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The Skinny: A leading developer of electronic parts catalogs for car dealerships, ProQuest sought features in trade media publications to help build a presence within its target market. I wrote this piece, appearing in Dealer Fixed Operations magazine, as a byline for a member of the ProQuest team.

Style: Informative, factual

Excerpt:

Increase Parts Profits
by: Nick Sposet

How familiar are you with Microsoft Windows? How about PowerPoint? Enough to get by, right? Enough to get your work done, perhaps. It's tough, however, to know everything there is to know about these useful programs. How much more efficient do you think you could be if you knew more? The same applies to electronic parts catalogs, or EPCs. A good EPC, as well as a strong grasp of how to use it, can be a parts department's greatest asset.

Any advantage a parts manager can leverage to increase efficiency, manage inventory more effectively and sell more parts has a direct impact on a dealership's bottom line. Subscribing to an effective electronic parts catalog and learning to use it to its fullest extent are the first steps toward maximizing profits and efficiency in the parts department.

Parts lookup has come a long way since the days of looking up parts in thick, heavy paper catalogs that were updated far too infrequently. Nor do we need to thumb through the racks of microfiche cards that were inevitably returned out of the proper order. Thankfully, we've evolved to a point now where all the parts information a dealership needs is available and neatly organized with the click of a mouse.

Parts specifiers love speed. In fact, many parts countermen say the two benefits they need most from their EPCs are:

Finding the right part number, and finding the right part number quickly.

Ordering the right part and minimizing parts returns go hand-in-hand in maximizing parts department profits. Many countermen and parts managers know enough about their EPC to function on a day-to-day basis; however, there are always features they didn't know about - features that could help them improve their speed and accuracy regardless of their level of experience.

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