LIVERMORE, Calif. – Activant Solutions Inc. and Canadian Tire Corp. Ltd. have signed an agreement that will bring the Activant PartExpert Suite of data products and Activant LaserCat 3 electronic catalog to all Canadian Tire Retail and PartSource business locations.
Canadian Tire Retail will convert from its proprietary auto parts catalog to the Activant PartExpert suite of data solutions. These include the new, Windows-based Activant LaserCat 3 eCatalog, Activant Cover-to-Cover graphical eCatalog module, Activant All Lines database and Activant InterChange reference for the network’s parts operations, as well as fully integrated labor and MOTOR repair information, service intervals and tire fitment data for its service bays.
In addition to Canadian Tire Retail locations, the company’s rapidly growing network of PartSource retail and wholesale parts stores also will rely on the Activant PartExpert suite.
“Improving the overall automotive customer experience for our customers, we will now be providing our counter professionals and service advisers with the most advanced and powerful front-line business tools,” said Tony Kuczynski, vice president of automotive, Canadian Tire Corp. “Activant is uniquely positioned to be our technology partner in launching a fully integrated suite of data products that will help each of our employees, regardless of experience, deliver a superior customer experience. Our access to the industry’s most extensive parts database – combined with millions of product images, TSBs, labor estimating information, OE service intervals, MOTOR repair information, tire fitments and a true VIN decoder – represents a significant competitive advantage. Activant also has demonstrated the ability to provide service and support to each of our locations.”
The Activant PartExpert suite, featuring more than 2,900 product lines, 5 million part numbers and 16 million interchanges, is tightly integrated with a broad range of other products – including Activant Service Intervals Plus, LaborExpert, InterChange and Integrated Service Estimator – for a complete, front-to-back data solution appropriate for virtually any parts and/or service operation.
Developed through extensive insight gained from a study of counterperson needs and preferences, the Activant LaserCat 3 eCatalog helps reduce the time needed to look up, recommend and sell the right parts for automotive and light- and medium-duty truck applications, according to Activant. Featuring an innovative graphical user interface that consolidates critical information into a single screen, the eCatalog’s advanced logic significantly reduces the number of “clicks” required for most lookups and allows the counterperson to reduce or even eliminate the need to take notes while serving a customer.
“Canadian Tire and Activant share a vision for leveraging the power of world-class data and catalog functionality at the point of sale,” said Tom Aliotti, senior vice president and general manager of the Activant automotive business group. “This is a highly complex industry. The winners will be those who minimize the effects of that complexity at every customer touch point. Activant is proud to be Canadian Tire’s technology partner in this initiative.”
