SEMA News—June 2014
BUSINESS TECHNOLOGY
By Jon Wyly
SEMA Search Is on the Way!
It’s been quite a year for SEMA on the technology front. Just last May, the SEMA Data Co-op (SDC) went live for the first time with a fully functioning Product Information Management System. Since that time, more than 300 industry suppliers have engaged with the SDC to gather, validate, store and distribute their product data to more than 350 data receivers—a number that is growing every week.
In order to eliminate as many roadblocks to data distribution as possible, the SDC is providing free unlimited data exports to all SEMA-member receivers, along with proactively helping suppliers improve their data sets with expert Help Desk services and powerful, online, do-it-yourself data-management tools. In short, the SDC is delivering what an industry-owned and -operated effort should: a powerful data-management solution available to every business in the SEMA marketplace, regardless of size, at the lowest possible cost.
More than 650 member companies can’t be wrong, but if you still need to be convinced of the value that the SDC is bringing, check out the tens of thousands of data exports being delivered each month. That’s hundreds of thousands of parts being taken to market by hundreds of resellers in brick and mortar, distribution and on the web with just one goal in mind: selling more of your parts.
Still need more convincing? Let’s talk about SEMA Search. At the time of this writing, development had begun on a comprehensive, web-based electronic catalog and search tool powered by the SDC. Designed to be a single source for sales rooms and counter people to get product information, applications, new releases and more, this one-stop resource for hundreds of brands means no more searching from site to site looking for information to close a sale! Today, as you read this, the launch of SEMA Search is a couple of months away, followed by another set of tools to enable users to put SEMA Search to work on their own websites and internal catalogs.
And did I mention that SEMA Search is free? That’s right. Manufacturers (suppliers) that manage and distribute their product data in the SDC are included in SEMA Search at no charge, providing yet another level of service to this valuable member benefit.
As you can see, there really is no reason to wait any longer to check out what the SEMA Data Co-op has to offer. Our data experts will show you just how efficient and cost-effective it can be to manage your product data using our powerful online tools and full time Help Desk support. The result is a robust, industry-standard data set that you maintain 100% ownership of, and you control its distribution through our easy-to-use permissions dashboard.
There’s still time to get on board and be included in the SEMA Search launch, so don’t delay another day!
To learn more about how you can take control of your product data and manage it at the lowest possible cost, contact SEMA Data Co-op Director of Membership Jim Graven at JimG@SemaDataCoop.org or 888-958-6698 x4.
