Stephen Sigg is the e-business manager for ACDelco. At the company's eForum in April, Sigg and other ACDelco executives introduced a number of technology initiatives, including increased adoption of the ACES and PIES standards, new online sales outlets, e-marketing support, inventory forecasting and product data management.
ACDelco has a lot of technology initiatives underway right now. Which projects do you think are going to deliver the most direct impact to the business?
I would say there are two areas where we're trying to have an impact. One would be inventory management, and finding ways to leverage technology to increase inventory turns and reduce non-moving, obsolete inventory. The other one is to leverage technology to grow incremental parts sales. And the word incremental is critical because you're really talking about the phone as the alternative.
What are you doing on the inventory side?
Trying to leverage multiple data points like vehicle population, computer impressions, to help get the right inventory there. In the case where obsolete inventory is there, or slow moving inventory, trying to find outlets to sell it as opposed to taking it back and scrapping it.
Tell me about the role the STEP solution from Stibo Systems is going to play in your business?
The STEP system is a PIM product information management solution. It's very robust, in our opinion, and what it affords us most importantly is a database where we can focus GMs aftermarket data. Making sure it's clean and normalized, and in the PIES and ACES format. We do believe that the prerequisite to a successful e-business project is clean, normalized data.
What are some the challenges you face in working with distributors on these initiatives?
I guess that it's all new. Every wave of evolution in e-business is new and it results in slow adoption rates. Things we promoted last year at this eForum seemed to really take off the following year. I think there's a learning curve that has to happen with every bit of new technology or application of it. Once you complete that learning curve, then you usually get a pretty high adoption rate.
How long do you think it will take to get your own data into the PIES and ACES formats?
I'd say another 12 months.
What will your distributors see first, in terms of technology changes this year?
As we move into summer, the way we're approaching ACES and PIES is in increments. So they'll see prioritized PIES attributes based on the sell end of the distribution chain. The first PIES data they'll see are the data that most positively affect the sale of the product. With respect to ACES, the initial step is to convert part types to the ACES standard, cleanse and normalize our part names, and move into application information. So they're going to see continual increments of improvement. They won't have to wait 12 to 18 months until we are finished.
