Last week, CDK Global announced the appointment Ron Frey as chief strategy officer and that CarStory, the automotive brand of big data company Vast, has been selected to join its partner program.

CarStory Market Reports, which offer consumers real-time data directly on the vehicle details page (VDP), are now available to all CDK customers through the program.

CDK’s Partner Program was created to connect industry-leading digital vendors with dealers. CarStory joins 25 other partners who have come aboard.

“We’re very pleased to be included in the CDK Partner Program and to enable integration of our Market Reports into CDK dealers’ VDPs,” Chad Bockius, chief marketing officer of CarStory said. “Time spent on VDPs is one of the key predictors of sales: the more car shoppers engage with a dealer’s VDP, the faster a vehicle will sell, and our Market Reports should help amplify that engagement for CDK customers.”

CarStory delivers more than 15 million of its Market Reports to consumers throughout the country each month.

“The Market Reports’ comprehensive information keeps consumers focused on dealership websites, eliminating the need to click off to other websites for additional research,” CDK said in a news release. “CarStory Market Reports’ patented technology automatically determines which aspects of a used vehicle are most significant to consumers and then identifies the top three or four features that are the unique price drivers for that vehicle.”

CarStory Market Reports has been adopted by over 6,500 dealerships nationwide, including 50 percent of the top dealer groups, according to CDK.

Information provided in the reports are generated from a combination of real-time used vehicle listings and data from eight million plus used car searches each week.

Meanwhile, Frey replaces Malcom Thorne, who is retiring after more than 15 years at CDK.  

In April, Frey will join CDK. In his new role, he will be responsible for strategy and business development as well as product management. 

"Ron Frey has been a respected strategist and operating executive within the automotive industry for many years, and we are pleased to have him join the CDK Global executive leadership team.” CDK president and chief executive officer, Brian MacDonald said in a news release.

“Ron will oversee corporate strategy, business development, and product management as we continue our focus on delivering the kinds of innovative products and services that dealers need to grow and manage their businesses.  Also, I want to thank Malcolm Thorne for his many contributions to CDK's success and wish him well." 

Most recently, Frey has been delivering consulting services to the automotive industry through his company, RL Frey.

In 2007, Frey became president of AutoNation Direct. He worked on generating and testing new initiatives in transactional sales outside the traditional store environment and was later promoted to chief strategy officer of AutoNation.