
VIPAR Heavy Duty has completed a major upgrade to its product information management system, PARTSPHERE® PIM, and released a new digital asset management platform, PARTSPHERE DAM.
VIPAR Heavy Duty’s recent product data platform upgrade accomplished three major goals:
PARTSPHERE PIM was originally launched in 2019 to provide streamlined access to and delivery of highly-sought product data. VIPAR Heavy Duty identified early on that good data builds accuracy and efficiency, and affects many different areas within a distributor's business including sales, training, inventory, shipping, and delivery.
Jeff Paul, VIPAR Heavy Duty Vice President of Marketing, said that the heavy duty industry has made great strides in providing access to product rich data over the last five years.
“Most of the challenge is in creating an efficient way to exchange and communicate product information between suppliers and distributors. Naturally, suppliers want to be in control of their intellectual data, and how it is shared by distributors to end users. In turn, distributors want to receive that data with specific standards so it can be uploaded to whatever platform they are using – for e-commerce or as part of their business system, for example. This release of PARTSPHERE PIM and PARTSPHERE DAM allows our distributors and suppliers to further capitalize on e-commerce opportunities and integrated data management system efficiencies, and most importantly, makes it easier for end-user customers to find the right heavy duty aftermarket parts.”
Distributors report that acquiring and organizing product data including descriptions, images, interchanges, and attributes, is a major undertaking, as it comes from suppliers in various formats. Some have even taken thousands of photos of parts themselves to use in their e-commerce platforms. Many suppliers have responded by working with VIPAR Heavy Duty's Content Services Team to actively build new product data and review existing data within the platform.
“This upgrade and development are the result of feedback we received directly from our distributors who use PARTSPHERE PIM to sell and market parts to the heavy duty aftermarket. Their input was the driving force behind our latest platform enhancements and will help guide future development goals,” said Andrea Lily, VIPAR Heavy Duty’s Manager of Content Services.
“This launch is evidence of our continued investment in PARTSPHERE solutions and the benefits to both our distributors and supplier partners. VIPAR Heavy Duty is committed to being a leader in product information management and data standardization efforts within the heavy duty aftermarket, and we will continue to evolve our platform to best support our network,” said Paul.
For more information on VIPAR Heavy Duty, visit www.vipar.com or email: info@vipar.com.
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