DIAMOND BAR, Calif. – DATAgility Inc. of Chicago has been engaged by the Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) to provide on-boarding, data sync and data quality services for the new SEMA Data Co-op.
 
According to SEMA, DATAgility brings many years of specialty parts and aftermarket data management accomplishments to the table.
 
“We are pleased and excited to have DATAgility playing a major role in this key industry initiative,” said SEMA President and CEO Chris Kersting.
 
SEMA and DATAgility have worked together closely for many years on a number of projects, including the highly successful data sync testing project recently conducted with several SEMA members.
 
Jon Wyly, who was recently appointed CEO of the SEMA Data Co-op, added, “DATAgility brings unique and important experience to the table, combining their data sync programs in the specialty parts arena with exceptional insight into the implementation of industry data standards and the data quality that is critical in our marketplace.”
 
“We all now understand that sales today are driven by complete, accurate and standardized product data, available from a single, affordable and easily accessible source,” said Bob Moore, SEMA board member and chair of the SEMA Business Technology Committee (BTC).
 
Denise Keating, DATAgility president said, “Our ability to get high-quality information about the industry’s products to more data users — more WDs, more jobber-retailers, more auto parts stores, is critical. You’ve got to have clean, standardized product information easily available to the channel partners.”
 
“The SEMA Data Co-op will help create order from chaos in the world of digital product information,” said Ed Heon, CEO of DATAgility. “We are very pleased to partner with SEMA, Jon Wyly and the SEMA BTC in this vital program.”
 
A limited-scale "alpha" test of the Data Co-op was initiated in 2011 and yielded conclusive proof-of-concept validation. In the “beta” phase, which launches in April,  as many as 50 manufacturers and 20 WDs and retailers will have the opportunity to participate.