MCLEAN, Va., March 1 -- Standards for Technology in Automotive Retail (STAR), a global information technology standards body for retail automotive and related industries, released its Dealership Infrastructure Guidelines (DIG) 2010.
The vision of manufactures has been to utilize the Internet for all data communications with their dealers. For this vision to be realized, it is critical that the dealer's network infrastructure be web-enabled. Given that dealers are in the business of selling vehicles and not setting up network infrastructures, STAR has developed the DIG to assist them in this task.
The DIG is a set of comprehensive guidelines, recommendations and checklists for dealers and their information technology (IT) staff to reference when they are working with vendors to set up and maintain their network infrastructure and other day-to-day IT-related business operations such as safe guarding customer information and business continuity.
With the release of the DIG 2010, STAR continues its commitment to keeping dealers current with leading technology and standards by reviewing and updating content to reflect the most current industry standards and recommendations. Updates included information regarding network design
frameworks, network services, private and virtual networks and wireless networks.
About STAR
The Standards for Technology in Automotive Retail (STAR) organization is the information technology (IT) standards organization for retail automotive and related industries. STAR is leading the effort to implement voluntary IT standards throughout the automotive industry. These standards are designed to support business information needs and provide secure and reliable means for dealers, manufacturers, and retail system providers to communicate. Headquartered in McLean, Virginia, STAR is a not-for-profit volunteer organization and its members include dealers, manufacturers and retail system providers. As members, these companies are interested in developing, promoting, and administering voluntary IT standards in the retail automotive industry and improving the effectiveness, timeliness and competitiveness of the IT solutions needed within the retail automotive industry.