AKRON, Ohio – Nearly 20 data application representatives from leading suppliers including Anchor Industries, Autolite, Bendix, Goodyear, LuK, Sachs – ZF, Timken, Undercar Express and Lemforder –ZF, gathered at the Akron, Ohio, headquarters of Veyance Technologies, exclusive manufacturer and marketer of Goodyear Engineered Products, yesterday to meet with Activant for a user group meeting.

Doreen Slayter, director of information services for Activant’s Automotive Group, led the day-long meeting, which included presentations and informal Q&A sessions during which Activant and its customers could speak freely about what works and what doesn’t when it comes to cataloging and data standards.

The gathering was one of the first in a series for Activant, which plans to host more of these regional meetings at central locations across the country, to allow customers to gather in convenient locations and share best practices. It’s part of Activant’s new proactive approach to reaching out to suppliers, according to Slayter.

“This is the first one where a supplier was gracious enough to host it for us and we have a couple more set up,” Slayter said. “We’re hitting pockets where they can drive in, in about two to three hours. It’s more about sharing information. It’s so important to put faces with names, and it gives the relationship a sense of urgency.”

Slayter says that about a year ago a strategic change was made whereby her position at the company was refocused on the supplier relationship. “It’s about supplier focus and supplier relationships, meeting with people and sharing our story, and more importantly, listening to their story. We find we learn so much more when we go into a business and meet different people within the organization. You’re more likely to pick up the phone after you’ve made a personal connection.

“We really pushed hard to change our supplier focus,” she added. “Our goal is to make sure the supplier understands that Activant is the premier catalog provider and aggregator of content and that all of their content needs to be coming to us.”

Chris Sledzik, global communications specialist at Veyance Technologies, added, “It’s about getting the right people in the room and forming that relationship. Once you’ve increased that communication and formed that relationship, you hear loud and clear that ‘hey, we can do better.’”

Slayter added that Activant is working to reach out to all levels of the supplier base from the data and product managers right up to the sales and upper management levels.

During the event, Slater spoke with attendees about the importance of clean data and the need for constant communication for quick turnaround of catalog data. “We can get data out in two or three days,” she said. “It comes back to how critical communication is. If we don’t know those important launch dates…we’re not mind readers.”

For attendees such as Jim Naso, application data manager for Veyance Technologies, one of the biggest takeaways from the event was the need for everyone to set aside the notion of competition and focus on what’s best for the industry as a whole when it comes to data standards. “Each of the manufacturers are experiencing the same issues,” Naso said. “If we take care of one’s problem all of our problems are resolved. It’s not just data, it’s part information…they want to make sure all of that information is available.”

Following the meeting, Naso said his team will focus on making sure their information “is as clean as can be so that when we submit it, it speeds up the process to publish and we’re sure they’re getting complete part and application information.”