OptiCat Announces Part Type ‘Position Validation’

OptiCat has announced that “Position Validation” is now available as part of the OnTarget Pro validation suite of products offered within OptiCat’s OnBoard Pro software product line. This new capability assists aftermarket catalog departments in assuring that all needed parts locations, such as “right” or “left,” are covered, as appropriate for a given vehicle application.

Position Validation goes even farther by helping suppliers choose naming conventions. The program provides a useful listing of most often used position names in the marketplace for a given part application. The company says this is particularly useful when developing catalog data that will be used in automated search engines, which represents a significant portion of cataloging data today and in the future, according to OptiCat. If the wrong name or part location convention is chosen for a part, the part may be ignored by a given search engine that has been programmed by the search engine’s creators to recognize a different name.

Bryan Thueson, chief operating officer of OptiCat, commented, “While each supplier may determine to use a given naming convention for its own reasons, it is the objective of the new OptiCat ‘Position Validation’ capability to assist suppliers in making good decisions. It also helps ensure that complete, accurate information is available to catalog developers about the part so that applications are not missed. All these will ultimately help sell more parts at all levels of distribution.”

OptiCat says Position Validation is the latest in a long history of creative applications provided by its OnTarget Pro system to help suppliers deliver parts to market faster, while meeting data receiver requirements for high-quality validation. Other features available within OnTarget Pro include VCDB Change Viewer, an ACES/PIES Research application, enhanced validations of both ACES and PIES data and seamless integration with the OnBoard Pro data delivery system, among others.

Federated Auto Parts Distributors announced it is entering into a collaboration with the Association of Independent Oil Distributors (AIOD) – one it said will focus on mutual benefits for the respective members.

“Federated is constantly looking at ways to improve value for all constituents and this agreement provides that,” said Sue Godschalk, president of Federated. “This collaboration provides added volume and opportunities for our suppliers, new partners for our members, and added supply points and products for shop customers. We have enjoyed working closely with several AIOD members in the past and this agreement will expand and create further opportunities for both Federated and AIOD.”