Dealership IT Services in Savannah, Georgia

Dealership IT Services in Savannah, GA: Managed Security and Compliance for Auto Dealers

Savannah-area auto dealerships operate in one of the most heavily regulated and technically complex IT environments of any small-to-mid-size business. Your DMS (dealer management system) processes financing applications, stores Social Security numbers, and connects F&I desks to lenders, all while your sales floor runs on CRM tools that touch the same network as your service bay terminals. COMNEXIA, headquartered in Roswell, GA and in business since 1991, delivers managed IT and security services built around the specific platforms, regulations, and threat patterns that Chatham County dealers face every day.

FTC Safeguards Rule Compliance: What Savannah Dealerships Must Do Now

Under the FTC Safeguards Rule (16 CFR Part 314), auto dealerships that qualify as financial institutions must maintain a written information security program, designate a qualified individual to oversee it, and enforce specific technical controls including encryption, multi-factor authentication, and access controls tied to individual job functions. Non-compliance exposes your dealership to FTC enforcement and civil liability. COMNEXIA maps your current environment against the nine required elements of 16 CFR 314.4, documents gaps in writing, and builds a remediation roadmap with assigned owners and target dates. We do not hand you a checklist and walk away.

DMS Security: CDK Global, Reynolds and Reynolds, and Dealertrack

Most Savannah dealerships run one of three DMS platforms: CDK Global, Reynolds and Reynolds, or Cox Automotive's Dealertrack. Each platform has distinct integration points, user permission structures, and API behaviors that a general-purpose IT provider typically does not know. COMNEXIA deploys and manages network segmentation that places your DMS on a dedicated VLAN, separated from guest Wi-Fi, loaner-vehicle kiosks, and employee personal devices. Firewall rules are written to permit only the specific source IPs and ports required by your DMS vendor, reducing the lateral movement an attacker could achieve after compromising a single endpoint.

F&I office workstations require tighter controls than showroom terminals. We apply Microsoft Entra ID conditional access policies that require compliant device status and MFA before any user can reach F&I applications or lender portals. Role-based access is enforced so that a service advisor's credentials cannot open a credit application, even on the same physical network.

Endpoint Protection and Patch Management Across Your Dealership

Dealership networks typically include a mixture of aging Windows workstations in the service lane, newer sales terminals, and back-office servers, sometimes running software that the DMS vendor certifies only on specific OS versions. COMNEXIA standardizes endpoint management through NinjaOne RMM, which gives us real-time visibility into patch status, software inventory, and hardware health across every managed device. SentinelOne EDR runs on each endpoint, providing behavioral detection that blocks threats DMS-adjacent software cannot catch on its own. Patch deployment is tested against your DMS vendor's compatibility matrix before rollout so that a Windows update does not break a certified CDK or Reynolds and Reynolds integration.

Network DMZ and Segmentation for Multi-Location Savannah Dealers

Dealer groups operating multiple rooftops across Savannah and the Coastal Georgia corridor need consistent security policy applied at every location, not just the flagship store. COMNEXIA designs a dealership DMZ architecture that isolates internet-facing services (manufacturer portals, OEM inventory feeds, customer-facing scheduling tools) from the internal DMS and accounting systems. Site-to-site VPN tunnels connect locations using AES-256 encryption, with separate firewall zones for each functional area. This segmentation limits the blast radius of a ransomware event that enters through one location's service Wi-Fi from spreading to the finance servers at a second rooftop.

Help Desk, Ticketing, and Monthly Reporting

When a finance manager cannot print a buyer's order at 5:45 PM on a Saturday, speed matters. COMNEXIA's help desk operates with a documented ticketing workflow through ConnectWise Manage, so every issue is logged, prioritized by business impact, and tracked to resolution. Dealership staff submit tickets by phone at (877) 600-6550, by email, or through a web portal. Each month, your designated IT contact receives a written report showing open and resolved tickets, patch compliance percentages, endpoint health status, and any Safeguards Rule program activity completed during that period. That monthly report also serves as documentation your qualified individual can use to demonstrate program activity to auditors.

What Onboarding Looks Like for a Savannah Dealership

• Network discovery and asset inventory across all rooftops, documenting every device that touches the DMS or stores customer financial data
• Gap assessment against FTC Safeguards Rule 16 CFR 314.4 requirements, delivered as a written report with prioritized findings
• VLAN and firewall reconfiguration to create DMS, F&I, guest, and service-lane segments with documented access rules
• Deployment of NinjaOne RMM and SentinelOne EDR on all managed endpoints, with baseline patch compliance achieved within the first 30 days
• Microsoft Entra ID MFA and conditional access configuration for all staff accessing F&I portals or lender integrations
• Documented runbook delivered to your team covering escalation paths, vendor contacts, and incident response steps

Talk to COMNEXIA About Your Savannah Dealership

COMNEXIA has served Georgia businesses for 35 years from its Roswell, GA headquarters, and works directly with auto dealerships on the IT and compliance challenges specific to CDK Global, Reynolds and Reynolds, and Dealertrack environments. If your Savannah dealership needs a Safeguards Rule gap assessment, a DMS network segmentation project, or ongoing managed security services, call COMNEXIA at (877) 600-6550 to speak with an engineer who understands dealership IT, not just general managed services.