Sloan Transportation announced that it has released a new white paper on the steps the company took to advance the functionality of the HDX Price File Library for the heavy-duty industry. Sloan announced last year that it was the first parts manufacturer to establish a real-time parts information connection to the aftermarket through the HDX Services’ PFL system using a Web services solution.
Through Sloan’s Web services programming, the company says it now can update its product information, including price changes, in real time; and through the HDX PFL, Sloan customers can begin to automate the price loading processes. Previously, this task had required an extensive amount of manual labor.
“We saw a need to simplify the delivery of crucial pricing and product data to our distributor customers,” says Terry Nyboer, customer service manager for Holland, Mich.-based Sloan Transportation Products. “Multiple steps that were vulnerable to errors were making the process an arduous task for both Sloan and its customers. By establishing a ‘real-time’ solution, we can now assure our customers that they have the latest available information from our company. Working together with HDX, we have blazed a new technology path to further simplify the process.”
“I applaud Sloan for their groundbreaking work in this area,” says Edward Kuo, executive director of HDX. “This is a great example of how the PFL can simplify the exchange of pricing and product information, allowing distributors and manufacturers to focus on their core mission of selling parts and providing service to customers.”
The PFL is an Internet-based product designed to allow manufacturers to efficiently distribute pricing and product information to their customers in a secure and standardized format. The database architecture of the PFL is based on HDX’s Price Communications File Specification Standard, and is designed to be delivered to the specific distributor in multiple formats, importable to all major spreadsheet and database programs.
To download a copy of Sloan’s white paper on its HDX PFL Solution, go to www.sloantrans.com. For more information on HDX Services, the PFL and the PCFS standard, go to www.hdexchange.com.
