the internet independently of the dealership's network.
With a charged device and mobile internet access, your team can continue processing sales and other transactions in Blackpurl even when the dealership's power and local network are unavailable.