Pricedex CEO Identifies "Top 10 Roadblocks" to Industry Gaining Full Advantage of PIM

For an industry founded on manufacturing enough replacement parts each year to keep millions of vehicles on North American roads running smoothly, one would think that any IT system that could manage those parts throughout the selling chain more profitably and effectively - and smoothly -- would be immediately embraced.

And, when most new car dealers are moving aggressively into service and repair segments that traditionally were the bread and butter of the independent automotive aftermarket because they have better parts information systems and can respond faster with good information, that the aftermarket would be moving aggressively to combat this threat to their business.

But this isn't happening. The aftermarket is moving much too slowly, and if it continues to move at this pace, some, or even much, of the market share it will lose to those OEM dealers will never be recovered.
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Pricedex and Illumaware Form Strategic Alliance to Provide PIM Solutions to Companies of All Sizes
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JIT in Marketing and Sales Support is Just as Important as in Manufacturing

If your new product is not on the shelf when the customer walks in ready to buy, you've lost the sale.

If the retailer or distributor can't access the new part numbers and quote the new price, you've got the same problem. So, even if you do have the product, but don't have the information yet, you've still lost the sale.

And if the dealer, distributor or retailer doesn't have the new marketing and sales materials to train his sales staff and properly support the launch of your product, you've missed the boat.

Time-to-market has a number of facets to it, from launching a new product to responding to a competitor's new product with a new product of your own, to launching a new promotional campaign or to rolling out new pricing in response to rising materials costs.
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Special Industry Webinar on PIM Set for Sept. 13
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Pricing Management - The Second Pillar of PIM

Much of the focus in the aftermarket today is on standardizing the means of communicating product information between trading partners such as Product Information, Application Data, Images and Price Files. One would think this would be a relatively easy thing to do. But consider the following:

Everyday in North America a new product is released by a manufacturer. Product descriptions, images, material safety data sheets are all sent to stores, and inventory is shipped. But the product price is not in the electronic file that is sent, and therefore the stock sits on the shelf without a price, and remains unsold because it is not visible in the Point of Sale system. How can this be?

The most complex element of product information - Pricing - is the most overlooked functional feature in most of the major PIM systems today - with the exception of the Pricedex AutoPIM Pro system. And yet, accurate, timely pricing is crucial to sales success and profitability.
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