For those of you like me who have been in the automotive aftermarket
industry for a number of years, you understand the common challenge that
all of us have been facing for over a decade – how do you determine if
parts being sold in the U.S. or Europe have applications that can
generate revenue in other parts of the world? And how do you identify
vehicles that are more likely to have the same components as those on
the road in different countries?
I’ve never found these questions to be easy ones, but the development of
industry standards began the journey for all of us to get answers. Both
the ACES and TecDoc solutions have made the communication of
application information a much easier task. But while both are optimal
solutions for the automotive aftermarket, you probably understand that
unfortunately, they are only regional in scope. While the automotive
aftermarket has long recognized the need for a simple, direct linkage
between the two standards in order to facilitate global product
management, there hasn’t been an answer…until today.
WorldView is a new aftermarket solutions platform developed by Polk and
it combines global VIO data, OE parts research, and your aftermarket
catalogs, along with a Global Make/Model table which bridges the ACES
and TecDoc standards. With the capability to leverage VIN-based vehicle
registrations, annual new registration history, and detailed OE research
for European markets, WorldView uses data resources to reconcile the
regional differences in vehicle attribute descriptions. The result is a
much clearer world view of global car Parc. And that’s really good news
for all of us.
While a direct one-to-one match of ACES to TecDoc might be considered
the "Holy Grail" to product and catalog managers around the globe, I
really think the industry misses out on revenue and profit opportunities
while the search continues. However, by focusing on the global
similarities of vehicles and overcoming several of the obstacles which
have stood in the way (anyone familiar with Year/Make/Model vs.
production ranges?), WorldView provides the automotive aftermarket with
the capability to compare catalog coverage and prioritize new product
opportunities on a global basis.
This new automotive aftermarket solution with the Global Make/Model
vehicle table will debut at AAPEX in November. However, Polk unveiled
the new database and online system at its Connections 2013 Aftermarket
Symposium in August. You can see it for yourself by contacting a Polk
representative.
For more information about Worldview, click here.
