Bruce Speicher is a 57 year-old executive, with more than 30 years of experience as a management consultant. He was brought in by Adrian Klingel in 2006 to help grow Illumaware’s business.

What's the biggest obstacle to getting the most accurate and up-to-date electronic data to customers?

Data processing cycle time is the biggest obstacle facing most companies. Resellers/Retailers are demanding that manufacturers send them standardized data (AAIA Catalog Enhanced Standard - ACES 2.0 and Product Information Enhanced Standard - PIES 6.1.1) so their catalog people don’t have to validate incoming data from their supply chain. Traditionally, manufacturers have outsourced this task to third-party electronic catalog solution providers. Turnaround time in getting data back from a third party can be as long as six to eight weeks or more. This is problematic for many companies, because the data behind the ACES standard is a moving target, which gets updated every 30 days.

What's your biggest advantage over your competition?

Cost, data accuracy and speed to market are our three biggest advantages. Adrian Klingel, our founder and chief technologist, has written a series of programs called ACESAdvantage that enables Brenda Heinitz, our catalog director, and her department to automate a large portion of the initial data mapping process, which most of our competitors have to do by hand.

Once a new client’s data has been mapped, it’s loaded into Evokat 2.5, Illumaware’s Internet-based data authoring tool. Our customers use Evokat to maintain and update their data for a low monthly subscription fee. We train them how to correct any coverage holes, conflicting and invalid records for themselves to avoid third-party delays.

What add-on programs or services do you offer that you feel enhance your solutions? What makes your product offerings unique?

Illumaware offers its customers a choice of using Evokat to maintain and update their electronic catalog for themselves or having us do it for them. In either case their data is continuously PIES and ACES compliant and can be automatically sent out in any retailer or reseller’s data format in the Illumaware Data Network, from Evokat’s Library of Custom Reports, at their convenience with a few clicks of a mouse.

If they want to send their data to a trading partner outside of our network, we will contact them and add them to the Illumaware Data Network. There is no cost to either party. Because Evokat is on the Internet, resellers can use it to build sophistication into foreign manufacturers, allowing them to map their data directly into ACES, resulting in a shorter supply chain for resellers.

Evokat MyCarParts is a customer-facing Web portal for our clients, which provides instant insight into their most up-to-date PIES and ACES data. There are no “moving parts” between Evokat and MyCarParts, so Evokat users can react to catalog errors instantly, and completely eliminate the time-to-market for new product information and applications. MyCarParts includes a Year/Make/Model search engine that responds to key words as well as part numbers. New products can be showcased. Obsolete inventory can be promoted through automated customer email contact. MyCarParts viewers see only the prices assigned to them. MyCarParts is included as part of an Evokat subscription.

Evokat Interchanger lets resellers interchange application data from multiple vendors for a product line at the ACES level, regardless of the source format or sophistication level of each vendor. It takes into account the different catalog styles from multiple vendors and standardizes fitment notes across suppliers.

Together, these features help resellers build a catalog with parts from multiple vendors that are standardized and complete, and uses the reseller’s own part-numbering system. Reseller-supplied business rules drive the individual sourcing process, which can then be overridden on a part-by-part basis. The Evokat Interchanger also improves reseller margins through more efficient competitive sourcing of parts from multiple suppliers. Evokat Interchanger is included as part of an Evokat subscription.

What aspect of a supply chain suffers the most when data isn't standardized?

The entire supply chain suffers from non-standard data. Retailers, resellers, warehouse distributors and jobbers all have angry customers when the parts they sell don’t fit because of non-standard data. They all bear the expense of having to restock parts. Manufacturers have return merchandise costs, but more importantly, they can lose customers through bad data. It exposes everyone to liability issues if the wrong parts are installed and the consumer is somehow injured.

Will the industry experience a technological setback as a result of the recession? Why or why not?

There is going to be considerable pain and consolidation in the automotive aftermarket in the near term, but adversity and hardship often bring out creativity. While many firms spend less on technology because of corporate belt tightening, the smart ones are going to continue driving technological innovation. Dupont developed synthetic rubber (Neoprene tires) and nylon during the 1930s. General Electric created low-cost fluorescent lighting during the Depression.

This generation’s innovations are more likely to come from high tech fields like nanotechnology, design automation and software development. Better, faster and less expensive always wins. Better, less expensive parts, more efficient distribution networks and faster, more accurate data management systems are all coming to the automotive aftermarket of the future. Our survival demands it.

Do you feel that the economy will negatively affect your business this year?

Illumaware is well positioned to weather and even prosper in these economic times. Our primary focus for the last 18 months has been on the replacement side of the automotive aftermarket. It’s proved to be a fortuitous decision. With consumers concerned about their jobs and reluctant to spend money, they’re holding on to their vehicles longer and buying replacement parts to keep them running. Recent Illumaware customers such as the Automotive Distribution Network, Ford Motor Company and General Parts, Inc. are helping us grow our presence in this market.