Introduction

The STAR organization is comprised of several Work Groups (WG) that address specific points of interest to the automotive retail IT industry. Most of the WGs are chartered with developing or maintaining the existing data formats (DTS) or the newer XML Business Object Documents (BOD), but the Dealership Infrastructure WG is chartered with finding common Infrastructure and interoperability among dealerships to providing a guidebook and deployment handbook for IT infrastructure at the Dealership.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q - What does the document cover? A - The astounding, and continuing, growth in the requirement to deliver data and solutions to Dealerships has caused automotive manufacturers, herein referred to as Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), to evaluate both the current approach and plans to meet that need in the future. This document will identify the overall direction chosen. It will also explain the choices that are available to the Dealer to standardize their Dealership networks. In addition, it provides guidelines and recommendations to help Dealers decide which communication solution best fits the requirements for their business environment.

Q - Who should use this document? A - This document is for network administrators, project leaders, engineers or contractors who are responsible for designing networks and connecting clients to OEMs. For the benefit of non-technical readers, the important elements are presented in both an overview and in detailed form.

Q - Are there any tools to help me setup my infrastructure? A - The DIG includes several checklists and tips from purchasing hardware/software to making sure you have the proper information in your vendor SLAs.

Specifications

Document	Version	Effective Date	Add/Change	PDF	HTML
Dealership Infrastructure Guidelines	2011v1	01/19/11	Change	pdf	html
Dealership Infrastructure Guidelines	N-1	01/15/10	Change	pdf	html

The following specifications are the N-1 to current approved STAR Architecture specifications.