Thread regarding CDK Global Inc. layoffs

@ad1h wasn’t there when I were in CDK. I stopped working in the company as a part of the sell to FP

@ad19 Do you remember Rapid RTC? Still here.

Is there anyone here who can share some insight? Throughout the 2000s and 2010s, I was part of the organization that significantly increased our market share in Norway, Sweden, and Denmark; in Denmark in particular, we reached about 65%, and that includes both IMS and DMS—and with Dealerbridge, we were up to 85%. I assume these products are still available. My interest stems from the fact that last week I attended a professional networking event where I ran into several of my former clients from my time at ADP/CDK, who have now become major multi-brand and multi-site dealerships. They mentioned that Keyloop was in the process of withdrawing from the Nordic markets (expected within the next two years) and were therefore looking for other DMS and software providers that could cover both the Nordic and DACH markets. Naturally, I got curious and dug a little deeper into various figures from different public registries and statistics, including those in the UK, and also checked who is currently working for Keyloop in those countries. I have to say I was shocked. Everything the former customers said points to the company being on the verge of pulling out, but is there anyone here who can confirm or deny this?
I now work in a completely different industry, but my heart still lies with my former clients, colleagues, and products—that’s inevitable after more than 25 years at the same company.

@ad0a Pro tip:

While waiting for India to take your job, open outlook and start a teams call with yourself. Set your status to available and stay in the call with yourself and your status will stay green.

@ad0a sorry you are so upset. I am trying to engage. I've watched the various management postings, done multiple LinkedIn courses but still have nothing to do on a daily basis.
My manager is never available as she is looking after her kids, shopping or listening to the SLT leadership drivel.
Get your head down, look busy, drink coffee and make the most of it, until you get lucky and are made redundant

@ad0a "there are"

@acwk its your white privilege oozing out evidently waiting to ride the wave until you can retire conveniently. Its people like you who ‘cost’ the company and the system. SHAME ON YOU.
And the ones supporting this, shame on you too. Speaks a lot about your mindset. Their are too many of your kind in this company, and thats what brings us down from performing. You only know how to take and take. Not even doing the bare minimum is a JOKE

@acw2 "their jobs"

@acwk Good for you, seriously. Ride it out as long as you can.

I'm sorry. I started as an admin person. I played the game and have found myself in a position where I do not have any technical ability, but have seen many of my peers lose their jobs.
People may hate me but I don't care.

@acw2 Can't blame them. When we were training our replacements, team india was constantly away from their computers, often prompting "queue" warnings that they have abandoned post. Awful work ethic.

You don't quite understand yet how demoralizing that is if you haven't gone through it. I wouldn't blame anyone else for doing the same while waiting for the axe to drop on their position. This company does not deserve your efforts when you are simply just a number.

@acvy your privilege is pouring out from the screen unfortunately its people like you who cost other talented people there jobs. I know people who did 14 hour days lose their job. People who put there all in their jobs. Sorry to say but thats nothing to be boasting about. You are in a tech company with no knowledge of technology. 20% of people at Keyloop do 80% of the work - there, i said it. I have seen first hand the kind of sh-t people do wfh - go take saunas, get nails done, keep themselves showing active in different manners, but never do the work. Others are bearing the consequences. I wish you the best but this is so sad.
Unfortunately im one of those impacted and only i know how lucky you are, and im not.

Embarrassed to say I am still taking a wage while our customers and fellow employees are being laid off and sc--wed over.
I am simply hanging on a limb with the dreggs of the business.
I couldn't tell the difference between MSDOS and Windows 3.11 but they still pay me. Here until the end, sinking ship.

@acp4 you are spot on to question this sham role in your business. It’s been a running joke since day one. Self-promotion, free VIP events and a band of sycophants saying how fantastic the person is, social media he-l. Only mixes with a network of similar sickening self promotion humans. Never interested in us customers with issues. Sat at many automotive events where the ground swell of real automotive professionals think it’s an absolute joke as knows nothing about the industry. Your CEO also knows it’s only in place to tick boxes on culture and diversity, serves no business purpose at all, just a very expensive sham role and person.

@acp4
HR departments exist to protect the business from the employees. It's never the other way around.
Is there a legitimate business model behind charging people for the privilege of being featured on a company podcast? Sounds like the Steven Bartlett model of business. Charlatan to charlatan!
Are personal credit cards being used for business travel primarily because of the loyalty points? A rather creative approach to corporate expenses.
This is expressly not allowed in expenses T&C - unless you are KLT/ELT - seen it before.
Are VIP concert tickets now considered a standard networking deliverable?
I will give up my bonus for free Taylor Swift tickets! Oh wait..bonus????
Is the recruitment strategy for company events increasingly based on personal friendships rather than merit?
Always. After you jump past levels who actually are trying to do the job we are here to do - it's all about the fun times with friends.
Are company resources and equipment quietly doubling up as infrastructure for private business ventures?
Well if you faffed up Keyloop you may as well do something else.
And is self-nomination for industry awards the latest recognised KPI, particularly when backed by a convenient network of contacts?
Standard in most industries - you pay to enter

11 month old case: Not a suprise but not the support teams fault.
The support team is constantly being pulled in all directions, with certain customers arbitrarily deemed more important than others and work patterns shifting by the day. They are expected to be the "front door" for all and sundry, only to be shouted at for not closing enough cases. Management claims they need to focus on root causes, but the sheer volume makes that completely impossible. This chaos is directly caused by a poor product, terrible setup, and the fact that specialist teams keep dumping even more of their workload onto support. Support are accountable for others lack of accountability.

To top it all off, management made the most knowledgeable people redundant—sorry, "moved roles to other countries"—under the delusion that this knowledge could easily be replaced. Now, we have Level 1 analysts replacing experts who had years of deep experience.

Does Keyloop have a HR department?

Whistleblowing: apparently another underperforming business function.

Tried raising concerns through the appropriate HR channels. Silly me. Unfortunately, HR and leadership appeared rather preoccupied with the much more exciting corporate sport of making redundancies, trimming headcount and celebrating EBITDA improvements. Priorities, I suppose.

Meanwhile, there are some rather interesting things happening within the travelling SLT ecosystem. Things that, allegedly, are an open secret across the automotive industry about Drivetime host - you know who

A few questions that perhaps deserve some answers:

• Is there a legitimate business model behind charging people for the privilege of being featured on a company podcast?
• Are personal credit cards being used for business travel primarily because of the loyalty points? A rather creative approach to corporate expenses.
• Are VIP concert tickets now considered a standard networking deliverable?
• Is the recruitment strategy for company events increasingly based on personal friendships rather than merit?
• Are company resources and equipment quietly doubling up as infrastructure for private business ventures?
• And is self-nomination for industry awards the latest recognised KPI, particularly when backed by a convenient network of contacts?

Perhaps these are all perfectly innocent coincidences. Perhaps not. Either way, the number of people talking about them suggests that this isn’t exactly a well-kept secret.

The particularly interesting part is that this alleged conduct is apparently becoming a talking point among customers too. Following the Dubai event, there were reportedly some rather uncomfortable conversations, including customers highlighting support cases that had remained unresolved for over 11 months.

Eleven months.

But of course, Customers First. The branding is certainly doing its best.

At what point does leadership distinguish between genuine business networking and behaviour that risks embarrassing the company? At what point does accountability extend beyond the people unfortunate enough to be on the redundancy list?

And, perhaps most importantly, does the ELT genuinely care about the culture and conduct being demonstrated by some of its senior representatives, or is EBITDA now the only metric that matters?

It would be refreshing to see someone sufficiently senior address these questions rather than another beautifully polished corporate communication about values, integrity and putting customer first? Lol

Not sure if being bitter sums up what the feeling's are towards the way Keyloop employees have been treated.
Everyone to their own though.

While I despair at some of the choices this company makes, no one should be genuinely shocked to find their role redundant only to see it advertised in another country. That was the core point, and it was clearly explained. It was called Project Shoreline for a reason and for once the buisness did commiuncate the whys clearly. They6 barte moving roles to other cheaper countries - not rocket science.
As bitter as you may feel—and perhaps rightly so—you simply cannot compare wages across different countries. The cost of living varies wildly; in many regions, it is significantly lower, which reflects in the salary expectations. This is precisely why a UK business chooses to offshore work. I am not suggesting it is morally right, but it is a cold, hard economic fact.
And no we cant all go sit in Asia on UK money due to various legal and tax restrictions -
Furthermore, we are all colleagues and peers here. Resorting to insults and insular comments is weak, and it displays a fundamental lack of understanding about global economics, the real world and people. This forum is meant to discuss Keyloop derangement syndrome—not playground politics.
Given the nature of some comments on this forum, it is hardly surprising that certain individuals have been let go. Frankly, the conduct of several peers here is deeply embarrassing.
Hate Keyloop not your co-worker!

@ac1g Grok - List things that didn't happen

@ac1b Temper temper little man.

@ac00 When I was being made redundant, middle manager said it was because groceries are cheaper in India.

@ac13 shut up you ponce

@ac00 you have no idea what you're on about, you can work remotely but in no way from any other country than your office is at for an extended period of time. This would break many insurance regulation and policies, let alone affect your tax residency. Can't expect and islander to understand the intricacies of the EU I guess. Probably voted yes for Brexit to boot.

@ac00 which department and country are you in?

I’m in shock. I’ve just been made redundant and now my job is being posted in Czech with a salary expectation of less than what a cashier in a supermarket earns. And they expect a bachelor degree as minimum and 5 years of experience. I really hope that the people in Czech is being sc--wed big time. With the EU worker’s legislation they are allowed to “work” in other countries, but remote from Czech if they want to keep the low living costs.

Call in sick

Get your grievances in quick, before they dismiss you. HR are obviously bored and have nothing else to do

Italy being decimated

@abra Already did. Currently PM team in IT is being dismantled. People didn't even have time to hand over their current projects. Just being notified they've been made redundant and automatically moved to garden leave.

Last week, the nominees for the biggest automotive and mobility award show in the Nordic was announced. For the second consecutive year, we at Keyloop were not nominated in any categories. What is our Nordic sales, marketing and product departments doing. As a passionate Keyloop employee it’s so depressing seeing that, and seeing our competitors nominated for products light years ahead of us. Wonder when the next round of redundancies hit :(

Let's all be inclusive and not forget the Jolly girls on the outings.

@abkx its true yet another jolly boys outing for the clueless crew, the reality is were hated as a company, just ask the actual customers

Another event. Another waste of money by the usual snow gang. But hey. Product doesn't exist yet but we create hype. They say.

Don't worry!

We are on course to our final destination. We are about to navigate the Bermuda Triangle on course for the Cayman Islands. Any factors that may compromise our progress, such as dead wood, paying customers, long term employees and any men in general, can be quickly eliminated and swept overboard.

With Seamen Staines at the helm, what could possibly go wrong?

Explained simply, using actual financial data.

Keyloop's money situation, explained simply

Keyloop makes software that car dealerships use to run their business. Imagine a lemonade stand that sells to the same loyal customers every month.

The good news:

• Keyloop earned about €396 million last year, and 92% of it comes from customers who pay again and again. That steady income is a big strength.
• After paying the everyday costs of running the business, it had about €147 million left over.
• It doesn't have to pay back its big loans until 2030 and 2031. There is no deadline looming over it.

The worrying news:

• Keyloop owes about €1.1 billion to lenders. That's like a family that borrowed a huge amount to buy a very big house.
• Nearly all of the €147 million leftover goes on interest, about €103 million a year. Think of a family whose mortgage payments eat almost everything they earn.
• After counting everything, including the wear and tear on its software, Keyloop lost €88 million last year. It owes more than it owns on paper (negative €85 million).
• The company is owned by an investment firm, Francisco Partners, which put in another €437 million. That money counts as something Keyloop owes back.

Grade: C+

Keyloop is not about to run out of money. Its customers are loyal and there's no big repayment due soon. But it's carrying a very heavy debt and losing money each year, so there isn't much room for mistakes. To move up to a B, it would need to grow its income and pay down some of the loans.

Corporate scuttling

@abfr FP doing what they have done before with other of their acquisitions that went wrong - su-k all blood out of the corpse and leave behind an empty shell. Customers, Partners, Dealer, OEMs and Employees will be the losers.

When budget data is released, 100 Indians get their wings

@abfa €1.1B