The new system, made by technology provider Evant Inc. of San Francisco, will integrate data into a single record-keeping system. The program is in its pilot stage, with full implementation expected in July or August, says Mike Williams, vice president of advanced technologies for O’Reilly.
Before launching the Evant pilot program — which also will synchronize with data from Dana Corporation through a software program called the PartnerShip Network — O’Reilly ran the risk of duplicating information.
“We really didn’t have anything that would catch the data coming from different networks,” says Williams, who would not provide a cost of the new system.
Lags in data distribution have been cited as an aftermarket industry problem, with an estimated $5 billion in lost sales each year due to slow distribution of catalog data.
Users of the Evant EIM, a multi-channel platform, will all have access to singular product information, like location, time period, vendor and customer, according to O’Reilly. These details allow the company to predict reduced inventory levels and carrying costs, reduce freight expenses and decrease staffing when appropriate and administrative time.
Additionally, the Evant EIM complies with the Product Information Exchange Standard (PIES) being developed under the auspices of the Automotive Aftermarket Industry Association (AAIA), according to the company. This specification will enable resellers to automatically load and receive product data into the EIM and approve it on the spot for O’Reilly’s merchandising and warehouse systems.
“Evant EIM will not only enable synchronization of product data, but also provide the foundation for a new data management infrastructure we are investing in,” says Williams.
The system is expected to ensure more accurate data than before, which will reduce supply chain expenses, lead to fewer purchasing errors and offer system users the capability of performing multi-channel operations.
“Our work with O’Reilly is consistent with findings across the industry, which indicate that typical product information management software is not up for this task,” says Mike Matacunas, vice president of product strategy for Evant. “Instead, large companies require a solution to manage all mission-critical data in the same repository, which also includes information on vendor, customer, location and time period.”
