Aftermarket Insider Volume 65 - (Page 23)

automotive edi T EC H N o L o G Y U P DAT E Super Spec is a Super Opportunity player asks questions of the other to slowly zero in on the person, place or thing that they are thinking of. In mapping electronic business documents, a lot of valuable time and effort is wasted in guessing about what the other party is trying to say. The Electronic Data Exchange (EDI) Super Spec eliminates the guess-work and reduces the effort required to get partners aligned from weeks down to hours. Business partners who exchange orders, ship notices and invoices electronically see an ROI in days. In recent years, GCommerce of Des Moines, Iowa, has discovered and documented the e-commerce document requirements of hundreds of automotive suppliers and their channel partners. The accumulated specification is called the Super Spec. And, recently GCommerce and AAIA announced the donation of the Super Spec to the industry as a shared resource and best practice. Super Spec is an industry-specific definition of the EDI requirements needed to connect distributors and retailers with their manufacturers and suppliers in the aftermarket. Super Spec will accelerate the adoption of EDI across the industry and dramatically lower the time and expense associated with getting partners connected. in the game of 20 questions, one EDI transaction mapping is a complex process due to the variety of business systems and applications and the unique EDI and business requirements between trading partners. Super Spec allows trading partners to map from “all” to “one” to “all” in a streamlined, repeatable process. costs are significant and payback the initial effort in days or weeks. AAIA formed a volunteer oversight committee to advise the association and GCommerce on how to make best use of this contributed intellectual property. Needed changes to the Super Spec will be directed by the committee and developed by GCommerce in close cooperation with AAIA. By using the Super Spec, partners can connect and start exchanging electronic business documents in hours instead of days or weeks. The simplification “Donating the Super Spec to and time-savings encourage more AAIA puts it in the hands of the buyers and sellers to connect and users, allowing them to shape its replace paper processes with electronic future direction and accelerate the document exchange. The benefits rate of adoption,” said Stephen of faster document exchange and Smith, president of GCommerce. reduced transaction reconciliation The specification, which currently defines the Purchase Order (850), Ship Notification (856), Invoice Automotive EDI can be (810) and Acknowledgement (997), deployed in days, rather is recommended as an industry best than weeks. practice for EDI and is freely available to any party at no cost. Unique in this arrangement is that there is no requirement that GCommerce be used as the data exchange. With Super Spec, partners can employ any exchange or technology to enjoy the benefits of EDI. For more information, including ROI case studies and to download the specification, visit www.aftermarket. org/technology/super-spec. AFTERMARKET INSIDER 2010 | VOLUME 65 | 23 http://www.aftermarket.org/technology/super-spec

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Aftermarket Insider Volume 65

Aftermarket Insider Volume 65
Contents
President's Message
An Unwelcome Oil Change
Investigating the Cold, Hard Truth About the Right to Repair Battle
Industry News
Member Profile
Toolbox
AAPEX News
Campaign Update
Technology Update
Industry News
International Focus
Market Research

Aftermarket Insider Volume 65