Open Standards Will Ease the Cost of Doing Business

Joe Register, president of Prescient Technologies, spoke about open industry e-commerce standards that will lower the cost of doing business, while increasing efficiency in the aftermarket. He said that while the aftermarket has been "slow to adopt leading edge technology and fond of embracing proprietary solutions to business challenges" that is changing with open industry standards.

With AAIA's Electronic Commerce Committee as the platform, three standards have emerged, including electronic catalog standards (eCat), product information exchange standards (PIES), and shop integration standards, (ioSHOP).

The electronic catalog standards are an open electronic format for manufacturers to use in exchanging applications catalog data with e-cats. With nearly 200 subscribers, eCat is supported by a make/model table and parts-type table.

PIES is an open industry-standard format for exchanging 140 attributes of automotive and heavy duty product information. Features include pricing, packaging, UPC, weight, dimensions, warranty and URLs. PIES is designed to lower the cost of distributing and collecting product information. PIES is available at no cost and can be downloaded at www.aftermarket.org.

ioSHOP is an unprecedented example of cooperation between competitors in the automotive equipment industry. ioSHOP is open communication standards to allow disparate pieces of shop equipment to connect and communicate in a repair facility. The future integrated repair shop can share information about the customer, the vehicle, the work order, work performed and test results between the shop management system and all diagnostic test equipment and information servers.

Register urged attendees to learn more about how e-commerce standards can help their companies by visiting the Web site of the Aftermarket Council on Electronic Commerce at www.acec-online.org.

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