Welcome and Introductions
Chris Gardner and Scott Luckett opened the meeting, made introductions and offered a few words explaining the objectives and function of the ACEC. The ACEC exists to provide coordination of the various standards-setting activities across the aftermarket supply chain. Through education and collaboration the Council seeks to ensure low-cost and efficient IT solutions for all industry participants. The Council Web site, located at www.aceconline.org, is intended as the industry go-to site for information about all technology standards relevant to the aftermarket.

Report on ACEC Summit / AAPEX 2002
The ACEC gathered approximately 35 leaders in eCommerce and IT from aftermarket suppliers, distributors and solution providers to a meeting held in conjunction with the AAPEX show in Las Vegas, November 2002. The objectives were to identify opportunities and/or barriers to widespread, standards-based eCommerce in the aftermarket. The recommendations that came out of the meeting focused on the need for research, case studies and white papers to explain the ROI proposition of eCommerce and IT so that decision makers could make fact-based technology recommendations.

Specifically, the ACEC would coordinate relevant activities from the participating associations, including:

• ACEC Sponsored Technology Track at University Forum, AAPEX 2003
• AWDA Technology Survey
• AAIA Product Information and Synchronization White Paper
• AAIA IT Roadmap White Paper in Coordination with OAG
• ACEC Collaboration on Major Industry Educational Events

In discussion, Fred Iantorno of CIECA and David Connelly of OAGI offered to contribute relevant white papers that have been published by their organizations.

Action Item: Chris and Scott will add links to these documents on the ACEC Web site.

AWDA Standards Report
Chris reported that the AWDA Bar Code Guidelines were thoroughly updated with assistance from the Uniform Code Council and certified by the ACEC in 2002. Implementation of automatic product identification (bar code scanning) remains extremely low in the aftermarket. AWDA put the figure at less than 10% of warehouse operations and a recent SEMA survey revealed that "none of the 224 WD's surveyed currently use bar codes on a regular basis and only 9 percent of them even use them occasionally."

AWDA recently distributed a member technology survey to 380 aftermarket companies to measure the use of various technologies and learn about the priorities and intentions of the respondents. Tom Mazzone supported the initiative and said the ACEC should explain why the technology is needed and address the cost of inaction.

Action Item: AIA Canada and AAIA agreed to distribute the AWDA survey to their members to increase the survey pool and number of respondents. Members will be directed to reply to AWDA where results will be compiled and published.

AAIA Standards Report
Scott reported on the status of several AAIA initiatives.

1. Electronic Catalog Standards - work is nearing completion on the second generation of the eCAT standards. All major eCAT companies (including CCITriad) have participated in the design of this standard and have indicate support of the standard when it is published later in 2003.
2. Product Information Exchange Standard (PIES) - a recent survey of the Paint and Body Equipment industry segment was performed to validate the PIES standard for their data exchange needs. PIES will be the subject of an AAIA case study and data synchronization exercise this year.
3. Shop Equipment Integration Standard (ioSHOP) - ioSHOP equipment and software will be installed in one or more live pilot test sites in mid-2003 to assess the commercial viability of the technology and gather time-motion productivity data.
4. Sales Information Standard - AAIA has published an electronic file format for use by suppliers in sending invoice, sales and commission data to manufacturers' sales rep agencies. The data can then be easily imported into agency management software, eliminating the need to re-key volumes of transaction data for analysis.
5. Internet Parts Ordering - AAIA is developing an XML specification for real-time Inquiry and Purchase Order transactions over the Internet. This effort is being performed in close cooperation with OAGI and the STAR standards for automotive retail (car dealers)

CIECA Standards Report
Fred Iantorno provided an overview of the Collision Industry Electronic Commerce Association (CIECA) and their EDI Standards for connecting Estimating/Management Systems (EMS) with the insurance industry and the suppliers of refinishing and other collision parts and supplies. CIECA published a Photo Image Standard and plans to migrate from EDI to XML in version 3.0 of their standard.

Rick Palmer, a leading EMS provider and CIECA chairman, is going to present CIECA to the European Insurance Industry. David Connelly offered to supply a point of contact for the ODETTE executive. Discussion focused on the need to coordinate CIECA, ioSHOP and other standards efforts so "we don't reinvent the wheel."

Action Item: AAIA and CIECA must coordinate their efforts in equipment and software interoperability. Solutions that already exist must be reused - not reinvented.

MEMA Standards Report
Chris reported that MEMA had collaborated with CIECA to complete extensions to the X.12 eCommerce documents certified by the ACEC. The MIS Council of MEMA was working on additional X.12 transactions for eCommerce.

Scott reported that the Heavy Duty Exchange (HDX) was developing unique implementations of the 850 Purchase Order and other transactions for the needs of Fleet Operators and their suppliers. Tom Mazzone and Ron Doxsee agreed to find out why new specifications were needed instead of petitioning for extensions of existing ACEC recognized standards.

Ed Wolff reported on the 2nd annual MIS Council Aftermarket Web Challenge competition. Deborah suggested the event be an ACEC-sponsored event and the winners should be encouraged to write about their technology and use of standards for publication by the ACEC. Ed observed that ACEC should judge and showcase examples of successful standards implementation.

Chris explained that AWDA had approached the Management Information Systems Group (MISG) about hosting a repository of Bar Codes and UPC information for the aftermarket industry. This effort is in the "definition" phase. Fred replied that CIECA is starting the same project.

Action Item: CIECA and AWDA should collaborate on their Bar Code repository initiatives.

Open Applications Group -
David Connelly explained the objectives and capabilities of the Open Applications Group as building business process definitions and XML messages. OAG has partnered with STAR for Automotive overlays of the OAGIS messages. The Automotive Industry Action Group (AIAG) as well as AAIA are active members of OAGI and complete the automotive industry participation in the group.

David applauded the educational objectives of the ACEC and observed that people need a reason to justify why they are doing something - "assure me that I won't get fired."

Summary and Action Items
Several resources and documents were identified for the ACEC White Paper project, including:

• CIECA.com publications - "vision of the future shop" & "why Standards"
• ACCORD.org - "Why Standardization Works
• AIA has a CRM white paper and Canadian e-Commerce White Paper.
• Northwood University Inventory study

Fred cautions against leaving the deadline for completion of the white paper open ended. It won't be taken seriously if it never gets done.

Fred suggests that the ACEC needs to provide a list of resources or consultants that can help the CIO understand how to get from where he is to where he needs to be on the IT continuum. Chris cautions about doing this. Deb MK offers that ACEC invite IT vendors to pay for listings in a directory of software service providers as a resource industry and a source of revenue for ACEC.

CIECA offers to give all participating associations access to their calendar maintenance tool so that they could link to the calendar and integrate it on the ACEC Web site.

David indicated that the Open Applications Group Technical Meeting in Detroit, Aug 12-14, would have a big focus on the Automotive industry and all ACEC participants were welcome to attend.

Follow-up Plan: Conference calls as needed May and June.

Next Meeting - July 28, 2003, Chicago, Hyatt Regency O'Hare